Yet one stereoview shows the Apache Indian agent twice; a stereoview that hammered in for $2,000 at Cowan’s American History auction on December 10, 2010, sold along with others taken by Henry Buehman during 1874-77, when Clum served as agent at the San Carlos Apache Indian Agency in Arizona.
But how could he be in the same photo twice? Well, that’s because he’s not…and herein awakens a mystery that we invite you to help us solve.
You see, in 1874, the 23-year-old Clum created an Apache police force and hired 29-year-old Martin Sweeny, a veteran cavalry sergeant who had been working as a blacksmith on the reservation since 1868, to work for him as a clerk. “His military training, plus his sympathetic understanding of Apache character, enabled him to teach military tactics to the Indians so that they not only learned how to drill, but enjoyed it, and became excellent soldiers,” Clum wrote.
The stereoview taken by Buehman shows both Martin Sweeny and John Clum. Yet we’ve seen that Martin Sweeny in John Clum photos…and also that John Clum in John Clum photos. Which one is the real Clum?
The only photo of Clum that has the best provenance is the one of him with his wife Mary, whom he married in November 1876, a few months before he would resign his position at San Carlos. The photo dates between then and December 1880, when Mary died.
For now, we have grouped these photos in accordance with this belief. Yet we could use your help in finding definitive proof that will solve the mystery of which man is the real Clum!
The American History auction hammered in at $700,000.
Photo Gallery
This stereoview shows the Apache Indian agent twice (above) that sold along with others taken by Henry Buehman during 1874-77, when Clum served as agent at the San Carlos Apache Indian Agency in Arizona.
– Courtesy Cowan’s Auctions –
This image sold for $3,500 bid at Cowan’s Auctions. John Clum died in 1932, four months shy of turning 81.
– Courtesy Cowan’s Auctions –
D.P. Flanders, who last captured San Carlos on film in 1874, took the photograph. To us, that man looks to be the same man in the “dual Clums” image (see inset, at left) and the one in the Henry Buehman image (see inset, at right).
–True West Archives–
Born in 1845, Martin Sweeny was 29 at the time John Clum hired him. That might make some historians settle on this younger-looking gentleman as Clum, who was six years shy of Sweeny. Yet, we think this might be Sweeny.
You see, Clum lived to be an old man, whereas Sweeny did not—and that fact makes a big difference in deciding which man could be Clum.
When Clum resigned from San Carlos in 1877, Sweeny also hit the road, moving to Tombstone and its Grand Central Mine, one of his mining investments. The next year, he got in a fight with a partner at the mine, Olive Boyer (a.k.a. Jack Friday), who shot him dead on June 2.
–True West Archives–
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