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is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of 2009, it has a population of approximately 57,594 .
Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the area around Rosemead was populated by Amerindians of the Tongva or Gabrielino ethnic group. In 1771, the Spanish founded the first San Gabriel mission in the area that is now known as Whittier Narrows on the border between Montebello and Rosemead. Due to flooding issues, the mission was moved to its present location in San Gabriel in 1775.
During the Spanish colonial period the area now covered by the City of Rosemead was part of the land administered by the San Gabriel Mission. After Mexican independence, the land was distributed to private citizens as part of the Mexican government's secularization act of 1834. The southern part of Rosemead was part of a ranch named Potrero Grande (Large Pasture) which was originally granted to an Amerindian man named Manuel Antonio, who was a "mayordomo" (overseer) at the San Gabriel Mission. The ranch was later transferred to Juan Matias Sánchez.
Following the Mexican-American War and the 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. In 1852, John Guess and his wife Harriet moved into the San Gabriel Valley from Conway County, Arkansas.
In 1855 the couple camped where present-day Savannah Elemetary School is located on Rio Hondo Avenue. They rented land afterwards as the years passed. In 1867, John Guess purchased of a ranch and named it Savanna. 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 of land between what is now Rosemead Boulevard and Walnut Grove Avenue. Rose bred and trained horses for a living. He later named his ranch "Rosemeade." The name Rosemeade was later shortened to Rosemead and adopted by the community, and the area flourished with various rabbit and chicken farms.
On August 4, 1959, the citizens of Rosemead elected to incorporate Rosemead into a city.