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Apache Agent: The Story of John P. Clum
Libro usado en buenas condiciones, por su antiguedad podria contener señales normales de uso
297 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1978
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May 8, 2022
Not a native-born Arizonan, I enthusiastically chose Arizona for my home. My enthusiasm continues, in part because I don't live in the corrupt and crime- and traffic-infested cities of Phoenix and/or Tucson, but instead live in the scenically gorgeous, climatically temperate, and historically significant Cochise County.
Our county is home for the famous now-tiny town that was once expected to be the major city between St. Louis and San Francisco -- until the silver mines played out: Tombstone.
Thanks to movies and TV and, yes, books, nearly everyone knows, or thinks he knows, the history of Tombstone, where supposedly there was "a murder with every breakfast."
Earps and Clantons are familiar, even mythic, figures.
Not so well known was the mayor of Tombstone at the time of the Gunfight near the OK Corral, John P. Clum.
He had, at the time, recently moved from Tucson and started a weekly paper, named by him: No Tombstone, he famously said, can be without an Epitaph.
His weekly pretty soon became a daily, in time for him to write about that notorious gun battle.
But John P. Clum had actually been a very important and active personage long before his mayorship and his Epitaph operation: He had been appointed, in his very early 20s, to be the agent for the Apache reservation at San Carlos.
Clum was an Easterner who sought adventure but was as surprised as anyone else when he was asked to be the agent.
Apaches came in several flavors: Chiricahuas were perhaps the best known, and most feared, but there were several other branches, including some who were eager to be friends with the encroaching whites.
Unfortunately for them, too many of the whites believed "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," and those whites just lumped all the Apaches into one group, and "extermination" was the word they hoped and even worked for.
As surely most people know by now, the whites and their central government offered treaty after treaty to all the North American tribes and much more often than not broke those treaties.
Following very much in that path, one particular Apache chief made and broke treaty after treaty, and despite his record, whites, in the form of the U.S. Army and the U.S. central government, got suckered time after time, offered him peace, fed and housed him and his followers -- until he had rested from the warpath and recouped supplies.
Then Geronimo led his followers back to the warpath, killing, stealing, and burning.
John Clum called him the chief murderer in U.S. history, and apparently, outside of the federal government, Geronimo probably still holds that record.
At least twice, after bloody depredations, Geronimo sent word he was ready to surrender. He gathered all his people, led everyone to the reservation, accepted the food and blankets and some acreage, and settled down. Briefly.
Then, leaving behind to the care of the soldiers and the government his women, children, and old men, he returned to the warpath, killing, stealing, and burning.
Still, as Clum noted, in the book by his son, Geronimo was treated as a hero. He was present, waving to the crowds and selling souvenir postcards during the inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt.
Yet, as Clum also noted, decent, brave, loyal Apaches, such as one we have otherwise never been told about, Eskiminzin, are to this day almost unknown.
Almost like Clum himself, who lived until 1932.
"Apache Agent" is a very valuable addition to the history of Arizona. It is a book I will treasure and keep handy for future reference. It is a book I highly recommend to anyone interested, even slightly, in the history of Arizona and the Southwest.
There is information in "Apache Agent" you might not, certainly not easily, find in any other book, or perhaps in any other source. There are even photos.
There is charm and even humor, but there is, of course, blood and violence. It is, after all, Tombstone and the so-called "Wild West."
Oh, about that murder with breakfast: Not true.
Mr. Clum said there was a lot of such activity, but not necessarily in Tombstone, which might have had maybe three killings a year -- other than the notorious Gunfight.
Towns of Charleston and Gayleyville -- smaller but with perhaps more saloons -- had more shooting and violence.
John Clum was just one of many famous or infamous names from Southeastern Arizona, but he is one who deserves to be much better known -- even if only for being the one person who successfully _captured_ Geronimo, rather than being suckered by his false surrenders.
You'll be glad you read "Apache Agent."
Our county is home for the famous now-tiny town that was once expected to be the major city between St. Louis and San Francisco -- until the silver mines played out: Tombstone.
Thanks to movies and TV and, yes, books, nearly everyone knows, or thinks he knows, the history of Tombstone, where supposedly there was "a murder with every breakfast."
Earps and Clantons are familiar, even mythic, figures.
Not so well known was the mayor of Tombstone at the time of the Gunfight near the OK Corral, John P. Clum.
He had, at the time, recently moved from Tucson and started a weekly paper, named by him: No Tombstone, he famously said, can be without an Epitaph.
His weekly pretty soon became a daily, in time for him to write about that notorious gun battle.
But John P. Clum had actually been a very important and active personage long before his mayorship and his Epitaph operation: He had been appointed, in his very early 20s, to be the agent for the Apache reservation at San Carlos.
Clum was an Easterner who sought adventure but was as surprised as anyone else when he was asked to be the agent.
Apaches came in several flavors: Chiricahuas were perhaps the best known, and most feared, but there were several other branches, including some who were eager to be friends with the encroaching whites.
Unfortunately for them, too many of the whites believed "the only good Indian is a dead Indian," and those whites just lumped all the Apaches into one group, and "extermination" was the word they hoped and even worked for.
As surely most people know by now, the whites and their central government offered treaty after treaty to all the North American tribes and much more often than not broke those treaties.
Following very much in that path, one particular Apache chief made and broke treaty after treaty, and despite his record, whites, in the form of the U.S. Army and the U.S. central government, got suckered time after time, offered him peace, fed and housed him and his followers -- until he had rested from the warpath and recouped supplies.
Then Geronimo led his followers back to the warpath, killing, stealing, and burning.
John Clum called him the chief murderer in U.S. history, and apparently, outside of the federal government, Geronimo probably still holds that record.
At least twice, after bloody depredations, Geronimo sent word he was ready to surrender. He gathered all his people, led everyone to the reservation, accepted the food and blankets and some acreage, and settled down. Briefly.
Then, leaving behind to the care of the soldiers and the government his women, children, and old men, he returned to the warpath, killing, stealing, and burning.
Still, as Clum noted, in the book by his son, Geronimo was treated as a hero. He was present, waving to the crowds and selling souvenir postcards during the inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt.
Yet, as Clum also noted, decent, brave, loyal Apaches, such as one we have otherwise never been told about, Eskiminzin, are to this day almost unknown.
Almost like Clum himself, who lived until 1932.
"Apache Agent" is a very valuable addition to the history of Arizona. It is a book I will treasure and keep handy for future reference. It is a book I highly recommend to anyone interested, even slightly, in the history of Arizona and the Southwest.
There is information in "Apache Agent" you might not, certainly not easily, find in any other book, or perhaps in any other source. There are even photos.
There is charm and even humor, but there is, of course, blood and violence. It is, after all, Tombstone and the so-called "Wild West."
Oh, about that murder with breakfast: Not true.
Mr. Clum said there was a lot of such activity, but not necessarily in Tombstone, which might have had maybe three killings a year -- other than the notorious Gunfight.
Towns of Charleston and Gayleyville -- smaller but with perhaps more saloons -- had more shooting and violence.
John Clum was just one of many famous or infamous names from Southeastern Arizona, but he is one who deserves to be much better known -- even if only for being the one person who successfully _captured_ Geronimo, rather than being suckered by his false surrenders.
You'll be glad you read "Apache Agent."
December 26, 2025
This is a must-read for anyone interested in the Indian wars. There is a great amount of information, all more fascinating to me than the made-up stories in the movies and TV westerns. It’s a bit hard to find a copy of this, but well worth the effort.
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