John Clum

Indian agent in the Arizona Territory (1851–1932)

John Philip Clum (September 1, 1851 – May 2, 1932) was an Indian agent for the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation in the Arizona Territory. He implemented a limited form of self government on the reservation that was so successful that other reservations were closed and their residents moved to San Carlos. Clum later became the first mayor of Tombstone, Arizona Territory, after its incorporation in 1881. He also founded the still operating The Tombstone Epitaph on May 1, 1880. He later served in various postal service positions across the United States.

John Clum was born on a farm near Claverack, New York, US. His parents were William Henry and Elizabeth van Deusen Clum of Dutch and German descent; he had five brothers and three sisters: Henry W. Clum, Jane E. Clum, Cornelia Clum, Sarah E. Clum, George A. Clum, Robert A. Clum, Cornelius N. Clum, and Alfred Clum. In September, 1867, he entered the Hudson River Institute (later known as Claverack College), a military academy in Claverack, New York. He also attended religious services at the Dutch Reformed Church. In September, 1870, he enrolled at Rutgers College. He obtained a classical education, studying among other subjects Latin, Greek, Mathematics (including algebra), Natural History (including physiology) and Rhetoric. He was a member of Rutgers' football team. Although Clum was on the team, he did not play in the first intercollegiate game between Rutgers and Princeton on November 6, 1869, but played in the second game in the fall of 1870. Clum's strenuous activity and competitive athletics left him ill and in his second year of college he was unable to earn enough money to pay for his tuition. He returned to his father's farm in the summer of 1871. Clum read in a newspaper story that the federal War Department in Washington, D. C. was organizing a meteorological service. He applied for and was inducted into the US Army Signal Corps on September 14, 1871, with the rank of Observer Sergeant. Two weeks later he was dispatched to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he became a weather observer. John Clum was married a second time on Feb. 6, 1883, in the District of Columbia, to Belle Atwood. Clum was married a third and final time on Oct. 24, 1914, in New York City, New York to Florence A. Baker.

President Ulysses S. Grant established the San Carlos Reservation on December 14, 1872. The Apaches nicknamed him "Nantan Betunnikiyeh", "Nantan", meaning boss or leader, "Betunnykahyeh" meaning high forehead, or "Boss With The High Forehead", referring to his baldness. Clum encouraged them to take up the peaceful pursuits of farming and raising cattle. The Army disliked Clum's actions, as it prevented them from raking off part of the funds that passed through the reservation.

In September 1872, Cochise negotiated a Chiricahua Reservation for his people from the Dragoon Mountains on the west to the Peloncillo Mountains on the east. It included the Chiricahua Mountains and ran south to the Mexican border. On December 14, 1872, President Ulysses Grant issued an Executive Order establishing the Chiricahua Reservation in the southeastern Arizona Territory encompassing the Chiricahua Mountains, Mexico–United States border, and New Mexico Territory border. Some members of the tribe continued raiding into the Mexican states Sonora and Chihuahua. Governor Pesqueira of Sonora complained bitterly about the raids, and General Crook tried to figure out how to force the relocation of the raiders to the San Carlos Reservation. Thomas J. Jeffords, who was Indian Agent to the reservation, lost influence when Cochise died on June 8, 1874. In 1876 Jeffords was relieved of his responsibility and on May 3 the government ordered Clum to transfer the Chiricahuas to San Carlos. After waiting in vain for military reinforcements to help with the move, Clum began relocating the tribe in early June. Cochise's sons Taza and Naiche agreed to the move and killed several Chircahuas, including Eskinya, Cochise's trusted ally, when he insisted they go to war. The Nednhi Chirica led by Juh also requested transfer. Clum granted them three days to round up their kinsmen. They used that time to elude the cavalry and flee south. Of the more than 1,000 Chiricahuas enumerated in Jeffords' infrequent censuses, only 42 men and 280 women and children accompanied Clum north. The firing of Jeffords and the abolition of the Chiricahua Reservation in southeastern Arizona drove the Chiricahuas deeper into Mexico or over to the Ojo Caliente Reservation in the New Mexico Territory. In April 1877 the Interior Department ordered Clum to remove the bands at Ojo Caliente to San Carlos as well. Victorio and the Chihenne Chiricahuas acquiesced at first.

Geronimo, on the other hand, was defiant. Clum hid 100 of his Apache police in the commissary building at Ojo Caliente and on April 21, 1877, they surprised Geronimo, seizing his rifle and throwing him in shackles. Clum's success gave the US Army a black eye; it was the only time Geronimo was captured at gunpoint without a shot fired on either side. A total of 453 Chiricahuas, 100 from Geronimo's band and the rest under Victorio, reached San Carlos in late May. From the very beginning they quarreled with the other Apaches confined there.

Clum's feuds with the military escalated. Faced with superior officers who strongly disagreed with his methods, dogged by an uncaring Indian Bureau administration and under constant harassment by the Army, Clum was frustrated. He left his post as Indian Agent at noon on July 1, 1877, nearly three years after he had arrived.]] After silver was discovered in Tombstone in 1877, Clum moved to Tombstone and began publication on Saturday, May 1, 1880 of The Tombstone Epitaph. He organized the "Anti Chinese League", and a "Vigilance Committee" to end lawlessness in Tombstone, and his association with that group helped get him elected as Tombstone's first mayor under the new city charter of 1881. While mayor he became lifelong friends with Wyatt Earp and became one of his greatest supporters. In December 1880, his wife Mary had a daughter Elizabeth, called Bessie, but Mary died soon after on December 18, 1880. Elizabeth was sickly and died the following summer. After the gun battle of October 26, 1881 in a vacant lot adjacent to the home and studio of photographer Camillus S. Fly, Ike Clanton filed murder charges and after a month long preliminary hearing, Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer ruled the men had acted within the law. Clum later observed,

blockquote|There had been a lot of talk about the justification of the fight. But the Earps were officers of the law and I could see no reason why an officer should wait until he was fired upon two or three times before opening up himself. Wyatt Earp told me afterward he could have killed Ike Clanton. Ike, Wyatt said, drew back and motioned he was not in it. He called to Ike. 'Get in this, Ike, or get out!' and Ike got out." Driver Jimmie Harrington was able to outrun the attackers, but he soon had to stop to remove a lead horse that had been shot and was bleeding to death. Clum was certain the hold up was cover for an attempt to kill him, so didn't reboard the stage, but walked until he found a horse he could borrow. He got to Benson the next day and then returned to Tombstone. Clum, Wells Fargo Agent Marshall Williams, Justice of the Peace Wells Spicer, mine owner E. B. Gage, attorney Tom Fitch, Oriental Saloon owner Lou Rickabaugh, and the Earps were also threatened. In January Virgil Earp was maimed in an assassination attempt and in March Morgan was murdered. On May 1, 1882, two years to the day after he started The Tombstone Epitaph, he sold it and left Tombstone. While in Nome, Alaska in the summer of 1900, Clum met his old friends, Wyatt Earp and George W. Parsons. Earp was operating the Dexter Saloon at the time. Clum was later named postmaster for Fairbanks, Alaska, and served in that position until 1909. Caro, Alaska was named after his daughter Caro.