By Al Bates
Two men, one a Union Army General and the other a Confederate Army deserter, had critical roles in the decision to found Arizona Territory's first capital at Prescott. The ex-rebel also started the events that lead to Prescott losing the capital permanently.
There is no doubt that when Governor John N. Goodwin's party left Cincinnati for the newly created Territory of Arizona in August, 1863, that Tucson was the odds on favorite to become the site of the first Territorial Capital. Tucson was the largest town in the new territory and although it had Mexican roots there had been a significant American presence there since at least 1856. The only objection voiced was that the town harbored a significant number of Southern sympathizers.
How was it then that the first Territorial Capital came to Prescott instead? The answer at least in part lies in the friendship of two men, Union General James H. Carleton and ex-Confederate Army Lieutenant John S. (Jack) Swilling, and their common interest in the search for gold.
The best place to begin is in 1860, when miner and adventurer Jack Swilling commanded a group of volunteers from the gold fields at Gila City in a successful search and destroy mission against raiding Indian bands that took them up the Gila River and then up the Hassayampa. During this mission, Swilling and other members of the party noted signs of gold somewhere near Wickenburg but did not pursue the search further because of the remoteness of the area . It was not until three years later, after the Gila City and southern New Mexico diggings were worked out, that Swilling would follow up on this discovery.
In the meantime, Swilling moved from Gila City to new gold fields at Pinos Altos in New Mexico, and there he became involved in the western-most extension of the Civil War. He helped establish the "Arizona Guards" a militia formed to protect the settlers of Pinos Altos against Apache attack and then, when the militia was absorbed into the Confederate States Army, became a lieutenant in the CSA. He was part of the small Confederate force that moved into Southern Arizona from Mesilla, and was present at the Confederate occupation of Tucson, but was not involved in either of the skirmishes between Union and Confederate forces in Arizona. At the time of the Picacho Peak "battle" he was on his way back to Mesilla with prisoners taken at the bloodless capture of Ami White's flour mill at the Pima Villages.
His service with the Confederacy ended when he refused to forage livestock from friends and neighbors in the Pinos Altos vicinity. Rather than report for disciplinary action, he and several others deserted from the CSA. By then the Confederate Army in the West was on the run from the California Column lead by General Carleton. Carleton soon hired Jack as a civilian dispatch rider, most likely on the recommendation of a Union officer who recently had been Jack's prisoner.
Swilling joined the prospecting party headed by Joseph R. Walker some time after they checked in with General Carleton after they arrived in New Mexico from Colorado. Once the Walker Party determined that the gold fields of New Mexico held little or no further promise, they moved on to areas best known to Swilling.
In the view of Arizona historians Bert Fireman and Senator Carl Hayden, Jack never received the credit that he deserved for leading the Walker party to the Hassayampa and then up to Central Arizona and its gold. Once in Central Arizona, Swilling staked claims on the Hassayampa River and Lynx Creek and had a role in the discovery of "Rich Hill" above Stanton. A pair of nuggets from Rich Hill that Swilling sent to Carleton by way of New Mexico's Surveyor General John A. Clark may have helped persuade Carleton that he should establish a fort near the new gold diggings. That and the fact that Carleton was registered as the owner of one of the original placer claims on the Hassayampa.
When the governor's party arrived at Carleton's headquarters in New Mexico there is no doubt that the General lobbied for establishing the first Arizona Territorial Capital near the gold fields of Central Arizona rather than at the "rebel hotbed" of Tucson. The governor's party then steered a course for Central Arizona and established a temporary headquarters at the original Fort Whipple location at Del Rio Springs. After a scouting tour of Central Arizona followed by a quick trip to Tucson, Governor Goodwin then decreed that the Capital would be established at the crude village that shortly would be named Prescott. Just as Jack Swilling had a prominent hand in bringing the Capital to Prescott in 1864, he had an equally prominent role leading to its being taken away.
Swilling just three years later founded a community in the Salt River Valley that eventually won out over both Prescott and Tucson as the site for the Territorial and later State Capital of Arizona. The community Jack founded in 1867 became modern metropolitan Phoenix. But even there he is scarcely remembered and another man is usually given credit for naming the town Jack started.
Al Bates is an avid historian and a regular contributor to Days Past.
Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number: (citn140pb). Reuse only by permission.
In 1877, the Post Office for Phoenix was the place to meet. Jack Swilling founded the town in 1867. Ironically, he helped to locate the new capital of the territory of Arizona right here in Prescott only four years earlier.