County Roots Date to 1908 : William Rochester, Pioneer, Dies at 93

Services for William Rochester--a Costa Mesa pioneer, World War I veteran and member of a prominent family in U.S. history--will be Monday at the National Cemetery in Riverside.

Rochester died Wednesday in Hemet in Riverside County. He was 93.

Rochester moved with his parents to a 5-acre ranch in Harper, now Costa Mesa, in 1908, when he was 12.

His parents, James Harvey and Edith Grensted Rochester, came from New York, where their families had been colonists. Rochester’s great-great-grandfather, Nathaniel Rochester, a colonel in the Revolutionary War, founded Rochester, N.Y., in 1811, calling it Rochesterville. In 1822, the name was shortened to Rochester.

Rochester and his brother, also named Nathaniel, served in the Army during World War I. En route to Europe, William survived a torpedo attack and became a machine gunner in the 58th Infantry. His brother was killed in the Argonne Forest four days before the Armistice. Rochester Street in Costa Mesa is named in his memory.

A building contractor, Rochester constructed several buildings, including the Rochester Building at the corner of Newport Boulevard and 18th Street, which became Costa Mesa’s first library.

In 1922, Rochester married Vera Joplin, daughter of Andrew Boyd Joplin. Ten years later, they moved to the Joplin Ranch, 160 acres of former railroad land at the head of Rose Canyon on the north slope of Trabuco Canyon. The property was originally acquired by his wife’s grandfather, J.C. Joplin, former county treasurer.

In 1940, they acquired another 160 acres, which they sold to Orange County in 1956 for the Joplin Boys Ranch, a facility for juvenile offenders.

The Rochesters stayed on the ranch, where they cultivated citrus trees, bees and cattle, until 1962.

Rochester worked for the county in the 1940s and ‘50s building fish-check dams--rock dams to conserve water and help fish spawn. His longtime friend, county historian Jim Sleeper, worked with him and recalled Rochester banging on his door at 6 a.m., yelling, “ ‘Boy, you’re burning daylight!’

“The county sure got their money out of Bill Rochester,” said Sleeper, who once wrote a short story, “William B. and the Taxpayers’ Money.”

Sleeper said Rochester had a “Lincolnesque quality” and was an earthy, low-profile man with a wry sense of humor.

Although he was self-educated, Rochester always insisted that those who worked for him save their money to go to college, Sleeper said.

“He was one of the hardest-working men, even in retirement, that I’ve ever known. He kept alert; he didn’t smoke or drink. He had so many hobbies, it was hard to know whether he was employed or retired.”

He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Vera, 90, of Hemet.

Graveside services with military honors will be at 2:30 p.m. at the cemetery.