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The early days of Northern Ontario always had their colorful characters, but there was no other like Roza Brown. She was a dominant woman, who never took ‘no’ for an answer, trusted no one, and enjoyed the challenge of litigation if things didn’t go her way.

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Her true origins are steeped in mystery, but her birthplace was assumed to be Budapest, around the 1870s. It had also been generally believed that she was a bane to a notable or noble Hungarian family, who perhaps had her. be purchased a one-way ticket to Canada. Given the countless stories of his years in the north, the latest explanation for his arrival on our shores is understandable.

Like many others, I was fascinated by the colorful stories of this pioneering prospector, baker, laundromat, speculator and real estate developer, owner, British monarchist, animal lover and cook, so I wanted to include him in the one of my Over the Hill Columns. When researching information about Roza, the written records of her life are as contradictory as her life seemed to be.

My many sources include Wilfrid Sanders (Financial Post, 1935), Joan Walker (McLean’s Magazine, 1964) who both claimed to have personally interviewed Roza, and Peter Fancy (Temiskaming Treasure Trails, 1910-1915), Andre Wetjen and LHT Irvin ( The Kirkland Lake Story, 1988) and several Internet entries.

A story about her goes that her father was an impoverished college professor in Budapest while Roza worked in a stocking factory. As a young woman whose last name was Salzer, Roza took a trip to Paris where she said she had all of her jewelry and money stolen – but she still had enough money to take her to London, England. There she took a part-time job and stayed long enough to hear about Canada. Roza left for Canada, working on a third-rate ocean liner, and landed a job as a waitress at Grand Union Station in Montreal. She claimed she could speak eleven languages, but others had doubts. These others would say she was the most proficient in blasphemy.

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She had her sights set on Cobalt, the bustling border country where the silver had been discovered. The fact that she was a woman, with no prospecting or bush experience did not deter her. Roza wanted to find a mine and she wanted to be rich. No need to store factory jobs for her anymore.

Roza appeared in Cobalt in 1909 during the height of the silver mining boom with a man she called Mr. Brown. Together they operated a bakery and laundry in Argentite, a small community between Cobalt and North Cobalt. Mr. Brown, according to Roza, was an Englishman with an affinity for strong spirits and a complete loathing for hard work. Roza abandoned him, adopted his last name, and began another life as a prospector. It didn’t matter that she was a five foot tall woman. She could wield an ax and carry a canoe with the best of men. Roza was no different from Carolyn Mayben Flower, another female prospector of that time.

Roza spent a few years prospecting in and around Cobalt, then joined the Porcupine Gold Camp Rush. In an interview, she said she was in “Golden City” (now Porcupine) when the Great Fire of 1911 destroyed everything it touched. Roza’s account of the fire contained references such as a large steamboat, overcrowded to the gunwales, which caught fire and all the passengers jumped into the water screaming, and the bridge crossing part of Porcupine Lake where she had taken refuge had also caught fire and collapsed, forcing her to jump into the water and hold on to a log she shared with seven men and a stray dog.

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By 1917 she had disappeared from both mining camps and reappeared in Swastika, where she staked a claim next to the Lucky Baldwin mine. Not wanting a claim rider to cheat on her, she pitched a tent on the property and lived there for a year until she sold it to the Sylvanite Mining Company for $ 40,000. Roza put this money in the bank and moved into a cabin in the swastika camp where she worked as a cook.

Mining activity was booming near Kirkland Lake, with several new mines in operation employing many miners. Always in search of wealth, Roza invested in mining stocks while working as a cook in Swastika, but she also had a keen eye for real estate and bought several lots on what would become ‘The Mile of Gold’ – Government Road in Kirkland Lake.

Watch for Part 2 of Roza Brown’s story next week.

This is my perspective from Over the Hill.