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John Carey Cremony
Cremony in 1873
Born	1815 Boston, Massachusetts
Died	August 24, 1879 San Francisco, California
Years of service	1861-1872
Rank	Major
Unit	1st Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry
Commands	1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers
Battles / wars	Mexican American War, American Civil War, Apache Wars Battle of Apache Pass
Other work	author

Major John C. Cremony was a Boston newspaperman who enrolled in the Massachusetts Volunteers in 1846, serving as a lieutenant.

He served as a Spanish language interpreter for the U.S. Boundary Commission which laid out the Mexican and United States Border between 1849-1852. He went on to serve as Captain in Company B, 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry a unit of California Volunteers, with the California Column in New Mexico Territory. He eventually achieved the rank of Major in 1864 and commanded the 1st Battalion of Native Cavalry, California Volunteers until 1866. He was the first editor of San Francisco's Weekly Sunday Times newspaper.

Despite being an Indian fighter, Cremony was an admirer of the Apache people and authored Life Among the Apaches, published in 1869. A first-hand balanced perspective on the Native American tribe. He was the first white man to become fluent in the Apache language, learning it in his role as an interpreter, and publishing the first written compilation of their language as a glossary for the army. As a result, Cremony was often able to resolve numerous issues between the military, reservation authorities and the Apaches.

Not all of Cremony's discourses with the Apache were peaceful, however. He killed one warrior in a grueling knife fight and chronicled a non-stop 21-hour chase when he was pursued by a band of Sierra Blanca Apache (White Mountain Apache) of some 125 miles (201 km) through the desert of New Mexico while on horseback; 70 miles (110 km) of which were at a full gallop.

Cremony served most of his military career in the Southwest and personally knew Apache Chiefs Mangas Coloradas and Cochise. After retiring from the army, Cremony settled in San Francisco, becoming a founding member of the Bohemian Club and establishing the club's membership guidelines in 1872. A "Bohemian" meaning to Cremony:“a man of genius who refuses to cramp his life in the Chinese shoe of conventionality, whose purse is ever at the disposal of his friends, and who lives generously, gaily, carefree, and as far from the sordid, scheming world of respectability as the south pole is from the north". These standards are known as the Cremony Standards and are still in use by the club today. Cremony is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park on the Laurel Hill Mound in San Francisco, California.

Bibliography

• John C. Cremony, Life Among the Apaches, A. Roman & Company, San Francisco, (1868).

References

1. Soldier in the California Column, The Diary of John W. Teal, Arizona and the West, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Spring, 1971), pp. 33-82
2. ^ Varner, K.(2007)John Cremony.Cypress Lawn Heritage Newsletter. 5(3)p.6
3. Geronimo (edited by Barrett) Geronimo, His Own Story New York: Ballantine Books 1971. ISBN 0345280369.
4. ^ Nevin, David (1973). The Old West: The Soldiers. New York: Time Life. p. 238. ISBN 9781416124481. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
5. Reinhardt, Richard(1980)The Bohemian Club.American Heritage Magazine 41980

External links

• John C. Cremony at Find a Grave

Template:Persondata

• 1815 births
• 1879 deaths
• American folklore
• Apache people
• People from Boston, Massachusetts
• American memoirists
• People from San Francisco, California
• People of the wars between the United States and Native Americans
• American military personnel of the Mexican–American War
• California military personnel
• People of California in the American Civil War