b'JACK SWILLINGS LIFE & TRAGIC END IN ARIZONA TERRITORYPART 2 By Bill Roberts Reprinted from The TravelerTRINIDAD INTERVIEWED Swilling was prospering by the standards of the day. Thethem before Trinidad Swilling was left a widow with seven children next summer, 1876, he discovered rich silver lodes somea judge there. and two adopted Indian children when Jack died at Yuma10 miles from his farm, where by then he was running 115For some prison on August 12, 1878. She supported herself and herhead of cattle, plus horses, and mules.reason, they family as a seamstress in Phoenix until she married Henrydid not bother Phoenix Museum of HistoryShumaker in Phoenix in the late 1880s. Shumaker died inBy the first of 1877, however, the tables turned on Jack.with Monroe. 1892. Trinidad again worked as a seamstress to supportThe Miner reported him in very feeble health. Jack beganSwilling the three sons born of her second marriage. She wasselling off his mining properties. He sold a mill site he hadand Kirby interviewed in a recorded statement March 2, 1923, at herbought a mill for, and the mill as well. He began haulingwere taken home one mile west of Central Avenue on the south side ofwood in the fall out of this site, known as Tip Top. Into MaricopaTrinidad Swillingthe Salt River by C.W. Gandy and J.D. Adams. E.E. JohnsonJanuary of 1878, he moved from the Agua Fria cabin toCounty in July.was the stenographer. Tip Top or Gillett. He and his family joined a group that was settling on the Verde River, but his health would notMonroes account seemed flawed. It appears the two were Trinidad died in Phoenix in 1925. Trinidad had seen a lotlet him remain. He brought the family back to his Aguataken by stage from Prescott directly to Yuma and did not of hardship in her early years in Arizona Territory as Mrs.Fria farm. appear before Maricopa authorities. The Miner editor of Jack Swilling. Her first home after being married in Tucsonthe day, Charles W. Beach of Kirkland, called the act of the in 1864 was in Walnut Grove where Jack had a claim onTHE FRAME UP Yavapai County sheriff illegal in turning Swilling and Kirby Weaver Mountain. Grizzly old mountain man PaulineJack was getting bad and Trinidad knew it. He was drinkingover to Deputy U.S. Marshal Joseph Evans before they had Weaver lived with the couple in their camp. The Swillingsalmost constantly. Worried she talked to George Monroetheir day in court in Prescott. Evans had presented the soon left Walnut Grove, reporting there was too much waterand Andrew Kirby. The three came up with a plan to enticesheriff with a warrant for the two drawn by a United States in the area to work their claim. Jack to go recover the bones of his old friend Colonelcommissioner in Yuma. Shively, at rest where the Indians had dropped him some In 1865, the couple was in Wickenburg. In 1868, Trinidadseven years before up in the Bradshaws about 35 miles fromMarshal Evans actions were indeed suspect, particularly found herself in Black Canyon in a sturdy stone cabin onGillett. Trinidad told Jack he should bring his old friendssince he did not bother to take the depositions of witnesses the old Black Canyon freight and stage route from Prescottbones home to their ranch for a Christian burial.who had appeared in Prescott that literally proved Swilling to Phoenix and Tucson. In her 1923 statement, she recalled,and Kirby were innocent. Suspect also was the testimony of It was right there at the edge of the road coming fromJack liked the idea and he, Monroe, and Kirby set outone L. G. Taylor, who had given false testimony in Prescott Phoenix; there was a house on one side within a hundredthe recover Shivelys bones. They did and returned them.and gave an unsigned deposition submitted into evidence in feet of when you go down to the bank of the river, and thatThe site where Shively had been killed was some 60 milesdistrict court in Yuma. An unsigned deposition as evidence was my house and my first house through some of the most treacherous mountains inwas, even in 1878, was highly unusual and most likely the territory, the Bradshaws to Wickenburg, as the crowtotally illegal testimony.Trinidad lost a daughter, Matilda while living in that house.flies. There were no direct trails. While they were on this Matilda was born in 1876 and died three years later. Theexpedition, three men robbed the stage between PrescottYears later Deputy Marshal Evans gave a highly self-child was buried in a small graveyard near the cabin whereand Wickenburg. Swilling, always irreverent and jokingserving public account of how he had relied too heavily a man whose name is lost in history that was killed andwhen he was drunk, told the boys at the Gillett saloon whenon circumstantial evidence in arresting Swilling and an Indian also were buried, along with the bones of Jackshearing of the robbery to have a drink on him, that it wasKirby and said he had learned from that experience that old friend Colonel Jacob Snively. Snively had been killedSwilling, Monroe, and Kirby that held up the stage. such evidence can be flawed. That had to be one of the by Indians seven years before the fateful day Jack and twounderstatements of the century. The circumstantial friends set out to dig up bones in the Bradshaws and bringAccording to Monroe, authorities were notified of Swillingsevidence Evans had relied on in arresting Swilling and them to Swillings place on the Agua Fria for a decent burial. drunken boast, and Swilling, Monroe, and Kirby wereKirby was so sketchy as to be laughable if it had not resulted Trinidad recalls in her 1923 statement of finding thearrested and taken to Prescott to jail. They had a hearingin such a tragic injustice. Besides Taylors letter stating that arrowhead that killed Snively inside his skull when Jackbefore Judge Carter and were discharged. Authorities thenKirby had told him he was afraid Swilling would squeal, returned home with the bones.decided that since the stage robbery occurred in Maricopaa total fabrication, Evans had relied on a very sketchy County they would arrest Swilling and Kirby again and takedescription of the holdup men and their arms. When Evans Despite declining health from the effects of his woundsrealized his error, he tracked the real holdup men deep into and his addictions to drink and morphine, Jack SwillingsMexico then into New Mexico, and arrested them, along last five years of his life in Black Canyon were active,with one who had returned to Arizona. Evans telegraphed adventurous, and filled with the risk-taking that apparentlyYuma instructing them to release the suspects in October. motivated him always. He started a new farm on the AguaKirby was released on October 5th. Jack Swilling had been Fria and put in irrigation ditches. Always involved inburied immediately after he died in his cell on August 12th.mining, Swilling took part in the founding of Gillett nearIn his nearly 20 years in Arizona, the wounded and pain-the famed Tip Top mine. racked Jack Swilling had fought Apache and Yavapai, In 1873, Swilling and partners Frank Morehouse andpioneered the wilderness with the Walker Party, had been William Kilgore found an old and rich mine that had beenpart of the first and richest placer gold discovery on Rich worked in the early years until the Apache wiped out theHill ever made in Arizona, planned roads and rode new miners. That was in August. September found Swillingtrails in the wilderness, founded what was to become laying out a new wagon road through Black Canyon toPhoenix and Arizona Territorys richest agricultural area, Camp Verde and Prescott. During 1874 he worked toraised a family, discovered numerous gold and silver mines develop his new mining claims on the banks of Blackin the Bradshaws, brought the first attention to the riches of Canyon Creek where he had made several discoveries. the Black Canyon, and helped found the town of Gillett.It was in 1874 that Swilling brought Trinidad and theThat was a heck of a lot for a man tormented with constant children to the Black Canyon cabin. By New Years, 1875pain and addicted to drink and morphine through his Jack had rented his mine out on shares and was buildingefforts to dull that torment. That was a heck of a lot for a up his farm, putting in a vineyard and planting crops. Heman to be falsely charged and jailed in Yuma Prison by a also then owned the Valenciana Mine, according to presssloppy and prejudiced deputy U.S. marshal and a tainted reports. Summer brought a crop of corn, and a field ofprosecution, only to die there before the marshal learnedsorghum, and his vineyard was reported as extensive.Plaque at Phoenix Courthouse of his mistake. 52 November 2023'