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Presentation
JACK OF ALL TRADES: J.W. SWILLING IN THE
JACK OF ALL TRADES:
J.W. SWILLING IN THE
April 1, 1992 - January 31, 1993
Display produced by Ileen Snoddy, Project Historian,
Community Relations Division; and the Art Division
Catalog edited by Ileen Snoddy. and designed by
SRP
Together, we can make a difference.
©1992 Salt River Project
Reproduced, edited and photographs
enhanced by: Neal Du Shane 10/31/2006
Reproduction Approved by: Ileen Snoddy,
Project Historian and SRP
The
We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the following institution and their staffs:
Alabama Department of Archives and History; Arizona Historical Society (Phoenix); Arizona Historical Society (Tucson); Arizona Historical Society (Yuma); Arizona Historical Society - Fort Lowell Museum; Arizona Department of Library, Archives, and Public Records; Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum; Arizona State Museum; Arizona State University, Arizona Historical Foundation; Atlanta Historical Society, Inc.; Buckeye Historical Society; Cave Creek Museum; Chandler Historical Society; Desert Caballeros Western Museum; Fort Bowie National Historic Site; Mesa Southwest Museum; National Archives (Washington, DC); National Archives, Pacific Southwest Region (Laguna Niguel, California); Pendleton District Historical and Recreational Commission (South Carolina); Phoenix Museum of History; Phoenix Public Library; Pioneer, Arizona; Pueblo Grande Museum; Sharlot Hall Museum; Western Archaeological Reserve (Tucson).
SALT RIVER PROJECT
JACK OF ALL TRADES:
J.W. SWILLING IN THE
April 1, 1992 -January 31, 1993
Jack Swilling is often remembered as a colorful character whose notorious desperado
reputation overshadows his accomplishments.
During
the years 1856 through 1878, Swilling traveled throughout the
1992
marks the one-hundred-and-twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the
Swilling Ditch Company, the first canal company formed by stockholders in the
John
W. (Jack) Swilling was born April 1, 1830, the eighth of ten children, in
Several
of his nine brothers and sisters would later move west, settling in
Throughout his life, Swilling maintained periodic contact with his family back in the States, particularly his youngest sister Emily and their father, George. A letter to Swilling's brother James, written by their father in 1874, notes that George had received word from Jack for the first time in over two years. A few years after this letter was written, George died, and his death was ironically reported in the Arizona Miner.
1
2
Jack
Swilling first left home at seventeen with his brother Barry. Calling himself
Jackson W. Swilling, he enlisted as a musician at
General
Scott was occupying the city of
3
Muster
Rolls.
4
Discharge Certificate.
5
Mary Jane Gray Swilling Skinner Loaned by Isabell Leaver and Family
Jack
Swilling and his brother Barry were discharged at
Until
recently, researchers were unable to account for Swilling’s life during much of
the 1850’s. References to a wife and child left behind in
6
7
Letters Written by J.W. Swilling
To his Wife, Mary Jane.
Donated by Isabell Leaver and Family
8
9
10
Tintype
of Born in Loaned by Isabell
Leaver and Family
11
Map of
From the collections of the Arizona
Historical Society, Tucson
13
“Go west young man and grow with the
country . . . “ Those words were made famous by Horace Greeley, a newspaper man
in the 1850’s, who wrote of the opportunities he saw while visiting the West.
14
Diary shared
by
Mary Jane
and Jack Swilling
Loaned by Isabell Leaver and Family
15
Having grown up near the area of the
When Colonel Jacob Snively found gold along
Gila River east of
16
Civil War
Chronicle.
Loaned
by the
17
Early in 1860, Jack Swilling appeared in
the census records of the Pinos Altos, Gold Mining Camp near
In October, Swilling received a copy of the resolution formulated over Thomas Mastin's death and took his place in the Arizona Guard, assuming command soon after upon Helm's departure. The unit was soon called to the Santa Rita Copper Mines, to suppress trouble with the miners.
On February 14, 1862, Jefferson Davis
proclaimed
The Confederates attacked the Federal
outpost near Gila Bend in April of 1862 although there is no official record of
this encounter. Historians have reported that Swilling was part of the
Requisitioning of livestock from the
locales around Mesilla by the Confederate commander William Steele was a cause
for distress throughout the occupation. Authorities in EI Paso demanded payment
for cattle requisitioned. In June of 1862, Swilling refused to requisition
livestock near Pinos Altos, presumably from people he was familiar with from
mining in the area. The Confederate command found that Lieutenant Swilling had
interfered with an order to procure animals and ordered him to report to
headquarters to explain his conduct. A few weeks later Swilling was reported
deserted from
In early September, General Carleton,
Commander of the Union Forces in the territory, made Swilling an expressman to
carry the Army's mail. By January, the
18
Military Forts in the
From the Collections of
the
19
During
the Civil War, both the Confederacy and the
During
his involvement with the
20
22
23
25
Joseph R.
Walker
Rich Hill
28
Loaned by the
29
Although the romanticized image of a lone prospector panning for gold is a familiar one, the great bulk of gold and silver mined in the West came from hard rock mines owned not by men but by corporations.
Gold is found integrated physically though not chemically with quartz, a hard glasslike mineral. Silver occurs most-commonly as a compound, sulfide. In each case an elaborate system of machinery is required to tear the metal-bearing rock from the earth to crush and extract. The equipment is expensive, requiring an investment far beyond the means of the average prospector.
As a consequence, the usual course of events in the West was for a prospector to "strike it rich", take out what he could with pick, shovel, and pan, and then sell his claim. The new owner would bring in professional miners, dig shafts and tunnels and build a mill in which the ore could be processed.
30
Jack
Swilling, Pauline Weaver and A. H. Peeples are credited with the discovery of
the Rich Hill Mine, one of the richest placers ever found. Swilling sent
samples of gold from Rich Hill to General James H. Carleton. These samples are
said to have led Carleton to throw his support behind establishing the capital
of the newly created
According to one' early pioneer, A. F. Banta, Rich Hill was discovered by Jack Swilling and his party who were guided to the foot of the hill by a Pima Indian. Swilling had previously learned, through Indian sources, that placer gold could be found in large quantities. The guide was paid five ponies and fifty silver dollars, but because of his superstition regarding gold, he would not take the party directly to the source. The guide, fearful of retribution, slipped away at night. Berado Frayes discovered gold on top of Rich Hill and brought the gold to Swilling.
The surface of the rock was divided into squares; one square for each one of the party. The squares were numbered and drawn out of a hat, the ground staked off and numbered. Banta reports that "as there was practically no dirt to wash out, the gold being found in large nuggets, and either lay upon the surface of rock or in crevices, it was gotten out with spoons and butcher knives. It was decided by a majority of the group that after a man had filled his pint cup with gold he should knock off for the day." This rule was adhered to and many days they filled their cups by 11 o'clock, while in some cases it took till 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Swilling later sought out and paid the Pima guide.
31
Assayer’s
Scales.
Loaned
by the Mining and
Assayer’s Scales, used to weigh gold dust and nuggets were not the exclusive property of professional assayers. Gold became the medium of exchange in the territory for much of the 1800’s and nearly every miner, mine or mill owner, banker and storekeeper owned an assayer’s scale.
33
Loose ore particles, called placer gold, mix with sand
in the beds of streams and can be easily separated by swirling a mixture of
earth and water in a flat pan until the lighter materials spill over the edge
of the container leaving the heavier gold flakes or nuggets.
At first, whatever pans were available were used
including everything from washbasins to frying pans. Soon specially designed
miners' pans became available and the form of these pans has changed little
over the years.
Miners' pans average about eighteen inches in diameter
with a gently sloping wall seldom more than 3 inches high. Made of zinc, or
occasionally copper, these pans were mass produced throughout the nineteenth
century, and are still being made.
34
Shovels
and Picks. Loaned by the Mining and Pickaxes
and prybars were used as placer gold became harder to find. Prospectors
located “dry diggings” extracting ore from cracks in rock walls along the
streambeds. At first, miners employed nothing more than hunting or bowie
knives or an iron spoon for this task, but pickaxes and prybars were used
as the surface veins gave way to the harder rock underneath.
A
shovel was required to remove the gold-bearing
sand from the streambeds. Most mining shovels cannot be distinguished from
other types of shovels; the same hold true for pickaxes and crow and pry bars.
These tools were brought west not only for the miner, but the builder, mason
and railroadman as well.
35
Dry-washers, like the one seen here,
were used to extract the course gold from the sand without water.
Dry-Washer.
Loaned by the
36
Early Canal Construction.
38
39
Jack Swilling and other stockholders in the Swilling
Ditch Company brought their mining experience to canal building, as can be seen
in the use of miner's inches to
measure the amount of water in canals.
Miners lacking running water had to bring water to their
claims and workings from live streams. The water ran through a small wooden
waterway called a sluice. Sluices were often built by several miners with each
participant entitled to a share of the water. To measure the quality of water
to which each was entitled small holes were cut in the side of the sluice. The
flow of water through the opening was given the name "miner's inch".
In
40
The Salt
River has provided the major source of water to the inhabitants of the
The first
modern canal in the
During the
years 1865 through 1867, Jack Swilling worked as an express rider for the mail
traveling between
41
In November of 1867, Swilling and the other
stockholders filed for water rights. The area claimed was, "Opposite the
buttes on Salt River, at a big rock about two miles above the point known as
the hay camp and about twenty-five miles above the junction of the Gila and
On November 11 1867, the eight men in the Planters
Irrigating Company published their claim to, "all the waters of the
At the November 16th meeting in
The next day, the company voted a levy of sixteen
dollars per share. This assessment was imposed to raise money for the purchase
of tools and provisions for construction. Shareholders without money were paid
sixty seven dollars a month in addition to receiving tools and provisions to
work out their shares within three months and two weeks.
42
43
The stockholders arrived in the valley in December of
1867. The party, led by Jack Swilling,
included.
Peter Burns Frank Chapman
James Deslinger Darrell Duppa
Tomas Hoague John Larson
James Lee Thomas
McWilliams
Thomas McGoldrick Michael McGrath
Frank Metzler Antonio
Moreas
James Smith Ludivic
Vandermark
P.T. (Jack)
Walters Joseph
Woods
44
Like
the Hohokam before them, the American Settlers used handheld canal digging
tools for a majority of the work. Mule-drawn
The
Swilling party first began digging on the north bank of the Salt River, across
from the buttes where
45
“That
this whole valley had at some time been densely populated cannot be
doubted...': wrote John T. Alsap in 1872,
"... although neither history tradition or legend gives any account of who
the inhabitants were from whence they came or whither they have gone. The whole
valley is dotted with the ruins of ancient towns and buildings. The great canal
commonly called the "Montezuma Acequia" intersects the river near the
upper end of the valley and runs thence in a northwesterly direction for
several miles. It would take a little work to put it in condition to be used as
of old although there are trees of a foot in diameter, standing in it. Smaller
ditches leading out from it at convenient distances show that it was used for
purposes of irrigation and that the whole valley has been under cultivation. .
. "
Swilling's party had noticed the Montezuma Acequia. The second canal attempt followed the outline of this old Hohokam canal dug approximately 500 years before.
In March of 1868, the first portion of the Swilling ditch was complete. The Arizona Miner reported that over 600 acres were planted, mostly barley, wheat and corn.
“The
principal crops of this season were com and beans. Jack Swilling, John Larson,
Jacob Denslinger and Tom McGoldrick were the chief farmers. There was much rain
during the season and the com crop was especially good. One who saw it says
that Swilling had about 15 acres of as fine of corn as might be seen in any of
the Western states that are celebrated for the production of this grain. In no
season since that year have our farmers been able to raise so good a crop of
corn. . . “
46
47
48
On July 4, 1870, Jack Swilling, Thomas Barnum, and John
T. Alsap published intent to begin the Phoenix Ditch Company above the head of
the ditch owned by the Swilling Irrigation Canal Company.
49
On December 6 1870, Swilling, B. W. Hardy and four others established the Hardy Irrigating Canal Company which the next year became the Tempe Irrigating Canal Company. Eleven days later, Swilling was on the other side of the river with a party of men, laying out the Hayden Ditch. Swilling also had an interest in the Miller Ditch, which he sold in 1872.
In 1873, Swilling, Ludivic Vandermark, James McKinnie and others constructed a ditch
upstream
a dozen miles east of
The Pima and Maricopa Indians began a ditch in the valley soon after the arrival of the
Americans.
The Americans and Mexicans farming upstream on the
50
51
“A
Settlement called “
Field
notes of Wilfred Ingalls, U.S. Deputy Surveyor, March 1868
52
Land Bond.
Loaned by the
53
By the fall of 1868, one hundred people had settled in
the vicinity of Swilling's Ditch and the Phoenix Settlement near what is now
When the Territorial Legislature created