Trinidad Swilling

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.{{cite web|url=https://truewestmagazine.com/the-first-lady-of-phoenix/ 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. ==Marriage to Jack Swilling==

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. In 1867, the Swillings moved once more, this time to the Salt River Valley where Black Canyon City is currently located. Mr. Swilling built a small "Rock House" which Mrs. Swilling described as her "1st House". According to an oral history account made by Mrs. Swilling, Mr. Swilling befriended the Lough family near the town of Gillett, by the junction of the Agua Fria and the New Rivers. The Loughs, who had encountered problems with their wagon and livestock leaving them stranded, received a helping hand from the Swillings. The Lough family joined the Swillings and headed to the Salt River Valley. Mrs. Swilling recalled being the first Mexican women in the Phoenix townsite, and that her friend, "Mrs. Lough" was the first white woman in Phoenix. ==Founding of Phoenix==

The Swilling Irrigating and Canal Company founded by Mrs. Swilling's (as Escalante was referred to) husband had 16 investors which included Phillip Darrell Duppa (known as Lord Duppa) and Bryan Phillips. They had a modern canal system dug with the help of Mexican laborers, enabling a dependable delivery of water. The canal diverted water from the Salt River to irrigate farm lands in what would eventually become the town of Phoenix. The canal, which became known as "Swilling's Ditch," was successful. The Swillings claimed 160 aces in what currently is 32nd Street and Van Buren in Phoenix. There they established a farm which included an orchard and a vineyard and the Swillings became economically prosperous. They built a 10-room house which often served as a community meeting place. It was in their house that the first Catholic Mass was held in Phoenix. Father Edward Gerard of Florence would often come to Phoenix via a horse-drawn wagon to hold Catholic services at their home. The decision was hotly contested between two sites: the original settlement around Swilling's farm, and a site about a mile to the west, which was supported by the newly founded "Salt River Valley Town Association" (SRVTA). Due to economic considerations benefitting the members of SRVTA, the more westerly townsite was selected, and a plot of land was purchased in what is now the downtown business section. The will of others prevailed and he sided in the founding of the city at its present location. It is commonly believed that Lord Duppa proposed the name of Phoenix relating back to the story of the mythical Phoenix's rebirth from the ashes. The basis being the rebirth of a city of canals, rebuilt on the site of the ancient Hohokam prehistoric canal systems that dated back to about 700–1400 AD. Mr. Swilling was elected Justice of the Peace for the Phoenix Precinct and was Phoenix's first postmaster. This earned Mr. Swilling the title "the Father of Phoenix" and Mrs. Swilling the title "the Mother of Phoenix." In 1868, Mrs. Swilling founded the first pioneer home in the Salt River Valley. ==Jack Swilling's death==

Mr. Swilling continued prospecting in the Bradshaw Mountains. The family moved to Gillett where they owned various businesses. Among the businesses that the Swillings had an active interest in was the "Gillett Real Estate" where they sold lots ranging from $100 to $250 depending on the location, a cattle and horse ranch and a vegetable farm in partnership with L.A. Stephens. On April 17, Mr. Swilling and his two companions went on their Snively exhumation trip. Mr. Swilling and his companions returned to Gillett after exhuming Col. Snively's remains at White Picacho Mountains on April 23. He was seen walking the streets of Gillett with a bag or sack containing the remains of Col. Snively. Mr. Swilling buried the bones of Col. Snively on his property next to his house. Three hooded men, one tall, one medium-size, and one short, robbed a stagecoach near Wickenburg. Six men, including the driver, were shot and killed. Among them was Frederick Wadsworth Loring, a young writer from Boston who had been sent as a correspondent for Appleton's Journal. ==Marriage to Henry Schumaker==

After Mr. Swilling died, Mrs. Swilling returned to Gillett for a few months and subsequently sold her holdings in that town and moved to Phoenix in 1879. She was in a bad financial situation after Mr. Swillings' death and was destitute when she arrived in Phoenix. She found work as a seamstress to support her children. She met Henry Schumaker, a German immigrant and on September 28, 1887, she married him (she was then referred to as Mrs. Schumaker). Together they had three children. Henry Shumaker committed suicide on March 11, 1896. He was buried in the City Loosley Cemetery which is located inside the Pioneer and Military Memorial Park. Mrs. Schumaker donated her mother's rosary, prayer book and a lace shawl to the Arizona Museum. Mrs. Schumaker also donated to the museum a rifle which once belonged to Mr. Swilling and whose name had been engraved by the makers. In her later years Mrs. Schumaker was involved in a dispute as to who was the first white woman in Phoenix. According to Mrs. Schumaker: The dispute made the local news and several early settlers rushed to support her and the Phoenix newspapers stated: On one occasion Mrs. Ethel Clark, who was the chairwoman of the Historic Spots and State Historian of the Daughters of the American Revolution and Mrs Schumacher were out at the Park of the Four Waters together. Among the subjects which they discussed was the responsibility that Mrs. Clark took upon herself for having the body of Charles Debrille Poston moved in 1925, from a cemetery in Phoenix to Poston's Butte in Florence, Arizona. That was when Mrs. Schumacher told Mrs. Clark Mrs. Clark then reaffirmed her promise that the Maricopa Chapter of the D. A. R. would do something in memory of Jack Swilling. On December 27, 1925, Trinidad Swilling Schumaker died in her home in Phoenix of liver cancer. Her funeral services were held in the Saint Mary's Basilica and she was buried in St. Francis Catholic Cemetery in Phoenix. On Thursday afternoon, February 19, 1931, the Maricopa Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, in a simple ceremony with the presence of Arizona Governor George W. P. Hunt, unveiled and dedicated to the memory of Jack and Trinidad Swilling, a fountain which stands in the park directly in front of the courthouse building in Phoenix. The fountain has a small bronze plaque with the following inscription : "In memory of Lieut. Jack W. Swilling, 1831–1878, who built the first modern irrigation ditch, and Trinidad, his wife, 1850–1925, who established in 1868 the first pioneer home in the Salt River Valley." ==See also==