BUCK AND MOLLIE FLY

                                   

        CAMILLUS (BUCK) SIDNEY & MARY (MOLLIE) EDITH GOODRICH FRY

Camillus and Mollie Fly married in San Francisco on September 28, 1879.  By December 1879 they arrived in Tombstone to start their new life.  Photography was still in its infancy and no photographers had ventured into the lawless community of Tombstone.  The Fly´s first studio was in tent until they built a twelve-room boarding house in 1880, allowing studio space at the back of the house.

 Fly became fascinated by the local characters, their lifestyles and the landscape.  Because of his talent and skill his photographs are still being used as a guide to accuracy for rebuilding and restoring old Tombstone.  The Fly´s stayed busy taking pictures of anyone who had the required price of 35 cents each.  Many customers wanted to send photographs to family back east.  Buck also took photos of everyday events on the streets, in the Saloons, or at the mines.

The shoot out at the OK Corral took place right outside of Fly´s  boardinghouse.  Once the shooting had stopped, Camillus walked out of the boardinghouse and took the gun away from the wounded Billy Clanton.

Camillus would pack up his camera gear and go out venturing the countryside leaving Mollie to mind the boarding house and run the photography studio, Mollie was a talented photographer in her own right.

In March of 1886 Fly persuaded General George Crook into permitting him to be present at Crook´s meeting with Geronimo, the Apache leader.  Camillus took group pictures of Geronimo and his followers.  These were the first photographs taken of  "wild" Indians.   The surprising thing was that the Indians complied by posing for Fly´s photographs. These pictures were published in Harper´s Weekly on April 1887.

Fly traveled to Sonora, Mexico to record the great earthquake.  Then he photographed the building of a reservoir in Rucker Canyon, which won him international fame.  In 1893 he moved to Phoenix without Mollie, who stayed in Tombstone to run the studio and boardinghouse.  In 1895 Fly returned to Tombstone and became the sheriff of Cochise County.

In 1896 Fly moved to a ranch by Bisbee, again without Mollie.  In October of 1901 Fly became ill and Mollie was sent for.  He died on October 12 at the age of 52 and was buried in the Tombstone Cemetery.  

Mollie sent a large collection of Fly´s work to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. thus leaving a precious legacy to American historians.  However, a large amount of Fly´s negatives were destroyed when the studio burnt down in 1912.

Mollie died in Los Angeles in 1925.


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