Jack Swilling’s legacy during his short time in Alabama

John W. ‘Jack’ Swilling isn’t actually from Alabama – in fact, he was born in South Carolina in 1830 – but he is recognized as one of the men who founded the city of Phoenix, Arizona. Swilling was a man who loved to travel, and in 1850, he stopped for a while in Wetumpka, Alabama.

While living here he met and married 16-year-old Mary Jane Elizabeth Gray in 1852. They settled in Wetumpka, and two years later, Mary Jane gave birth to their daughter Elizabeth. It wasn’t long after that, according to his biography, that Swilling was shot, beaten and left for dead. There is no record of what exactly happened; however, the incident caused him chronic pain, which caused an addiction to pain medication and alcohol.

Swilling’s descendants said he left Alabama in 1857 after he killed a man. Mary Jane and Elizabeth stayed behind. No records were found that proved this family rumor true; however, according to his obituary, he later became well known for killing more than a dozen men – even scalping at least one of his victims.

He wrote to Mary Jane a few times after he left and told her he understood how badly he’d treated her, but he was still planning to come home as soon as he had some money to bring with him. The few existing letters, copies of which are located at the Elmore County Museum, seemed to hint more toward Jack being abusive than a killer.

He stopped briefly in several states during his travels after he left Alabama, including Texas and New Mexico, until finally he stopped in California and worked in the gold mines. While there, he told his friends that he’d married a woman from Missouri and they had a daughter, so he headed West after they died. There is no record of this being true.

This story became part of his biography though, while Mary Jane and Elizabeth were never mentioned. They were only discovered years after Swilling’s death when Mary Jane’s family found his letters.

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Swilling eventually moved to Arizona and married Trinidad Escalante in 1863. Swilling was 34, and Trinidad was just 17 years old. The couple went on to have seven children together.

Mary Jane and Elizabeth moved in with Mary Jane’s mother after Swilling left. Mary Jane was considered a ‘Green Widow,’ a term used for women whose husbands’ left for what they thought was something better.

Mary Jane married Joe Skinner in 1873, a prison guard at the Alabama State Penitentiary. Skinner later became a U. S. Marshall, and he had several children from a previous marriage, including one son named Edward. Elizabeth fell in love with her stepbrother Edward, and they were married in 1876.

Meanwhile, Swilling was still addicted to pain medication and alcohol, but now he had money – lots of it. He owned a mining company, built the first modern irrigation system, established a mill and managed a gambling house in what would later become Phoenix, Arizona. He was well respected, and his friends included military officers, politicians and wealthy men.

A 1985 newspaper article documenting Swilling’s life stated he and two of his friends decided to go hunting one weekend, spent several days in the wilderness and came home with nothing to show for it. During that weekend, a stagecoach was robbed a few miles down the road. When Swilling returned from his hunting trip, he and his friends headed straight for the saloon. While there, Swilling overheard the description of the three robbers and laughed as he told his two friends, “Well boys, they could be describing us!”

Swilling and his two friends weren’t laughing when the sheriff put them in jail as suspects in the robbery. They were later found guilty and sent to Yuma prison. Swilling died in prison in 1878, and the two men were released a few years later after the three men who had actually robbed the stagecoach were arrested.