HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

Vol. 18 No. 3 A UNITED WAY AGENCY March 2003

MARCH MEETING: Dr. Michael O'Neill, Director, DART

Our March program will be a presentation by Dr. Michael O'Neill, Director, Desert Area Resources and Training, on the many programs of DART for the employment of handicapped and mentally disabled adults.

Dr. O'Neill was born and raised in the Bay Area, educated at San Francisco State and earned his doctorate in Special Education for the University of Michigan. He has taught in Modesto and worked in Michigan at state facilities serving people with mental retardation. He left the snow and cold of Michigan for Louisiana where he taught undergraduate and graduate classes at a state university. Leaving Louisiana, he spent 15 years in Ohio where he held leadership positions in three nonprofit agencies providing services to people with mental or other special needs, then moved to Ridgecrest in May 2001. He says he has seen more sun here in two years than he ever saw in his 15 years in Ohio.

Dr. O'Neill and his wife, Shirley, have been married 35 years. For 11 years they were foster parents of adolescent girls with significant behavioral issues. They have seven daughters, "umpteen" grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The meeting will be held Tuesday, March 18, at the Maturango Museum beginning at 7:30 p.m.

We appreciate the support of our business members: Granite Construction ­ Sand and Gravel, Farris' at the Heritage, the Indian Wells Valley Insurance Co and the Swap Sheet, . Please patronize these business members whenever possible. We also encourage any of our members who are eligible to become business members, to do so.

ANNUAL MEETING

A date has not yet been set for our annual meeting. According to our bylaws, it can be in either May or June. Speaker, date and details will be announced as soon as plans are complete. In the meantime, our Nominating Committee (Charlotte Goodson, Joan Woodman and Barbara Hall) has put on their thinking caps and is scanning our membership list, while waiting hopefully for phone calls from people who would like to be nominated.

HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT

There will not be a tour this spring, but we are hoping for one this fall.

FINAL (?) CALL ON DUES

As has been noted the past several months, our membership year is the same as the calendar year. For those of you who have not renewed, time is running short to do so. If your renewal hasn't gotten to our treasurer yet, you will find that your name on the address label is highlighted in blue (couldn't find the "money green" colored highlighter...) and there is an envelope addressed to our treasurer taped to the inside of your newsletter for you to mail in your check. Those of our members who have already renewed can rest easy for the remainder of the year... And, many thanks to you.

Memberships fees help pay for the newsletter costs, utilities for our office building (the use of the building has been graciously donated by the owners), production of our exhibits and various other expenses.

Again, our membership rate is $15 annually per family unit. Thanks for renewing promptly.
Let's keep our treasurer busy (and happy)!

SEEP

Spring activities are upon us. This includes the trips by fifth graders to Sand Canyon to participate in the Sand Canyon Education and Environmental Program. Historical Society members are again participating in manning the "History Station."

TIDBIT

It is interesting to note that your Historical Society is mentioned in 2340 items when typing "historical society of the upper mojave desert" into the Yahoo search engine!

So many places to look at and see why or where our name, or part of our name, is included in the item. Lou Pracchia

MY LITTLE DESERT HOME

Seated by the window
Of my little desert home,
I behold the great Sierras
With their wondrous peaks and dome,.

As I gaze, I'm lost in wonder,
For the scene I now behold,
Is one of natures grandest,
Tho' you know it without being told.

What I see, I will try to tell you,
As best I can with a pen,
But to do the picture justice,
Is beyond the power of man.

For days it has been stormy,
Blowing and raining too.
The Sierras have been covered,
With clouds you couldn't see through.

But today the curtain is lifted,
And there comes again to view,
The peaks and domes of the mountains,
But, ah, they're entirely new.

Behold, they are decked in splendor,
In mantles of spotless white,
My soul is filled with rapturous thrills,
As I gaze at this beautiful sight.

To make the picture perfect,
My eyes rest on the valley below,
Through a carpet of green the daisies nod
Their heads to the caps of snow.

You'll agree with me, dear reader,
Wherever I may roam,
I'll be no nearer Heaven,
Than here in my desert home.

This poem, written c. 1918 by Eva Jewel Wright, an IWV homesteader, is included in a real life story "Give it Back to God?" authored by her daughter, Goldie Argen Flamank.

HISTORICAL ARTICLE

(HSUMD member, John DiPol, has responded magnificently to our recent request for local historical articles of personal recollections or other history of the area. The following article is one of several which he recently submitted. Ed.)

ROSE BURCHAM, M.D. VS PAT REDDY, ESQ.

The history of the discovery of a rich deposit of gold in the Rand Mountains by Charles Burcham, John Singleton and Fred Mooers on April 25, 1895 is a well chronicled and familiar story. But there may be some wrinkles not as well known. These three partners had been prospecting in the Summit Diggings of the El Paso Mountains for nearly two years without much success and were on the verge of giving up when their fortunate strike was made.

The three partners quickly filed their discovery as the "Rand" Quartz lode claim, and located eleven other claims in adjacent areas. In early June, Charles Burcham went to San Bernardino to obtain much needed supplies. Rose Le Monte Burcham, the wife of Charles Burcham and a medical doctor was living in San Bernardino and conducting her medical practice there. She had been grubstaking her husband and agreed to assist in obtaining some modest funding for initial work at the mines. Unbeknownst to his partners, Charles Burcham assigned to his wife one-half of his one-third interest as consideration for her having provided the initial grubstake. Dr. Burcham instructed her husband not to sign any agreements relative to their claims until the full potential and value had been determined.

In the meantime, during Charles Burcham's absence, Singleton and Mooers were approached by O. B. Stanton, an investor from Bakersfield, and an engineer from South Africa by the name of Brown. For one-half interest in the Rand claims, Stanton proposed to provide $10,000 immediately for a mill and take a 30 day option to purchase the entire property for $500,000. Singleton and Mooers promptly signed, with the contract contingent upon Charles Burcham's signature which, they assured Stanton would be forthcoming.

Burcham returned to the mines on July 4th and steadfastly refused to sign. He sent word to his wife that investors had been visiting the claims and making proposals. Dr. Burcham sensed danger. She quickly closed her practice, came up to the desert, joined her partners and took charge of their business affairs. In due time, investor Stanton sued the partners for alleged damages incurred by their failure to follow through on the agreements. The production of the mines was still at a minimal level and he partners had not the funds to both continue production and pay attorney fees to defend this lawsuit. It was common practice in mining disputes in those days for the attorneys to accept, as their fees, a part-interest in the property under litigation. It was under those conditions that Dr. Rose retained the services of attorney Pat Reddy, Esq. She wanted the best representation available, both in the interests of winning the dispute, as well as denying those services to her opponent.

Pat Reddy was a well known and famous lawyer, specializing in mining litigation and criminal defense. A member of the firm of Reddy, Campbell and Metson headquartered in San Francisco, but with offices and much business in Inyo and Mono counties. Reddy had made his fortune and acquired great wealth in mining properties in a ruthless fashion. But Dr. Rose was not an easy mark. She well knew the ultimate enormous value of their Rand holdings. The agreement that was struck with Reddy in return for his legal services was to grant a 75 day option, expiring on March 1st, 1897, for a one-quarter interest upon payment of $150,000. Ultimately, Reddy and Dr. Rose and her partners were successful in their defense of the Stanton lawsuit.

However, disputes arose between Reddy and the partners. Reddy did not exercise his option and did not pay the $150,000. After the option period expired in March, Reddy filed suit for $50,000. He was well aware of the tenuous financial condition of the partners, and believed that an adverse judgment of that magnitude would cause their endeavor to collapse, with the mining assets falling into his hands. But, Dr. Rose was very well aware of this. She and her partners still had majority control, froze Reddy out of any management actions, and intensified their mining production. By November 1897, they settled their differences and Reddy relinquished his alleged rights for $35,000.

Dr. Rose Burcham and her three partners: husband, Charles, John Singleton and Fred Mooers were now in total control. They incorporated as the "Yellow Aster Mining and Milling Corporation," with a total capital of $1,000,000. It was a closed corporation with all of the stock owned by Dr. Rose and her three partners.

In the ensuing few years there were numerous disputes, common in mining endeavors, of boundary questions, contested claims, labor negotiations, etc. Dr. Rose worked tirelessly in resolving these matters and successfully kept the corporation intact to expand and grow to the great success it came to be

She truly was an Iron Lady.