Ben Ware
Ben Ware was a prospector in the Holcomb Valley gold rush. On May 5, 1860, he and William F. Holcomb recorded the district's first five mining claims at the San Bernardino County recorder's office, helping trigger Southern California's biggest gold rush; little else is known of him.
Biography
Ben Ware was one of the prospectors who opened the Holcomb Valley diggings in the San Bernardino Mountains, the scene of Southern California's largest gold rush. On May 5, 1860, Ware and William F. Holcomb appeared at the San Bernardino County recorder's office to record the new district's first five mining claims, news of which quickly drew hundreds of miners into the valley and gave rise to the boomtown of Belleville.
Beyond his part in staking and filing the discovery claims alongside Holcomb, the historical record preserves very little about Ware. His origins, his later life, and his dates of birth and death are unknown — a common fate for the working prospectors of the era, whose names survive only in claim books and pioneer reminiscences.