Rose La Monte Burcham simply refused to be treated like a woman at the end of the 19th century, a time when females were mostly second-class citizens, with limited chance to own property or have much say in a community’s affairs.
Burcham trampled over that stereotype, serving as a doctor in San Bernardino, a bank trustee, resort owner, and, most importantly, overseer of one of the Mojave Desert’s most successful gold mines.
She was even mentioned for her mining business prowess in a 1904 Los Angeles Times book with the ironic title of “Men of Achievement in the Great Southwest.”
In a talk to the women’s Friday Morning Club in Los Angeles on Jan. 22, 1909, Burcham said she was optimistic that the roles for women were changing, and they were slowly being given an equal status with men.
“Women’s work in the world, all that demands equality with man in great mental endowment and physical endurance, has just arrived at its proper place in the world, and women are beginning to realize what are the requirements for great development,” she said, as reported in the Los Angeles Evening Express.
But despite her successes in mining and business, it’s likely that fickle history more often remembers her husband Charles. He and two other prospectors did discover the rich Yellow Aster mine at what became Randsburg, a Kern County mining camp just a few miles west of the San Bernardino County line.
Dr. Rose, as she was called by a biographer, showed she had a lot more business sense than her three partners. She stepped in not long after the mine discovery to prevent them from foolishly selling it for far less than it was likely to be worth. She was able to do that because she held half of her husband’s share in the Yellow Aster’s riches, having originally grubstaked the three in their search for gold.
She would outlive her husband and the two partners by 30 years, during which she was one of the wealthiest women in Los Angeles and a prominent member of women’s clubs there until her death in 1944.
But that was years in the future for Rose La Monte, the daughter of British immigrants, born in New York in 1857. She worked as a teacher, while learning medicine from her doctor father.
After graduating from a Cincinnati medical school in 1884, she came to California for its healthier weather. She became the first female doctor in San Bernardino, a familiar sight moving about in a horse-drawn carriage mostly attending to the birth of children.
In January 1886, she also purchased the Rabel Hot Springs sanitarium, a resort and bath house in what today is Highland, reported the San Bernardino Weekly Times on Jan. 9, though the hot springs never proved to be very successful.
The next year, she married Charles, a member of the Burcham ranching family who operated a store in San Bernardino.
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Their lives changed forever a few years later when Charles admitted he had become afflicted with the all-too-familiar malady of gold fever, induced by the lure of the mineral wealth still being uncovered all over the region’s deserts and mountains. His wife, realizing his desire to search for gold was too strong to be “cured,” agreed to financially support him and partners John Singleton and Frederick Moores, giving them two years to come back with a fortune.
The trio stumbled around the desert with little success and were near the point of giving up in 1895 when they uncovered the rich ore of what became the Yellow Aster. Their future was golden, wrote Cecile Page Vargo in a May 2004 article in Explore Historic California magazine.
After hearing details of the rich discovery, Dr. Rose was determined to get a better look at her investment. This was no easy trip – she took a train from San Bernardino to Los Angeles and north to Mojave, then traveled 50 miles by wagon (including one night sleeping on the ground) to the mine site.
She arrived dressed in long skirts, high-necked shirtwaist with long-sleeves and a corset, according to Vargo. She soon wore less-formal attire as she set up housekeeping in a tent, cooked meals for the camp and served as bookkeeper for the fledgling mining effort.
And the mine turned out to be richer than any of their wildest expectations. The Yellow Aster produced about $25 million in gold in almost 40 years of operation.
The first few months of the Yellow Aster operation weren’t easy as they had to deal with limited resources, supplies and water in that desolate area. Finally, the first shipment of ore was sent to Garlock, a settlement with a stamp mill a number of miles to the west. The value of the refined gold they received was $850, a remarkable first load of ore equal to more than $25,000 today.
But getting that gold safely to the Wells Fargo office in Mojave was no easy matter, especially with the threat of meeting highwaymen. Despite the danger, Dr. Rose decided she would keep close tabs on the gold (and the cash they would receive). One of the men drove a wagon with her carrying the gold in a buckskin sack on her lap hidden by her dress. They arrived successfully at Wells Fargo.
The Los Angeles Evening Express on Dec. 7, 1895, quoted mining expert T.A. Wells, who spared no hyperbole when he described the promise of the Yellow Aster as “the most wonderful gold discovery ever made in the history of gold mining on this coast.”
The partners were seemingly on their way to great riches, but before the profits really started to roll in, Singleton and Moores were talked into selling the Yellow Aster to an investor for $500,000. Dr. Rose had been away from the camp but when she found out about the deal, she angrily refused to sign off on it. It took some litigation, but they held onto ownership of the mine, explained Vargo.
It was a fortunate act because soon the three prospectors became so wealthy they no longer had to get their hands dirty. Four years after the discovery, they had more than 150 men working for them.
And they wasted no time using their early profits to purchase large houses in Los Angeles. The Burchams bought a prestigious mansion in the Highland Park area, while the two other partners also acquired large homes closer to downtown Los Angeles.
Moores’ time with great wealth was cut very short when he died of a heart attack in a San Bernardino hotel in June 1900. Charles Burcham died in 1913 and Singleton a year later, leaving Dr. Rose as the last original shareholder, though she would spend the rest of her ownership often legally wrestling with the partners’ heirs.
She would mostly live in Los Angeles and South Pasadena and was a member of numerous organizations, including the prestigious Ebell Club of Los Angeles.
She remained a businesswoman, including sitting on the board of a furniture company. She also owned another mine in the Calico area near Barstow, selling it for $120,000, reported the Sun newspaper May 31, 1939.
Her last years were spent at a house in Alhambra where she died Feb. 3, 1944. Dr. Rose is buried near her husband at Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Historic tours
The Historical Society of the Pomona Valley has scheduled tours of two of its historic sites this month.
Tours of the 1875 Phillips Mansion will be held on the afternoon of Jan. 19. The mansion is at 2640 Pomona Blvd., Pomona, and tours cost $15. Tours of the Barbara Greenwood Kindergarten, 332 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, will be held on the afternoon of Jan. 26 at a charge of $5.
Tickets and details: www.pomonahistorical.org/copy-of-public-tours
Joe Blackstock writes on Inland Empire history. He can be reached at joe.blackstock@gmail.com or Twitter @JoeBlackstock. Check out some of our columns of the past at Inland Empire Stories on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IEHistory.
