C. S. Fly

Camillus "Buck" Sydney Fly (May 2, 1849 – October 12, 1901) was an American photographer who is regarded by some as an early photojournalist and who captured the only known images of Native Americans while they were still at war with the United States. He took many other pictures of life in the silver-mining boom town of Tombstone, Arizona, and the surrounding region. He recognized the value of his photographs to illustrate periodicals of the day and took his camera to the scenes of important events where he recorded them and resold pictures to editors nationwide.

He was an eyewitness on October 26, 1881, to the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, which took place outside his photography studio. He took pictures of a number of Tombstone residents including Tombstone founder Ed Schieffelin, pioneer surgeon Dr. George E. Goodfellow, and others.

He served as Cochise County Sheriff from 1895 to 1897. Most of his negatives were destroyed by two fires that burned his studio to the ground. His widow, photographer Mary E. "Mollie" Fly, donated his remaining images to the Smithsonian Museum before she died in 1925. His photographs are legendary and highly prized.

Early life His parents were originally from Andrew County, Missouri. Shortly after Camillus' birth, his family migrated to California, eventually settling in Napa County. He became a farmer and on September 29, 1879, he married Mary ("Mollie") (née McKie) Goodrich in San Francisco. Both were skillful photographers. She had previously been married to Samuel D. Goodrich but divorced him after two years. They left California and arrived in the booming silver-mining town of Tombstone, Arizona Territory in December 1879.

Life in Tombstone

An image of the photography studio of C S. and Mollie Fly burning in 1912, taken by Mollie Fly.

In Tombstone they immediately opened a temporary photography studio in a tent. Mollie Fly actively managed Fly's Gallery when her husband was away. She was one of the few female photographers of the era, taking pictures of anyone who could pay the studio price of 35 cents.

In June 1880, Fly partnered with C. A. Halstead in a studio at the Harshaw mining camp near the Mexican border. Veteran journalist Thomas Gardiner, publisher of The Arizona Quarterly Illustrated, was seeking contributions and welcomed Fly's photographs. The premier July 1880 issue featured two of Fly's photographs as engravings.

Fly and Mollie temporarily raised a girl named Kitty, though it's not known whether she was adopted or was from another relationship. Mollie ran the boarding house and studio while her husband traveled around the region taking photographs.

The Mayor of Tucson, C. M. Strauss, was present. He later wrote that: Tombstone Dr. George E. Goodfellow was fascinated by the earth movement and studied the earthquake's effects. He obtained a commission from the U.S. government to travel to the earthquake area, and on his second trip in July 1887 he brought C.S. Fly with him to help study and record the effects. They traveled over through the Sierra Madre mountains recording observations, mostly on foot. Goodfellow used Fly's images of the effects of the earthquake, the damaged and ruined buildings, and survivors to illustrate his report.

Famous photographs

Geronimo and Gen. Crook at Cañon de Los Embudos, Sonora, March 27, 1886.

Death

Fly ran a ranch in the Chiricahua Mountains for a period. Though Camillus and his wife had been separated for years, she was at his bedside when he died at Bisbee on October 12, 1901. A 6-5/8" x 9-1/2" albumen print photograph of "Geronimo and his warriors", taken in 1886, sold at auction on April 14, 2014, for $1,375.

C.S. Fly appears in Elmore Leonard's western novel Gunsights (1979).