USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Men of achievement in the great Southwest Illustrated. A story of pioneer struggles during early days in Los Angeles and Southern California. With biographies, heretofore unpublished facts, anecdotes and incidents in the lives of the builders > Part 16
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comparatively short space of time following its opening up. Charles A. Burcham is a typical Californian. He possesses the generosity and warm-hearted hospitality of the West, and the traits of character which won him friends before Fortune smiled so graciously upon him, hind them to him today. He is one who has accepted fortune graciously, nor
has permitted it to estrange the friendships of former days. To his intimates of old he is the same "Charlie" as before his days of opulence, and so he will remain. Mr. Burcham has a charming and estimable wife, who has been a helpmeet in the truest sense of the word.
HOME OF CHARLES AUSTIN BURCHAM.
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
DR. ROSE L. BURCHAM.
I N REVIEWING the individual successes that have been made in the mining districts of the Great Southwest. one is impressed by the fact that the little colony has been to so great an extent recruited from the successful element in other professional and business callings. The import of this circumstance would seem to indicate that in mining, as in other vocations, sound judgment and correct business principles are more than a match for luck. While Fortune has chosen her sponsors from all ranks of society, as established by difference of means and education, it is a conspicuous fact that the favored ones represent, as a rule, the conserv- ative, persevering and deserving ele- ment. The subject of this biography enjoys the distinc- tion of being the only successful woman mining operator in the en- tire Southwest, and as such has dem- onstrated that she was endowed with executive ability of a high order.
Born in the cra- dle of fame, the great common- wealth of New York, Dr. Bur- cham's début upon the stage of life was most auspi- cious. Her father was a practicing physician of Roch- ester, an English- man by birth, a great student and traveler. At the tender age of ten years his little daughter evidenced a keen delight in having free access to his extensive li- brary, and after completing her ele- mentary education, she determined upon securing a scientific education. In order to assist herself in defraying the expenses of a course in the Rochester Free Academy, she taught school from time to time, and finally, in 1882, was rewarded with her long-sought-for diploma. Success spurred her on to greater efforts, and the successful graduate of the Rochester Academy set her aim for a medical education and left home to enter the Eclectic Medical Institute of Cincinnati, Ohio. She graduated with highest honors from this cele- brated institution of medicine in the class of '84, and for the following year was upon the interne staff of a Cincinnati
hospital. Dr. Burcham afterwards built up a lucrative practice, which she was obliged to relinquish in 1885 owing to failing health.
What proved a loss for the medical profession of Cin- cinnati proved an advantage to California, for, attracted by the reputation of the State as a Mecca for the health seeker, Dr. Burcham decided upon locating in San Bernardino, this State. There is now scarcely a city of any importance in the country that has not its able woman physician and sur- geon, but when Dr. Burcham first located in San Bernardino she was the pio- neer of women physicians. The successful and lu- crative practice es- tablished by Dr. Burcham was the most genuine oom- pliment the com- munity could pay her talent and skill as a physician. In December, 1887, she was wedded to Charles Austin Burcham, owner of an extensive cattle ranch located within the limits of San Bernardino county, but her wedding to Mr. Burcham did not divorce her from her chosen profes- sion and she con- tinned to practice r'ntil she moved to Randsburg in Feb- rrary, 1896, to as- sist in the man- agement of South- ern California's bonanza, the cele- brated Yellow As- ter mine. While the Yellow Aster was located and opened up by the three founders of Randsburg, C. A. Burcham, John Singleton and F. M. Mooers, the success of their un- dertaking was largely dependent upon
DR. ROSE L. BURCHAM.
their " grub- stake." Like an army in the field deprived of their base of supplies, so helpless would the founders of Randsburg have been without their commissary department, and Dr. Burcham was appointed a committee of one to act as commissary agent. How well she performed the duties imposed upon her can best be told in the success of the Yellow Aster mine. Dr. Burcham enjoys the distinction of having been the first woman to enter Randsburg. She made the trip in July, 1895, shortly after the mine had been located, and remained
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
there until the following month. Returning to San Ber- nardino she resumed the practice of her profession until the following spring, when she returned to Randsburg to make her home at the mine, and actively engage in the duties of secretary of the Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Company, a position which was tendered her upon the incor- poration of the company, November 16, 1897. Since that date Mrs. Burcham has been one of the most energetic and progressive members of the board of directors. Not the wealth of the Yellow Aster alone, but its location in the midst
erous degree. Not an innate attribute is the ken which measure men. Observation may be in a degree a heritage, but an insight into human nature must combine observation, experience and judgment. Dr. Burcham has traveled exten- sively in Europe and on this continent. Travel is a great educator, and Dr. Burcham was an apt pupil.
Dr. Rose L. Burcham has made her home in this city since the spring of 1902. She has recently purchased a beautiful home at the corner of Burlington avenue and Seventh street, where she entertains in a manner hefitting her station in life.
DR. RUSE L. BURCHAM'S RESIDENCE.
RECEPTION HALL.
DRAWING ROOM.
of other of the camp's richest mineral zone, made surround- ing and unexplored claims desirable assets. Dr. Burcham was not slow to recognize this fact, and at her instance the company has expended vast sums in acquiring adjoining territory in the past seven years, representing a series of investments that the company would not forfeit today for many fold their cost. Dr. Burcham has manifested no less discrimination and judgment in the selection of men to prosecute the actual development of the mine. Her knowledge of human nature has conduced to this in a gen-
The house is built upon the Italian style of architecture, and possesses many unique and artistic architectural effects, one of the most distinguishing features of which is the com- modious reception hall and drawing rooms, which are admi- rably adapted for the receptions which Dr. Burcham frequently gives, when in town. Dr. Burcham has led an active life, and association with professional and business interests has left her little time for social pleasures. She is a woman of energy, but is as unassuming in manner as she is forceful in character.
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
CARL F. SCHADER.
I F THERE is one thing more than another that impresses the eastern visitor to California, it is the prominence of our young men. Yet, if a moment's thought is given the subject, it does not appear so remarkable. California is a comparatively young State, and the commonwealth has been peopled by emigrants from the East. These have been obviously young men, for it is a comparatively small propor- tion of older men who are footloose.
While the young man has made his successes in every branch of industry and enterprise in California, it is in mining that he is most conspicuous, and it is this field of operation that holds the greatest opportunities for the future. This magazine recounts the ea- reers of many successful mining men; but few indi- vidual careers more aptly reflect the possibilities of- fered to men of conserva- tive ideas and business in- sight than that of Carl F. Sehader. He is not one of those whose success has been meteoric and dramatic, as is the case of the poor prospector digging his mil- lions from the grass roots. His success has been that of a young man who has risen through his ability to recog- nize and grasp opportuni- ties-a subtle faculty, precc- dent to the executive ca- pacity, use of opportunity develops.
Carl F. Schader's parents were among the pioneers of Arkansas, his father, a German by birth, having ar- rived there in the year 1810 at a time when the State was little more than a wil- derness. Later in life he removed to Little Rock, where his son Carl was born, on March 23, 1870. Raised in the home atmos- phere of his native place, the lad had instilled into his every fibre those ele- ments of honesty, thrift and industry which were to count so much for him in his future career. His early education was received in the excellent publie schools of his native eity, and was later supplemented by a course in the Little Rock Commercial College, from which institution he graduated at an early age. Almost im- mediately after completing his course of study at the busi- ness college, Mr. Sehader, then a youth of 17 years, but imbued with an ambition to win laurels in broader fields than afforded by his native State, came to California in 1887, where he was connected with the engineering department of the Santa Fé Railroad for some time, serving under Engineers W. C. Trumbull and M. B. Terras. Mr. Sehader
CARL, F. SCHADER.
was a member of the engineering corps that made the surveys of the railroad from Los Angeles to Anaheim, Los Angeles to Ballona, Perris to San Jacinto and Elsinore. Pacific Beach to Moreno, and other work along the lines of the great Santa Fé system. During all this time he was studying and com- bining his study with practical field experience, so that, when in 1888 he was offered a position as assistant engineer to P. J. Flynn in United States government survevs at Santa Monica and vicinity, he was well qualified to undertake the responsi- bilities of the position. For a long time he was engaged in government work in the vicinity of Santa Monica and the Soldiers' Home, becoming thoroughly conversant with the country in that section.
After the boom in South- ern California ended, there being very little work in the engineering field in this vicinity, and being desirous of remaining in Southern California, Mr. Schader entered the mercantile bus- iness in Santa Monica, and was one of the leading and most stiecessful business men of that piace for a number of years. During this time Mr. Schader mar- ried Miss Nellie Elliott of Santa Monica, and now has two sons, Carl J. and Fred P.
In 1895, becoming im- pressed with the greater possibilities afforded in the mining cireles of the South- west, Mr. Schader took up the mining branch of en- gineering, and since that time has been a most active worker along those lines, and is now a member of the American Institute of Min- ing Engineers. With a de- sire to have a thorough and practical knowledge of the subject. Mr. Schader took courses in assaying and metallurgv, etc., so that he might be competent to pass upon indications that the uninitiated would not notice. A feature of his work at this time, and one in which he takes pardonable pride and counts of no little value to him, is the practical experience he ob- tained by going to work with pick and drill as a common miner and working his way up to superintendent, thereby acquiring an invaluable practical knowledge of mining. With the object of further acquainting himself with the treatment of ores he secured employment in smelting, mining and concentrating plants, where he familiarized him- self with the different processes employed in the treatment and reduction of ores.
After a number of years of study and work he became
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
recognized as one of the most competent authorities on desert properties in this section, and in 1901 was made general man- ager of the German-American Mining Company's property in Mohave county, Ariz. He opened the property up to its present successful condition and enjoys the distinction of being the first large operator in the now famous San Francisco Min- ing district of Mohave county, Ariz., in which are located the Gold Roads and Leland mines.
In 1902, Mr. Schader, in association with Mr. T. A. John- son, formerly of St. Louis, where he was identified with large smelting and lead mining interests now owned and opcrated by the Guggenheims of New York, formed the firm of Schader-Johnson Co., and organized the well-known Nevada-Keystone Mining Company, Mr. Schader being clected general manager and Mr. Johnson secretary. The story of the development of the Nevada-Keystone is one of continued success from the incorporation of the company in May of 1902. Despite the fact that the mine had formerly been a producer and had $380,000 to its credit, predictions were freely made that it was "worked out." Mr. Schader,
site will be done away with. Everything will be operated by electricity, including the underground hoists, and the mine will also be lighted by electricity. Owing to the expense of hauling to the old mill, over 50,000 tons of low-grade ore and porphyry, averaging $3 per ton, have accumulated upon the dump and are now waiting cyanide treatment. It is expected that the new cyanide plant will be able to treat the ore for about $1 per ton.
The Nevada-Keystone is making history every day, and there will not likely be a time for many years to come when there will not be something new in connection with it. As its development progresses, its possibilities expand, and no man today can prophesy a limit for it as a producer. During the past year the Schader-Johnson Company has been pros- pecting and developing another gold-mining property in Nye county, Nevada. A feature of the company's method of oper- ating that has been the cause for much favorable comment throughout mining and financial circles is its expenditure of large sums in the development and opening up of properties before offering them to the public, and has thus established a
1
RESIDENCE OF CARL F. SCHADER.
after a careful examination, became convinced of the possi- bilities of great production under modern methods of mining and milling, and the record of gold-bullion shipments of over $100,000 under his management has effectually silenced any further predictions from those who criticised the judgment of the expenditures made. A conservative estimate of the amount of ore in sight today figures up well toward a halt million.
At the time the present management came into possession of the property it was equipped with an old mill, which was remodeled, by adding two Huntington mills and a small cyanide plant, with the idea of making it a test mill before going to the expense of building more extensively. With this all-too-limited facility, it has produced an even $100,000 since operating, the greater part of which came from development work and above the 300- foot level. Having demonstrated the success of the under- taking, Mr. Schader is now preparing to have a complete and modern plant erected at the mine. Water will be pumped to it, and the great expense of hanling the ore to the old mill
reputation that assures them immediate success in any undertaking that meets with their serious consideration.
Among mining men generally, Mr. Schader is credited with being one of the best-informed men on what is known as the desert mining region. He has devoted the past eight years entirely to study in that field, with the result that there is hardly a mine or prospect in San Bernardino county, Cal .; Mojave county, Ariz., or Lincoln and Nye counties, Nev., that he is not personally acquainted with, having made examina- tions of most of them.
Besides being the largest stockholder in the German-Amer- ican Mining Company, Mr. Schader is one of the heaviest individual owners of Nevada-Keystone stock, and is at present general manager of both companies. Besides his mining interests, he is well known in banking and financial circles in Southern California, being vice-president of the Ocean Park Bank, a director of the Merchants National Bank of Santa Monica, and is interested in the Merchants National Bank of Los Angeles. Fraternally he is a Mason and an Odd Fellow, being a Thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason.
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
T. A. JOHNSON.
T HE career of T. A. Johnson is one of scores afforded by the West, demonstrating that mining experience is not necessary to mining success, and yet who will gainsay its value in certain channels of mining, where prac- tical knowledge of mineralogy and geology must necessarily be of service? But to successful mining operations mining experience is not always essential. The requisite is neither practical knowledge nor luck; it is business ability, and the mining men who have made the greatest successes in the Southwest are men who have utilized the `acumen which reaps reward wherever exercised. Almost without exception men who have applied sound business principles to mining in the Southwest have been rewarded far beyond the possi- bilities offered in any other field of investment. Such an instance is found in the career of the above-named member of the little col- ony of successful mining men operating in the Southwest.
It was in the latter '40's that Louis M. Johnson set- tled in Henry county, Ifl., a pioneer in the develop- ment of that great State which has given to our country so many able men in all walks of life. Here on the old homestead, in [864, his son Theodore was born. The lad received instruction in the public schools of Geneseo, Ill., until he had attained four- teen years of age. Ambi- tions to be self-sustaining. and his tendencies being toward commercial life, he entered the employ, in 1879, of one of the largest mercantile establishments in that portion of the State, operated in connec- tion with the coal mines that were then being worked in Central Illi- nois. Fortunately for him- self, the youth possessed to a remarkable degree those powers of adaptability which, in a country such as Illinois was in the early '80's, consti- tuted one of the surest passports to success, and, indeed, has ever been a prominent factor in the expansion and develop- ment of the great western country. Added to this quality was a natural inclination to industry, combined with business tact and strong tenacity of purpose. After six years of loyat service, during which time Mr. Johnson had advanced from an humble clerk to the position of buyer and general manager of the extensive business, he resigned his position to seek new business associations in the banking line. Imbued with the good advice of Horace Greely -"young man, go West "-
he started for the frontier in Western Kansas, which at that time had just been thrown open to settlement, and the southern tier of counties was being organized. Many are the amusing and thrilling experiences he relates pertaining to the county-seat warfare of that portion of the country during the disturbed days of early settlement, when county seats and courthouses were moved in a night. Nothing daunted by the erudeness of the conditions, Mr. Johnson remained in the banking business at that point for some time, being advanced successively from book-keeper to assistant cashier and cashier, and later established a branch bank in Stanton county. In 1887, following the long, dry period of 1886-87 he disposed of his interests and together with associates removed to Kan- sas City, where he assisted in organizing the United States Bank of that place, and at the age of twenty- three was assistant cashier. The bank subse- quently reorganized under the national banking laws and was known as the Aetna National Bank.
For the ensuing three years Mr. Johnson devoted his entire time and atten- tion to the duties imposed upon him in his capacity as assistant cashier, finally disposing of his interests in the bank and removing to St. Louis, in 1890, where he was again iden- tified with financial insti- tutions in various capaci- ties, until 1896, when he first became direetly inter- "ested in mining to any ex- tent. In that year he be- came secretary and treas- urer of the Missouri Smelting Company, and later assisted in organiz- ing and acted as secretary and treasurer of the Fed- eral Lead Company, whose property was one of the largest in the disseminated lead district of St. Francois county, Missouri. The properties were disposed of to the Guggenheim interests of New York, who have since been con- ducting operations on the property on a most extensive scale.
T. A. JOHNSON.
To Mr. Johnson belongs the distinction of having assisted in organizing and operating the Missouri Copper Company, a company which owned and operated the only successful cop- per mines in the State, that is famous for her lead and zinc.
In 1900, still a young man in years, but ripe in experience Mr. Johnson having disposed of his banking and mining inter- ests, determined upon an extended trip through the West. During the year or so occupied in completing the trip he vis- ited the principal mining camps and mines of the West, in-
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
cluding the famous copper mines of Montana's capital, the gold and silver mines of Idaho, Washington and Oregon, and spent some time in the mining regions of Northern California, before visiting this section of the State. After a trip through Lower California, he returned to Los Angeles, and, in com- pany with Carl F. Schader, made an examination of the Nevada-Keystone properties in Southeastern Nevada. So impressed was he with the opportunities for the investment of capital in the Southwest that he formed a co-partnership with Mr. Schader, under the firm name of the Schader-John- son Company, and proceeded to develop the mine. Mr. Schader had had a complete technical and practical mining education, and was an acknowledged authority on desert min- ing, and the combination of talent has proven most auspicious for the development of one of the most promising properties in this section of the Southwest. Shortly after forming their business alliance and having expended sufficient in develop- ment work on the Nevada-Keystone to demonstrate that they had a mine, they formed the present company, of which Mr. Johnson is secretary, a position he is eminently qualified to fill after an experience covering nearly twenty years among
various banking and financial institutions of the Middle West.
The success of the Nevada-Keystone under the active policy of development inaugurated by the management has been the subject of favorable comment in mining circles throughout the State. With only a test mill to operate and the disad- vantage of a seven-mile haul, the company has produced since its incorporation, in July of 1902, over $100,000. ~ Arrange- ments are now about completed for the erection of a fine mod- ern plant and mill which will be completely equipped with electricity and provided with every facility for the rapid de- velopment of the mine, which is the bonanza of Lincoln county, Nevada.
Mr. Johnson is a natural financier, instinctively a business man, of quick and far-reaching calculation. As a result, he is well-to-do. He is a good judge of character; his system and discipline are thorough, and his industry proverbial. He will work night and day when necessary to promote the cause of any interest with which he may be identified. In spite of his great activity, Mr. Johnson is of a modest, retiring nature, and is an amiable, affable gentleman, much esteemed through- out the community in both business and social circles.
RESIDENCE OF OLIVER P. POSEY. A TYPICAL CALIFORNIA HOME.
RESIDENCE OF W. P. DUNHAM, A LOS ANGELES MINING MAN.
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MEN OF ACHIEVEMENT IN THE GREAT SOUTHWEST.
C. HENRY THOMPSON.
I N THE distribution of its aureate bounties, the West has been impartial to a remarkable degree. Those who have won wealth in mining represented, before entering this field of enterprise, the entire gamut of condition, and for- tune has recognized alike the poor prospector and the man of affairs. Among their number the above name is promi- nent by virtue of its representing one of the little colony of successful mining men whose reward has been the result of long experience.
C. Henry Thompson is an Ohioan by birth. He received his early education in the schools of his native town, Milan, later taking a course in the High School in Toledo, where he was engaged in the pursuit of his studies, in 1861, when the war broke out. He enlisted with the Fourteenth Ohio Infantry, under command of Col. James B. Stedman, after- ward Major-General. Capt. Thompson's active service in the army covered a period of five years lacking eleven days, and twice he received promo- tion in the line of duty. In the spring of 1863 he was made first-lieutenant of the First United States Colored Artillery, and the following year was promoted to a cap- taincy in the same regiment. After serving his country for this period of time, he was mustered out, April 5, 1866, and returned to his parents' home in Cleveland
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