About Rosemead

Rosemead is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 53,764. Rosemead is part of a cluster of cities, along with Arcadia, Temple City, Monterey Park, San Marino, and San Gabriel, in the west San Gabriel Valley with a growing Asian population.

Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the area around Rosemead was populated by Native Americans of the Tongva, or as the Spaniards renamed them, the Gabrieleños. In 1771, the Spanish founded the first Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in the area that is now known as Whittier Narrows on the border between Montebello and Rosemead. In 1775, the mission moved to avoid the spring floods that ruined the first crops, to its present location in San Gabriel.

During the Spanish Colonial era, the area that is now the City of Rosemead, was part of the land administered by the San Gabriel Mission. As part of the Mexican government's Secularization Act of 1833, the land, formerly held by the Mission, was generously distributed to private citizens, requiring only that they build a house and graze cattle, brought to an end the Mission Era Following the Mexican-American War and the 1848 signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe which transferred sovereignty over the territory now known as the State of California to the United States, Anglo-American immigration began to flow to the area. The southern part of Rosemead was part of Rancho Potrero Grande (Large Pasture) which was originally granted to a Native American man named Manuel Antonio, who was a "mayordomo" (overseer) at the San Gabriel Mission. The 4,431-acre (18 km2) ranch was later transferred to Juan Matias Sánchez.

In 1852, John and Harriet Guess moved cross-country in an ox drawn wagon, to the San Gabriel Valley from Conway County, Arkansas. In 1855, the couple camped where present-day Savannah Elementary School is located on Rio Hondo Avenue. They rented the land until 1867, when John Guess purchased 100 acres (0.4 km2) of a 1,164-acre (5 km2) ranch and named it Savannah. The land stretched from Valley Boulevard to Marshall Street, and from Rosemead Boulevard to the Eaton Wash.

Other pioneers, Frank Forst and Leonard J. Rose, also settled in this valley. Rose and his wife Amanda bought about 600 acres (2.4 km2) of land between what is now Rosemead Boulevard and Walnut Grove Avenue. Rose bred and trained horses for a living. He named his ranch "Rose\'s Meadow" which was eventually shortened to Rosemeade and gave the city its name. Rosemeade was once again shortened to Rosemead. The peaceful, pastoral community flourished with small truck farms and rabbit and chicken farms. Settlers moved in and also raised vegetables, fruits, grain and feed for the animals. It wasn\'t until August 4, 1959, the citizens elected to incorporate Rosemead into a city.