Bisbee daily review., 1907-09-01
OLD1IMER FOUND DEAD IN HIS
 QUARTERS
Stephen Johnson Had Been Dead Two Days When Friend Discovers His Body in Central Lodging House,

After spending almost fifty years
 of his life in Cochise county, stephen
 Johnson passed to the Great Beyond
 couple of days ago, but the fact was
 not known until about II o'clock yes l terday morning when one of his l friends who had become worried over not having seen the old-timer for a couple of days, went to his room, and found his lifeless body in an adyanc,
 ed stage of decomposition.
 Some of the old-timers of the dis l trict remember Johnson as far back as thirty-fve years ago, when they came west, and say that at that time 1 he had been in this part of the coun. ! try for a number of years, having made his home for a long time in ] Tombstone, when that camp was in ! it's infancy. For the past twenty | years he has made his home in the | Warren district and had been in the
 employ of the Copper Queen Com. ; pany as a blacksmith. For several ; years past he was unable to work all | of the time, but came and went as 1 he pleased, being a privileged char. acter around the various properties
 of the company, and drawing his pay 1 whether he worked or not.
 About two weeks ago he was not 1 feeling very well and remained away | from the mine, but his absence was never questioned, as he took a vaca
 tion every little while and no one was worried about him. However, il had always been his custom to walk around town during the daytime, and
 discus various matters with his /, friends. and yesterday shortly before | noon, George Bridge, an old-timt l friend, became worried because he
 had not seen the old fellow for sey
 eraI days. He finally came to the 1 conclusion that he must be sick, and
 went to Johnson's room which was in the rear of the Central lodging house
 on Main street.
 The door of the room was a combi
 nation affair, the upper half being l open, and the lower closed Bridge ] leaned over the door and saw his | friend stretched out on a cot, with all
 his clothing on but his shoes, and with his hat pulled down over
 his eyes. He received no answer tC | repeated calls and taking the hat i from the face, was mortified to see l the right eye eaten entirely away and Johnson cold in the grasp oi death.
 Bridge at once notified Coroner i Hogan, who summoned the following l jury, and repaired to the scene: Dan. | iel Seed. Michael Connolly, W. K. Dex 1 ter, Wm. Hankins, George Bernard
 F. G. Davis, s. w. Ashby. c. T. Booth l and Tell McEwen. After viewing the
 remains the jury adjourned until last evening, when the inquest was held
 In the meantime Coroner Hogan had ordered a post mOrtem examin- ation to determine the cause of death.
 At the inquest last evening the phy- sicians reported that the autopsy re.
 vealed nothing of an unusual nature outside of the natural breaking down
 of the system, after a long life, the 1 deceased heinz more than 75 years
 of age.
 After hearing the evidence of
 those who were acquainted with the
 various details a verdict was rendered | by the jury stating that the deceased
 came to his death from natural | causes. ' | Those persons running the house in
 which Johnson lived were not aware ! of his even being Ill. as it was the old mans ctstom to take care of his 1 own room, which was in an out-of-the | way corner of the house and he re
 sented the interference of anyone
 who attempted to look after the apartment.
 The only known relative of the de