Offering yet another soft, “Warm Western Howdies” this fine Signal Saturday morning. They don’t cost much and meant not to startle.  Oh. Sorry about the spurs on the condo carpeting.  This morning, we’re going to ride back into the annals (The lady way in the back from the NorthLake snickering? Stop.) of time and check out the peculiar variations of life we call history.  Some of you saddle sleepers might want to pay attention this morning. We’ve got one of the darkest and more amazing stories in local law enforcement ahead with the killing of Constable Ed Brown.   WAY, WAY BACK WHEN   LEE SMELSER WAS IN THE FIRST GRADUATING CLASS — The third-oldest school district in Los Angeles County was formed on Sept. 16, 1872. Through the muscle and brains of local community leaders, especially John Lang and Tom Mitchell, kids in Canyon Country were able to attend school. The first few years, classes were held in the kitchens of Lang and Mitchell, taught by their wives.   RE: THE ABOVE? BEAR NECESSITIES — For more than a century, history books and witnesses attested that John Lang shot the world’s largest grizzly bear, a few miles away on July 7, 1873. A recent and yellowed newspaper article from The Los Angeles Herald in 1875, a letter penned by Lang himself, corrected the texts and rumors. Lang wrote he did shoot the bear, but it weighed not 2,350 pounds, but 1,600. The same old history texts and others noted around the same time, at the other side of the valley, was another giant ursis nicknamed the Piebald Grizzly and that this bruin was shot, killed and weighed on a cattle scale, tipping it at 2,300 pounds. There is a bear on display in a small Northern California museum that reportedly weighed an even ton. And in 1866, a giant griz was shot in Palomar, dragged for 8 miles and weighed in at 2,200 pounds. Reportedly, that’s how Bear Valley got its name.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NEWHALL ELEMENTARY — There is some debate about the authenticity of this date, although it appears in many local official publications. While some feel that the first Newhall Elementary opened on Sept. 17, 1879, there are reports from the diaries of old-timers that the school actually opened a year earlier in the refurbished bunk house of the Lyon Ranch near where Walmart is today.  THE CONTROVERSIAL GENERAL BEALE — Abraham Lincoln refused to appoint him surveyor general of America, noting that Gen. Edward Fitzgerald Beale “… tended to become master of all he surveys.” On this date, Beale took over a county contract to widen and deepen the Fremont Pass cut to a depth of 90 feet. It’s a state historical monument off Sierra Highway today. Well. It’s sort of there. Villains stole the bronze plaque years ago.  FILLER ’ER UP, WASH THE WINDSHIELD AND CHECK THE WHALE OIL? — When the Newhall Oil Refinery (a well-hidden state historic location on Pine Street in Newhall) opened in 1876, it wasn’t a quick cash proposition. Oil then was still mostly being used for lamps and petroleum’s chief competition was the whale.  SEPTEMBER 21, 1924  THE KILLING OF CONSTABLE ED BROWN — It was one of the most infamous gun battles in the history of this valley. On this date, love-crazed handyman Gus LeBrun shot and killed Newhall Constable Ed Brown.   The middle-aged LeBrun had been smitten hard by the town floozy and part-time actress, Nellie Bayless, who went by her screen name of Bonita Darling. She played on LeBrun’s affection for her and did all sorts of work on her Pine Canyon ranch for free. She agreed to marry Gus if he would lend her some money (the figure has been listed at both $200 and $800). Gus came up with the cash and kept waiting for Bonita to set a date.   Finally pressed, she laughed at Gus and said that no woman would want a fool like him. Gus took her to court and even had the judge rule in his favor for alienation of affections for money. Bonita simply said she had already spent the money.   One night, Gus paid a visit to her home. Mean drunk, he said he was there to kill her. Bonita fainted. When she awoke, Gus was still standing over her with a rifle. Sweet-talking gal she was, she soothed Gus and told him she’d make him dinner. Promptly, she started rifling through the cupboards and noted that she didn’t have any food in the house and would have to go out to get some. LeBrun let her go and she promptly went to the law.   Brown and fellow constable Jack Pilcher rushed to the ranch and as they rounded the large boulder in front of the property, LeBrun appeared from behind the rock and started firing. Both men rolled out of the Model T and returned fire, both of them hitting LeBrun.  “You got me boys, I’ll quit,” yelled the dying handyman.  As Brown approached and reached down to help LeBrun, the brigand rolled over and came up with a large revolver hidden in his jacket. He fired at both officers, hitting Brown in the chest. Both Brown and Pilcher emptied their weapons into the man.  As he was held in his partner’s arms, Brown clutched his chest and said, “Well, Jack. He got me that time,” and asked that his fellow officer tell his wife that he wouldn’t be coming home for dinner. Brown was rushed to the operating table of Dr. McAdory, then was moved to General Hospital in Los Angeles where he died a few hours later on the operating table. Brown, a Missouri native, was just 44 years old. He had lived in Saugus since 1910.  LeBrun is still buried in the old Mitchell cemetery up near Sulphur Springs School. Pilcher, a nationally renowned lawman, would die about a year later in a freak gun accident, shot between the eyes by a rookie deputy.  THE KILLING OF JACK PILCHER — Pilcher was literally a nationally known lawman, appearing on the front pages of America’s newspapers. He and his young partner were answering a call about a break-in at an upper Bouquet Canyon cabin, by the creek’s edge. When they got there, the door was open. A huge lizard scampered in as they walked up the porch and zigzagged through the front door and into the bedroom. No one was home. Not wanting to leave a lizard to die inside, both men strolled into the bedroom and took up positions on opposite sides of the bed. They both bent over at the same time. The rookie had been keeping his pistol in his shirt pocket. When he bent over to peek under the bed, the pistol fell out, hit the floor and went off, sending a bullet right between famous Jack’s eyes.  SAME DARN NIGHT? — Some crooks used the gunfight as a major distraction for their evil handiwork. They robbed the Newhall Dry Goods store of $700 plus a lot of inventory.  OUR FAMOUS OLD RETREAT — I was just chatting with my pals, Kurt and Laura Brewer, about old Saxonia Park. For years, the serene lower Placerita Canyon setting was home to the SCV’s Fourth of July celebrations. In the fall, thousands from all over Southern California trekked here to drink copious amounts of beer and cheer the various Germanic autumn celebrations, most famous of which is Oktoberfest. The Los Angeles Club Saxonia had just purchased the R.J. Wilson ranch in Quigley Canyon and held their first German picnic and celebration on this date. Around 100 carloads of folks with German heritage drove up to witness a crossbow shooting championship.  SEPTEMBER 21, 1934  HOSPITALETTE — The little hospital on 6th Street and San Fernando Road (Spruce back then) changed hands. Dr. Peters sold it to Dr. E.C. Ennis and his wife, who was a registered nurse.  I’M GUESSING THE SAME MEAL TODAY WOULD SET YOU BACK 50 BUCKS, WITHOUT TIP — Some of you might want to languish at The Motor Stage Cafe in downtown Newhall before we head down the trail. They used to offer a huge, eight-course fried chicken and dinner for 50 cents. A pitcher of beer went for just a quarter.  SEPTEMBER 21, 1944  I CERTAINLY DON’T MISS MAD DOG SEASON — It’s something we don’t even think about in modern times. But in the 1940s, summer brought with it the fear of rabies. The wretched, foaming at the mouth and insanity-inducing malady was carried by mammals from squirrels to pet dogs. Eight locals had to undergo painful hydrophobia treatments (which then included sticking long steel needles into the patient’s stomach). A local quarantine was ordered, keeping all pooches on leashes or inside fenced areas.  IT WAS NO PARTY FOR MARTY — A few weeks earlier, former Newhall Sheriff’s Capt. E.G. Marty had just retired to run a posh resort in the High Sierras. He had been the victim of a horrific freak accident and had his face burned by gasoline. A contingent of Newhallians went to visit him and found his burns were healing nicely. Phew!   THE COMFORT OF CITY LIFE — Judge Art Miller moved off his ranch in Live Oak Springs Canyon to one of the old Charley Mack rock houses on 8th Street by Arcadia. Said he wanted to be closer to where the action was.  WOW! A BUS!! PROGRESS!!! — The school system was growing. Newhall Elementary had an extra 33 pupils from the previous year. Saugus Elementary was up from 125 kids the previous semester to a whopping 148 in grades K-8 and Castaic School likewise grew from 100 students to 112. Sulphur Springs had the biggest increase, more than doubling from 40 to 86. Big school news for the new year was that Saugus was getting a bus.  RE: THE ABOVE: THINK YOU HAVE PROBLEMS GETTING TO SCHOOL? — In the 1920s and ’30s, we didn’t have a high school. Hart High (forever home of The Mighty Indians) wouldn’t come along until 1945. So, kids of high school age would bounce along in the bed of Mr. Dill’s pickup to attend San Fernando High.  SEPTEMBER 21, 1954  SMELLY WATER AND LOTS OF IT — Here’s an unusual complaint for the Newhall Water Co.: too much water. L.B. Lambert of Placerita Canyon was the only residence served by the new, huge water main NWC installed. Because no one was using the water except for his family, water had a tendency to stay in the pipes then belch out at tidal wave rates. Bonus, it smelled like rotten eggs. Hmm. “Smelly Water.” Sounds like an old blues guitar player…  NO ONE AREATED — The 1954 deer season was a bit of a record — no hunter shot another hunter (or himself) and they didn’t start any forest fires.  SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE BEEN AERATED — Rustlers struck a 1,000-acre ranch in Castaic on this date, making off with a prize white-faced bull. Don’t think the Deceta ranch ever got him back.  SEPTEMBER 21, 1964  GRAVE ROBBING — Construction workers near Sand Canyon and Soledad found the remains of what was believed to be an Indian buried there approximately 200 years earlier. The male was believed to be of importance to his tribe based on the material left in his grave and his odd position of burial — squatted with elbows around the knees and face lifted up and facing east. The guy was also a tall drink of water — about 6-3.  KEE-RIPES, TIME IS PASSING — I ran across a photo of my buddy, Curtis Stone in The Mighty Signal from 60 years ago. Foonman (his nickname) was a ninth grader at Sierra Vista then, chubbier than Sebastian Cabot and part of a trio called Folk Swingers. Curtis went on to win several Grammies and is a noted Nashville musician.  SEPTEMBER 21, 1974  SOCKING ROCKFORD — A Signal staffer was gesturing wildly to a local sheriff’s deputy, asking why in the heck they had closed down most of San Fernando Road. Wasn’t any big earth-ending story. A film crew was shooting “The Rockford Files.” Interesting footnote: the reporter wasn’t looking where she was standing and gestured a fist right into the stomach of the star of the series, James Garner. A little extra trivia: Mr. Garner and I share the same birthday.  A DOUBLE FAMILY TRAGEDY — A horrific accident at the Saugus Speedway nearly cost a 10-year-old boy his life. Six cars collided around a turn, sending a huge chunk of metal into the stands. It hit the boy in the head. His father shattered his kneecap, carrying the lad while trying to rush him to the hospital.  SEPTEMBER 21, 1984  A HALF-OUNCE SHARED BRAIN — On this date, two Val Verde gang members cruised by Hart High and flipped a gang sign to a throng of kids. Most of the kids flipped the mental midgets off. The passenger opened fire into the crowd, hitting a student in the leg. Jamie Gonzalez and Pablo Morales were arrested for the attack and charged with attempted murder.  THE EAGLE HAS LANDED — The controversial veterinarian Dr. James Bullock treated the national bird. On this date, a wounded bald eagle from Alaska was flown in especially to Bullock’s clinic for treatment of a broken wing.  A RARE VISITOR TO AGUA DULCE — And it was called rain. Despite rare September showers, the Agua Dulce county fair and parade went off without a hitch. Lots of wet pies and cowpokes, though.  • • •   That pretty much wraps up our trail ride into the dusty trails of yesteryear. You come up with a sentence like that and you almost have to end it with, “… by cracky.” I shall take the higher path and resist. The rest of you rascals? Don’t even think about leaving the valley because we’re going to do another one of these trail rides next Saturday morning, sure as beauty and bureaucracy. Until then? “¡Vayan con Dios, amigos!”   Coming Sept. 22, John Boston Books is being changed to a much larger multimedia site — johnlovesamerica.com. In the meantime, if you love local history and reading about ghosts, myths and monsters, pick up JB’s two-volume set of “MONSTERS” on local horror and macabre on Amazon.  The post The Time Ranger | The Killing of Dear Constable Ed Brown   appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.