Rose La Monte Burcham (August 28, 1857 – February 2, 1944) was an American physician and mining company executive based in Southern California.
Early life and education
editRose Victoria La Monte was born in Dansville, Steuben County, New York, the daughter of James La Monte and Eliza Pratt La Monte.[1] Her father was a medical doctor; both of her parents were born in England and emigrated to the United States after the birth of the first child in 1832. Rose was their last child, born when James and Eliza were 46 and 44, respectively.
Rose La Monte earned her medical degree at the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati in 1884.[2]
Career
editRose La Monte moved west for her own health in 1885. She settled in San Bernardino, California, where she became the first woman physician in the city. She invested in real estate, including orange groves. She was a member of the Ebell Club in Los Angeles and of the Southern California Academy of Science.[3] She also served on the board of directors of the Fine Arts League.[2]
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In 1895 Burcham funded her husband's search for gold in the Mojave Desert. The search was successful, and Rose La Monte Burcham moved to Randsburg, California to be secretary and business manager of the Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Company.[4][5] She was the sole living original officer of the company after 1914 and kept the Yellow Aster mine operating for four years on her own until she sold it in 1918.[6] She was described as "a woman of remarkable acumen and executive ability," by a contemporary writer.[7] In 1904, the Los Angeles Times counted her as a "Man of Achievement" in California.[8]
Personal life
editRose La Monte married California rancher Charles Austin Burcham in 1887.[9] She was widowed when he died in 1913.[10] She died in 1944, aged 86 years. Her gravesite is at Inglewood Lake Cemetery in Los Angeles; a home she lived in still stands, in the Highland Park neighborhood of the city.[6]
References
edit- ^ Franklin Harper, ed., Who's Who on the Pacific Coast (Marquis Who's Who 1913): 82-83.
- ^ a b Robert Jones Burdette, ed., Greater Los Angeles & Southern California: Portraits & Personal Memoranda (Lewis Publishing 1910): 230.
- ^ Cecilia Page Vargo, "Enterprising Women of the Western Mojave Mining Camps Part III: The Rose Behind the Yellow Aster" Explore Historic California (May 2004).
- ^ Mark Landis, "Desert Treasure: Boom Times in the Rand District" Los Angeles Daily News (July 26, 2010).
- ^ L. Burr Belden, "Yellow Aster's Discovery Opens Rand Area Rush" San Bernardino County Sun (May 3, 1953): 22. via Newspapers.com
- ^ a b Bradford Caslon, "Rose La Monte Burcham -- 4900 Pasadena Avenue" A Look Back at Vintage Los Angeles (November 9, 2011).
- ^ James Miller Guinn, A History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs, Volume 3 (Historic Record Company 1915): 558-559.
- ^ John Southworth, "Dr. Rose Burcham, Man of Achievement" Los Angeles Westerners Corral: The Branding Iron (Fall 1989): 9-11.
- ^ James Terry White, The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography (J. T. White 1904): 584.
- ^ "Charles Austin Burcham" Press Reference Library Volume 2 (International News Service 1915): 559.
External links
edit- Lorraine Blair, Dr. Rose, A Yellow Aster, and the Blooming Women of the California Rand (The Library Press 2003) ISBN 9780974584027, a recent biography of Burcham.
- Linda LaMont Holm, "Dr. Rose Victoria LaMonte Burcham", My Family History Blog (September 2012); a family history blog post about Burcham.
- The records of the Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Company are archived at the Huntington Library.