page_title: Trinidad Swilling
section_title: Mrs. Schumaker
hierarchical_section_title: Trinidad Swilling / Mrs. Schumaker
caption_attribution_description: English: 1931 plaque on a water fountain in front of the historic Phoenix Courthouse dedicated to the Jack and Trinidad Swilling, considered to be the "father" and "mother" of Phoenix
context_page_description: Trinidad Swilling Shumaker, known as "The Mother of Phoenix" was a Phoenix 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, Mrs. Swilling founded the first pioneer home in the Salt River Valley.
context_section_description: 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."
caption: The Jack and Trinidad Swilling plaque
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