Trinidad Swilling

Trinidad Swilling Shumaker (April 15, 1849 – December 27, 1925), known as "The Mother of Phoenix" (Phoenix, Arizona) was a pioneer and the wife of Jack Swilling, the founder of Phoenix. Mrs. Swilling was involved in local civic activities and promoted the public recognition of her husband as founder of Phoenix. She was also involved in dispute which made the local news as to who was the first white woman to settle in the Phoenix townsite. In 1868, Swilling founded the first pioneer home in the Salt River Valley.

Trinidad Mejia Escalante was born on April 15, 1849, in Hermosillo, Mexico, a city located in the center of the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora. Her father was Ignatus Mejia. Her grandfather was a Spaniard who moved to Mexico during the Spanish Colonial period. Her mother was Petra Escalante, a Mexican national.

Arizona belonged to Mexico until the end of the Mexican–American War in 1848. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the 1853 Gadsden Purchase clearly defined the US–Mexican boundaries and the Mexicans living within the boundaries of the new United States territory became American citizens, This included the relatives of Escalante who lived in Tucson.

In 1864, when her father died, she and her mother migrated to Tucson, in the Territory of Arizona, to be with their relatives. At the time she was 15 years old.

When she was 17 years old she met John William Swilling better known as Jack Swilling, who happened to be in Tucson. Prior to meeting Escalante, Mr. Swilling, a native of Anderson, South Carolina, was in Los Pinos where he belonged to a militia named the Arizona Guards. The militia's primary objective was to defend the early Anglo settlers against the attacks by the members of the Apache tribes. In 1861, the secession of Confederate Arizona from the Union was officially declared. At that time Mr. Swilling held the rank of First Lieutenant of the militia. The Arizona Guards were absorbed into the Confederate Army.

After the war, Mr. Swilling became involved in gold mining near and around the Prescott area. He met and befriended King S. Woolsey and went to Tucson on a flour-buying trip as a favor to Woolsey. However, when he reached Tucson, he found that the mill, of which he was half-owner, had run out of flour and was forced to wait for a cargo of flour from Hermosillo.

When Mr. Swilling first saw Escalante, he boasted to his friends that he was going to marry her. Eventually, they met and fell in love. They wanted to get married, however her mother objected, after all Mr. Swilling was 34 years old and Escalante was a young lady of 17 years of age. They then decided to elope. They lived together unmarried in the area of Tucson until April 11, 1864. That day Father Aloysius M. Bosco came to Tucson's St. Augustine's Cathedral, as was his custom, to baptize Mexican children, and to confirm Catholic marriages. Mr. Swilling and Escalante were married. It was a time when there were few white women on the southwestern frontier. It was not unusual for white men to marry Mexican or Native American women for companionship. During the course of their marriage the couple had seven children: Georgia, 1865; Matilda, 1867; Leila (Lilly), 1871; Elizabeth, 1873; Berry, 1874; Matilda Adeline, 1876; and John William Jr., 1878.

The Swillings moved to Yavapai County and established a farm at Walnut Grove where he had a claim on Weaver's Mountains. They lived there for a year and then moved to the town of Wickenburg where they established a farm close to the Hassayampa River which was next to Henry Wickenburg’s place. Mrs. Swilling's mother, Mrs. Mejia, lived with them until her death in 1865. On November 11, 1867, Mr. Swilling founded the Swilling Irrigating and Canal Company in Wickenburg.