Hesperia family begins cleanup effort at old Johannesburg cemetery

Alexandrea Marsh pulls weeds away from a grave site at the Rand District Cemetery in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The Kochara family from Hesperia discovered the cemetery in disrepair and began bringing a team of friends to help cleanup and care for the cemetery. (James Quigg, Daily Press)

By Paola Baker
Victor Valley Daily Press

JOHANNESBURG — For one Hesperia family, an hour and a half road trip is worth preserving a piece of history.

Eddie Kochara and his family and friends have recently made two trips to the Rand District Cemetery to undertake a cleanup effort. Dating back to the late 1800s, the cemetery, which is located off Mountain Wells Avenue in the town of Johannesburg 30 minutes north of Kramer Junction, appeared to have been abandoned when the Kocharas came across it a few weeks ago while on vacation.

“We were on our way to Lake Isabella and happened to pass by the cemetery,” Kochara’s wife Shannon said. “It was sad to see the condition it was in.”

The Daily Press joined the Kocharas and a few of their friends as they made another trip to the site Wednesday. The old cemetery, which is home to many unique graves, was overgrown with weeds and covered in dust. Many graves were barely visible due to the tangled overgrowth and dust.

Eddie Kochara said his eight children, who range from 9-year-old twins to teenagers, first came up with the idea to come back and start cleaning up the cemetery. Nine-year-old Caidyn Kochara readily agreed.

“We passed by and saw it and I just said, 'This is so sad,' ” Caidyn Kochara said. “We need to clean it up.”

The family, accompanied by a few friends, made another trip to the dusty old mining town and got to work a week after their vacation. Weeds were pulled, old gravestones were dusted and stones and flowers were rearranged in their rightful places. A large family memorial which holds 12 different graves took hours to clean, with 17-year-old Cassie Kochara undertaking most of the effort.

“It took me about four hours to get it to look like this,” Cassie Kochara said, as she carefully dusted off dirt from the memorial.

A plaque in front of the cemetery said the place was first established in December 1896 with the burial of William Davis, who was shot and killed in a gambling dispute in the neighboring town of Randsburg.

“The cemetery is the final resting place of many pioneers of the district whose headstones and the location of their graves have been lost to the ravages of time," the plaque reads. Several names of people buried can be found underneath the plaque.
Eddie and Shannon Kochara said they believed the site may have had a caretaker as recently as 15 years ago, as Eddie had come across it during an off-roading trip back then when it was in better condition. To come back years later and see the place in its current condition was “heartbreaking,” he said.

“When I came across it years ago, it was taken care of,” Eddie Kochara said. “When we saw it again, I decided something needed to be done.”

The family plans to make the trip every other Sunday to undertake the cleaning effort. Eddie Kochara said he’s been doing side jobs and rentals to fund the trips, but remained humble about his family’s efforts.

“It’s just who I am,” he said. “We made a dent in it, but there’s still a lot more to do.”

Shannon Kochara agreed with her husband’s sentiments.

“A lot of these graves are very old and many of these people just may not have any family living that’s able to take care of them,” she said, as she raked dust and pulled weeds from an old grave. “It’s just something I would want someone to do for me.”

Lifetime resident tells of early life in Tri-state

History Lesson: Margaret Mary Soto Perry shared her life experiences growing up in the Tri-state during a special presentation hosted by the Laughlin library and co-sponsored by the Colorado River Museum and Historical Society. “The valley didn’t get electricity until the 60s and didn’t see television until the 70s,” she said. (DK McDONALD/The Daily News)

By DK McDONALD
The Mohave Valley Daily News

LAUGHLIN — Margaret Mary Soto Perry lived in the Tri-state before the arrival of refrigeration, electricity, television, subdivisions and paved roads.

“I have to remind people that I wasn’t around in the 1800s or even for WWII,” she said. “But the valley didn’t get electricity until the ’60s and didn’t see television until the ’70s. Before people were moving here to build vacation homes, it was very old-timey.”

Soto Perry shared her life’s experiences growing up in the Tri-state during a presentation hosted by the Laughlin Library and co-sponsored by the Colorado River Museum and Historical Society.

“The Soto family has a revered name in this valley,” said attendee Mary Hughes, past president of the Colorado River Historical Society and Museum. “The family is known by people who study the history of the area. I can never get enough of the stories she tells.”

Soto Perry’s grandparents were pioneers in the valley. At one point the family ran 15,000 head of cattle and sheep over a huge area from Bullhead City south to Topock, and east from Silver Creek in the Boatman Hills to Goldroad.

“It all started when my grandfather first went from Spain to Mexico City,” Soto Perry said. “At the time, Pancho Villa was running amok, and my grandfather was raising horses and burros to supply his army.

“One day my grandfather was arrested for aiding and abetting the enemy, and scheduled to hang first thing in the morning. In the middle of the night, someone opened the gate of the cement bunker he was held in, and he was immediately put on a boat to San Francisco.

“Well, that was 1906, the year of the great San Francisco earthquake; he soon left there and stepped off the train in Needles. It was winter, and he noted that the weather was warm and beautiful. He made up his mind to get a ranch in the valley to raise cattle and sheep. And that’s what he did.”

Soto Perry, who was born in 1939, spent “a solitary but not lonely” childhood on land rich with trees, wildlife and hard work.

“There was nothing here,” she said. “The river was wide, wide, wide. There were forests of cottonwood, mulberry and willows, and arrow weed blanketed everything. The roads were ruts. It was very difficult to get through the valley without a horse.

“My grandmother loaded up vegetables from the garden and fresh meat, and sold them off the back of a buckboard wagon in Kingman, Needles and Oatman.

“My father leased a dairy farm, south of the current (Bullhead City) Safeway. He was a carpenter; he started the first garbage service in Needles.”

Twice a day, at 4 a.m. and at 5 p.m., Soto Perry walked down to bring the cows in for milking. She attended sixth and seventh grade in the Lil’ Red Schoolhouse, now a museum at Bullhead City Community Park.

“The family wasn’t big on education,” Soto Perry said. “They were big on hard work. That’s probably why I’ve lived so long; they worked me like a donkey.

“But there was a sense of peace, serenity, and a sense of well-being. You felt glad to be alive. There was a pattern to the days, and a sense of purpose, a tremendously good feeling. Work hard, eat well, and rest.”

Winter visitor Evie Augeson said she was surprised by some of what she learned during Soto Perry’s presentation.
“It was fun and interesting to hear,” she said. “You look out at what seems to be a barren landscape, and wouldn’t think agriculture is such a huge part of the history here.”

Tanya Brown-Wirth, Laughlin library branch manager said, “People here seem to like the historical lectures and events we offer. Maybe some are looking for a connection like they had at home; knowing the history of the place where they have chosen to live and play. Margaret’s history, having grown up with the region, is a fascinating look at how an area can change so much in a single lifetime.”

Pioneer monument to be dedicated at St. Helena Cemetery

A monument to honor pioneer John Searles will be dedicated on Dec. 5 in St. Helena.

Register Staff
Napa Valley Register

The public is invited to attend the dedication of the new monument honoring mining pioneer John Searles at St. Helena Cemetery on Dec. 5 at 10:30 a.m.

John Searles was an early California pioneer, arriving by ship in San Francisco in the spring of 1850. After mining gold for 23 years, he discovered that what had appeared to be just salt and mud, was in fact the largest mineral deposit in California. He began mining borax at his discovery. Today, mining of that deposit continues after more than 140 years, and today a variety of products in addition to borax are extracted.

In his honor, his mineral deposit was named Searles Lake.

Despite his importance to California, when Searles died on Oct. 7, 1897, in St. Helena, he was buried two days later with only a curb surrounding his plot marked with his last name. His grave provides no information as to who he was, or what he accomplished.

The St. Helena Historical Society, the Searles Valley Historical Society and several private individuals are erecting a proper monument at his grave.

Napa Marble and Granite Works helped design the marker with historic details from Searles Valley Historical Society. Donations have been collected since 2014 for the $8,000 project. Donations came from Searles Valley Historical Society, with major gifts from Jim and Bonnie Fairchild, Searles Valley Minerals Inc., Searles Lake Gem and Mineral Society and the Death Valley 49ers Club.

Kim Taylor, a Searles Valley native, realized at the Trona (Searles Valley) Centennial Celebration in 2014 that the founder’s grave was unmarked. Taylor, who now lives in Roseville, spearheaded the effort.

Descendants of John and Mary Searles, plus representatives from Searles Valley and St. Helena historical societies, will attend the Dec. 5 dedication at the cemetery, at 2461 Spring St. The dedication is rain or shine.

For information, contact the St. Helena Historical Society at 707-967-5502 or by email shstory@shstory.org, or the Searles Valley Historical Society at 760-372-5222 or tronamuseum@verizon.net.

Warren family excavates 19th century homestead

Mark and Sylvia Warren stand in front of the homestead they built in Morongo Valley in the 19th century. (Stacy Moore, Hi-Desert Star)

By Stacy Moore
Hi-Desert Star

MORONGO VALLEY — “We have pioneering in our blood,” Mike Arnett told his family, and the proof was right before them: a new monument marking the spot where their ancestors Mark and Sylvia Warren built a homestead in 1885.

The Warren homestead is on San Bernardino County land a short walk from Covington Park. The building is gone, destroyed by a 1929 fire and simply the work of passing time, but the Warrens’ descendents recently found out where it had stood and began a restoration project.

Larry Turner spearheaded the project. The grandson of Lela Warren Arnett, the youngest of the Warrens’ 11 children, Turner organized his family into a labor force to excavate the footprint of the old homestead, clear away brush and clean up the footpath leading to the site.

“It’s been a project of love, saving this place for history,” Turner told his family when they gathered Saturday morning to see the fruits of their labor.

The family placed a concrete and granite monument that tells visitors the story of Mark and Sylvia Warren and their homestead. The guests of honor for the monument unveiling were the Warrens’ three surviving grandchildren: Lois Arvicson, the daughter of Ed Warren, the first of the children to be born at the Morongo Valley home, and Mary Ellen Grimes and Marion Arnett, the daughter and son of Lela Warren, the youngest of the 11 children.
“Grandpa raised cattle and Grandma raised kids — 11 of them!” Grimes said.

Turner also thanked Donna Muñoz, general manager of the Morongo Valley Community Services District, Mike Lipsitz, who facilitated permission for the project when he was field representative for county Supervisor James Ramos, and the Morongo Basin Historical Society, which also helped.

The San Bernardino County Fire Department provided a 14-man crew to help tear out brush.

Couple met when wagon train stranded

The story of Mark and Sylvia Warren is tale about making a paradise in a wild land, the power of hospitality and the human spirit, but it begins with a truth uncomfortable in today’s America: When Mark Warren first met Sylvia Paine, she was 12 years old. They were married two years later, in 1866. He was 35 and she was 14.

Chuck Warren, an emigrant from Maine who made a living driving a freight wagon, first saw Sylvia Paine as he drove from the Port of Los Angeles to Prescott, Arizona, Arnett said. Encountering a wagon train lost near Baker, he gave them directions and went on his way. When he returned, he found the Paine family was still there,
stranded in the desert on their months-long migration from Texas to California because of the death of their ox. He loaded them into his wagon and took them to his San Bernardino ranch, where they lived for two years.

Chuck Warren at first wanted to marry the oldest daughter, but she was promised to someone else. Instead, he married Sylvia.

Arnett gave his perspective on Sylvia’s age to his family members.

“This 14-year-old had endured privations,” Arnett said. “She knew how to survive on the meagerest provisions. She knew how to take care of her family.”

The two remained married for 51 years, until Chuck Warren’s death in an automobile accident in 1917. Sylvia bore 11 children, living some of the time at the Morongo Valley homestead and other times in Banning and Yucaipa so the children could go to school.

A sound home where strangers were welcome

Chuck Warren found the land for his Morongo Valley homestead on one of his freighting trips, describing it as a beautiful oasis.

The stream ran year-round,” Arnett said, gesturing to a ravine behind him, now dry. “This was a lush area.”

Around the house, built with adobe brick, the Warrens created a ranch that provided amply for their children and the miners and cattlemen who passed their way.

Arnett quoted his grandmother Lela’s words: “The family never suffered any real hardship for there was a sound, protective house for them to live in and always an abundance of food,” she wrote.

With cattle, crops of vegetables and sugar cane, fruit orchards, chickens and a hog, the Warrens lacked for little.

“There were beautiful alfalfa fields, apple trees with red apples peeping through the leaves and grass covered the ground everywhere,” Lela Warren wrote.

In the winter, they could depend on an abundance of wild game, including rabbits, quail, dove, ducks and deer.
“Whoever came by was always asked to eat with them,” the pioneers’ daughter remembered.

“Pioneering isn’t so bad when everyone works together and for the good of all,” she told Arnett. “Mark and Sylvia were not great as most people value men and women, but their greatness was in their goodness.”

John Brown Sr., A True San Bernardino Pioneer

Five of the most prominent founding members of the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society are immortalized in this classic western portrait taken circa 1895. Left to right: W.F. Holcomb, John Brown Jr., John Brown Sr., George Miller, B.B. Harris. (From the collection of the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society)

By Mark Landis
San Bernardino Sun

The amazing life story of mountain man John Brown Sr. wasn’t glamorized in a movie or a television show like some of his fellow trailblazers from the 1840s, but his real-life adventures were so remarkable — they read like chapters from an Old West dime novel.

Unlike many of the famed mountain men of the early 1800s, Brown Sr. used his later “civilized” years in San Bernardino to distinguish himself as a respected pioneer, and civic leader.

In his older years, Brown chronicled some of his life’s experiences in a book, “Mediumistic Experiences of John Brown; The Medium of The Rockies.”

In the book, Brown describes his extensive travels from childhood, to his years in California. Brown was a devout spiritualist, and much of the book is filled with odd ramblings about his spiritual adventures and experiences as a medium, which he claimed, began in his youth.

John Brown Sr., was born in Worcester, Mass., Dec. 22, 1817. His family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, and he was orphaned at an early age.

According to his biography in L.A. Ingersoll’s “Century Annals of San Bernardino County, California,” Brown began his travels as a young boy rafting down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. He survived a shipwreck while traveling to Galveston, Texas, and later continued to Fort Leavenworth.

In 1836, Brown was at the famed battle of San Jacinto, and saw Mexican president Santa Anna taken prisoner. From Texas, he joined a group of mountaineers and trappers, and spent 14 years in the Rocky Mountains, hunting, trading, and exploring.

While in the Rockies, Brown and his hunting companions helped build some of the early frontier forts that served as outposts for the great western migration. Brown’s companions read like a “who’s who” of mountain men, including Kit Carson, Alexander Godey, Joseph Bridger, and William and Charles Bent, founders of Bent’s Fort, Colorado.

According to his biographies, John Brown and his companions acted as guides for Gen. John C. Fremont’s crossing of the Rocky Mountains.

Around 1844, John Brown traveled to Taos, New Mexico, which had become an outpost for fur traders. It was here that Brown met and married Maria Louisa Sandoval, his lifetime partner. John and Louisa’s first child, Mary Matilda was born in 1844, in Taos. Louisa gave John 5 more daughters, and 4 sons, for a remarkable total of 10 children. She proved to be John’s equal as she endured years of frontier life, while raising small children in the most rugged conditions.

In 1849, John Brown and his fur trading companions were struck with gold fever. Brown packed up his young family and headed to the gold fields at Sutter’s Fort, California, arriving in September 1849.

Like most of the 49ers who swarmed into California, Brown and his friends had little success panning for gold. Within months, they struck out for Monterey and opened a small boarding house named the St. John’s Hotel. Louisa and the children were finally indoors, but John began to suffer with health problems from the cool sea air.

In April of 1852, Brown took the advice of his physician to leave Monterey, and reside in the warmer, drier climate of Southern California. Brown moved his family to the newly founded Mormon settlement of San Bernardino, where he purchased a small log cabin within the San Bernardino Fort for $50.

Brown quickly began developing friendships with many of the pioneers who had traveled from Salt Lake City to build the Southern California outpost. According to his “Medium of The Rockies,” Brown became the “resident spiritualist” of the town, and was called upon as a medium, and for spiritual insight and healing.

Apparently still not ready to settle, John Brown moved his family to nearby Yucaipa in 1854, and went into the stock business. The Browns moved back to San Bernardino in 1857, and by this time, John and Louisa had 8 children.

As if the Brown household wasn’t full enough, John took in a boarder named David Noble Smith in the fall of 1857. D.N. Smith was also a spiritualist, and a lasting friendship was struck.

John Brown transferred a piece of land he had homesteaded at Arrowhead Springs to Smith who went on to establish the first sanitarium on the property. This early sanitarium for treating tuberculosis patients evolved into the famed Arrowhead Springs resort that occupies the site today.

In 1860, gold was discovered in Holcomb Valley, in the nearby San Bernardino Mountains.

Brown was once again tempted by gold fever, but his business sense took over. Sensing the need to transport materials to the new gold fields, Brown petitioned the state Legislature for a franchise to build a toll road through the Cajon Pass.

In spring of 1861, Brown’s crew of 30-40 men carved out the first graded wagon road through the pass, and built upper and lower toll booths to manage the route.

With the Cajon Pass toll road built, Brown set his sights on furthering the development of trade routes and built a ferry to cross the Colorado River at Fort Mohave in 1862.

John Brown’s business success allowed him to donate funds and materials to improve public areas in San Bernardino. Brown also took an active role in local politics, and he served in several public service positions.

In January of 1888, the San Bernardino Society of California Pioneers was organized by a noteworthy group of pioneers who helped establish the city in the early 1850s. John Brown Sr. was later elected president of the society, and he served in that position until his death.

This group has since become the San Bernardino Historical and Pioneer Society, which is still very active in the community today.

Louisa Brown passed away suddenly on May 16, 1891, at the age of 66, at the family home in San Bernardino.

John Brown Sr. died April 20, 1899, at the age of 81, in San Bernardino. Brown’s funeral was held at the family home at the corner of D and Sixth Streets, in San Bernardino.

Holding true to his spiritualistic beliefs to the end, Brown’s funeral service was conducted by Mrs. J. A. Marchant, superintendent of the First Spiritual Society of San Bernardino.

Reverend A.J. White, of the Presbyterian Church of Colton also performed duties at the service.

John Brown Sr.’s lasting contributions to the region were carried on by his extensive family, most notably, John Brown Jr. who went on to become a successful lawyer, and a leading citizen of the area.

For more information on mountain men, visit the “Mountain Men in San Bernardino County 1826 – 1850” display at the San Bernardino County Museum, at 2024 Orange Tree Lane, Redlands.