Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1915-05-11
WoMAN's SACRIFICE
SAVES GREAT MINE

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Romance, Fraud, Intrigue, Adventure
and Pluck Blend in Story Of
Prospectors' Lucky Find.
Los Angeles, Cal-"God has fixed
the Yellow Aston all right on top and
if He's done as good a job under
ground you've got the richest mine in
all creation"
These were the words of a mining
expert, as he kicked stone glistening
with yellow ore down the mountain
side and tossed a handful of golden
nuggets in the air. 1t was the dazzling
prophecy made to three men and a
woman, standing in the hot sunlight Of
a land so desolate that were it not
for the CLINT Of precious metal in the
stones one would think it was a coun-
try forgotten by the Creator.
OF the four who stood on the noun
tain that day, listening to the expert
they had hired to examine their new
mine, the Yellow Astor, only the
woman, DR.. Rose L. Burcham, ply.
sician, is left to enjoy the riches Of
their great find-the richest mine in
southern California and one of the
best paying in the world.
If any of the four should find happi-
ness and joy in the mine to the ex-
clusion of the other three it is fitting
that it should be the woman. She had
the grit to furnish the money for her
husband, who helped find the Yellow
AstOr, the moral courage to refuse to
sign away her rights though hundreds
besieged her, the wisdom to formulate
an agreement for her husbands part
ners to sign that they would hold to-
gether for five years, and the stamina
to fight the greatest legal battle ever
waged between a woman and COM
bine.
The old story of mans infatuation
for mining caused the discovery of the
Yellow Astor, which has already
yielded more than $7,O0O,O0O. There
are 100000 tons of the richest ore
in California above the mill level and
the treasure below is past human cal
culation.
Charles Austin Burcham had a pas
sion for prospecting and for years
spent his spare time among the hills
of California. The call was so strong
that his wife, DR.. Burcham, agreed to
furnish the funds for two years trip
in the mountains and desert. He was
free to choose his own companions and
be untrammeled by family RESPONSE
bilities or financial obligations. The
doctor returned to her practice to
give him the crSlce he craved, the
only stipulation being that she was to
have an equal share of his interest in
whatever gold was found and that If
he failed he was to abandon mining
forever.
A year and one.half passed and
Burcham and his two companions, F..
M. Moores and John Singleton, had
failed to locate the coveted gold. One
day they began an exploration OF
Tehachepi, a small mountain, which
had overlooked their work for the past
eighteen months. They discovered that
gold actually exuded from the very
rocks and slopes of the mountain.
A wild dash was made across the
desert to Randsburg, fifty miles away,
and DR.. Burcham was summoned at
once. From that time she became the
dominating influence which governed
it's destiny and saved it. It was in
July, 1895, that she landed in Rands-
burg. After spending several years in
the desert and at the mine, suffering
the same hardships as the men and
undergoing the same dangers of BAN
dts and Indians, she came into the
city and battled five years with courts
and lawyers in desperate efforts to
save her share.
Every mans hand seemed to be out
to snatch the prize. DR.. Burcham's
three partners, including her husband,
were inveigled into selling their share
for mere pittance when they knew
the mine was worth millions, but the
from the promoters and the greedy
lawyers. Many public men were ex-
posed and lawyers were threatened
with disbarment during the five years.
battle, in which she saved not only
her own share but that Of the others.
Now DR.. Burcham sits at her desk,
handling the enormous details of the
Yellow Astor Mining Company, of
which she is secretary, as serenely as
anyone who has been unvexed by re-
sponsibility and untouched by care.
Her face shows not trace of her hard
life in the desert, Of the wearisome
and dangerous journeys in a buck
board over the fifty miles between tho
mine and nearest town, or the battles
where her wits were pitted against the
keenest minds in the legal profession.
Her JOY is the Yellow Aston mine,
which has the distinction of being the
only big mine that has never been
shut down. She kept it running even
in the face of court order, procured
by lawyers, who hoped to defeat her
by cutting off the revenue she re-
CURED to continue the battle against
them.
Today the mine has 400 acres under
patent and up to date the owners have