Los Angeles County
Biographies
CLARENCE WILMER ROACH
ROACH, CLARENCE WILMER, Mine Operator, Los Angeles, California, was born in Guthrie County, Iowa, October 18, 1879, the son of I. N. Roach and Minerva (Hawkins) Roach. He married Ethel V. Bowerman in Los Angeles, April 2, 1908.
Mr. Roach, who is essentially a self-made man, was brought to California in early childhood and received a common school education in San Bernardino County and supplemented this in later life with a thorough education in law and mining, having studied for the former in the Los Angeles law Department of the American Extension University.
Mr. Roach started to work at an early age, going into the mechanical department of the San Bernardino Daily Sun, where he learned the printer’s trade. He worked as a printer on other publications and in 1891 went to North Ontario, California, where he started a trade journal known as “The Hare and Fowl,” a publication devoted to the fancy poultry and Belgian hare industries. He conducted this paper for about three months, then sold it and went to work for the Cucamonga Water Company of California in the engineering department. It was in this work that M. Roach first took up practical engineering, studying mining and mineralogy during his spare time.
After two years Mr. Roach took up mining as a profession and for the next three years was engaged in prospecting in Death Valley, California, and the Funeral Range. In 1896 he abandoned mining temporarily and settling in Los Angeles became Superintendent for W. B. Raymond & Co., wholesale grain dealers. Later he became Superintendent for the Buckhorn Mining & Milling Company, at Dulzura, California, and resigned that after about six months to return to the mining business for himself.
His prospecting work for the next few years was confined to the Colorado and Mojave Deserts, but it did not prove profitable and in 1903 Mr. Roach returned to civilization and the newspaper business. He served for two years as advertising manager of the Orange County (Cal.) Tribune, but so strong a hold did the gold-hunting fever have upon him he resigned to re-enter the mining field.
In 1905 Mr. Roach went to the Gold Park mining district in Riverside County, California, and has operated there with success since that time. He first discovered the Anaconda mine and after working it for a time sold out to a syndicate of capitalists. He then spent a year prospecting and testing properties in the Gold Park district with the result that he became interested in several valuable claims. He became associated with the Gold Park Consolidated Mines and because of his wide experience, was placed in charge of the company’s operations. These included the management of fifty-two mining claims and among the notable properties thus developed are the Black Warrior, Oro Copia, Caledon and the Boss Mines. Later on he organized the Oil & Metals Leasing Company, which operated in the Gold Park and Twenty-nine Palms districts. Their holdings included the Queen Mine, which has yielded more than $250,000; the Lost Horse mine, which produced more than $300,000, and several other claims.
After developing and working these holdings for a considerable period, Mr. Roach brought about the consolidation of several different corporations in the Gold Park and Twenty-nine Palms territory under the name of the Consolidated Gold Mines of California. This company, capitalized at $5,000,000, includes practically every operating company in the districts named and controls all the principal mining claims there. Mr. Roach was elected president and General Manager of the new company and is now actively engaged in the work of installing modern machinery for the operation of the various properties.
In addition to his actual work in the mining business, Mr. Roach has been a prolific writer on mining matters and is the publisher at present of the Gold Park Mining News, a newspaper devoted to the upbuilding and advertisement of the country in which he has worked for more than six years.
Mr. Roach is not a club member, having been too busily engaged in the mining fields of recent years to devote much time to outside interests. He is, however, a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Chamber of Mines and Oil.
Transcribed 7-9-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 316,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES