b'JACK SWILLINGS LIFE & TRAGIC END IN ARIZONA TERRITORYBy Bill Roberts Reprinted from The TravelerT HE NAME JACK SWILLING was one that, when heard, never failed to spark discussion in the early days of Arizona Territory. To some the name Swilling sent fear surging through their bodies. To others, it was the name of a man of great compassion and generosity, of a man whose word was as good as the gold he hunted, a name synonymous with honesty, integrity, and bravery. To all, it seemed the name Jack Swilling described an adventurer, a pioneer whose accomplishments were legendary, and whose many contributions to Arizona Territory and his life were ended by the wanton, self-serving treachery of federal and territorial government officials. Gila City. The Overland Mail Company respondedThe nugget Swilling toted as a memento was about the Since Swillings tragic death in Yuma Territorial Prison on August 13, 1878, at the age of 47, manyby organizing a 25 man force to keep its route alongsize of a mans three forefingers from the first joints to myths have built up around the Swilling story. Thethe Gila safe. Swilling led the group on several attacksthe tips and weighed five ounces. When discovered it facts are hard to glean from the myth and legendagainst the Yavapai; following them as far north aswas worth about $90 in the gold price of the day. Jack of Jack Swilling. They are there and they tell of awhat is now Prescott. managed to get the National Bank of Arizona to loan man at times kind and compassionate, abusive andhim $100 on it at one time. He later got Buck the deadly, heroic and braver than most, brilliant andBy the winter of 1860, Swilling had left the Gila andBarber in Phoenix to make him a similar loan and enterprising, and most of the time while in Arizonathe census reported him in the Pinos Altos miningforgot to redeem the nugget. Gambler Caribou Brown tormented by pain and addicted to the pain killers ofcamp near Silver City, New Mexico. While there,got possession and housed the nugget in Ben Butlers the day. the Civil War erupted and Jack was conscriptedsafe at the Capitol Saloon. It was still at Butlers in into the Confederate Army. Swilling, disgusted with1895, long after Swillings death, and Caribou had THE YOUNG ADVENTURER Confederate policy of taking cattle from local citizensrejected all attempts to get him to wager it at faro or There already were seven children in the family ofdeserted in the summer of 1862. By fall, Swilling hadin any other game of chance.George Swilling and his wife, Margaret when Johnjoined the Union Army under General Carleton. He W. (Jack) Swilling came along on April 1, 1830, inwas discharged within a few months. Swilling joinedThe Peeples Party divided the top of Rich Hill into South Carolina. Jack made eight, and two more werethe Walker Party that made its way from New Mexicoequal shares of claims and formed the Weaver Mining to follow. The family moved to Georgia some 10to the Hassayampa and up to Lynx Creek in theDistrict in 1863. Swilling worked his claims out on years later when gold was discovered in the northernBradshaws looking for gold in 1862.Rich Hill, then prospected south on the Hassayampa regions of that state. Some seven years later, Jack andand in the area of Henry Wickenburgs find at the his brother Barry left the Georgia home in 1847. JackRICH HILL & WICKENBURG Vulture. He ended up with several mines, including enlisted as a musician in the army that fall to go toSwilling then joined up with the party Abrahamthe Big Rebel Mine on the eastern edge of the Vulture Mexico to fight Americas war with Mexico. SwillingsPeeples organized in La Paz that Pauline Weaver andLode in the Randall District. In 1865, he sold the Big battalion from Georgia ended up in Central Mexicosome Indians guided to the gold riches on AntelopeRebel along with the Chase Mine in the Hassayampa while General Scott occupied Mexico City. JacksPeak and Rich Hill near todays Congress and Yarnell.District and a year later had built one of five stamp volunteer service ended in 1848 when the Treaty ofSwilling carried one nugget with him from Rich Hillmills that were processing ore along the Hassayampa Guadalupe Hildalgo was signed. Both Jack and hisfor several years. He said it was the first nugget foundfrom the Vulture and other nearby mines.brother were discharged in Mobile, Alabama. on Rich Hill in 1862. Rich Hill yielded more than $1 million in nuggets in the years that followed theWICKENBURG SHOOTOUTAt home, Jack met Mary Jane Gray. He marriedPeeples Party discovery.In addition to operating his mill on the Hassayampa, her in 1852 and settled in Alabama. They had oneSwilling rode express mail between Prescott and daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1853. She reportedly diedthe Pima Villages near Tucson from about 1865 to about 1857. Old-timers who were close to Swilling1867. This put him in Wickenburg often where his in Arizona Territory said that he fought border warsreputation as a heavy drinker who had better not be at the Kansas/Missouri line in 1856, but there is nocrossed when drunk grew considerably one day in confirmation of these tales. He reportedly killed 111867. It was May in 1867 that a man described only men in the border wars in retaliation for the killing as a Chileno and variously labeled a saloon keeper, of a relative. desperado, and robber let it be known around town that he was going to kill Jack Swilling on sight. The Jack decided to head west in 1857, leaving his childman was trying to intimidate the Mexican population behind. He joined a wagon train at Fort Smith,of Wickenburg with such talk, as they knew well Arkansas in the summer months and arrived inSwilling was a man who would kill if crossed or Belknap, Texas some six months later. August ofchallenged. Jack had never laid eyes on this man 1858 found him in Yuma heading for the area wherethreatening to kill him.Colonel Jacob Snively had found gold along the Gila east of Yuma. All of this activity in the area upset theSwilling was on a drinking spree at the time, Yavapai Indians, who began raids against the minersaccording to his friend Fred Henry. As Swilling and prospectors living in what was called Rich Hill continued on page 5452 October 2023'