No part of the history of Madera is more interesting than that of the Chinese who settled here in the 19th century, and of those pioneer residents, none raises eyebrows any more quickly than the story of Ah Tye.
We don’t know when he came to Madera, but we do know that by 1903 Ah Tye was working for Mrs. Yee Chung, widow of a prosperous Madera County fruit merchant.
His tale begins on August 15 of that year when Jean Chailleau, a Frenchman who owned a small orchard southwest of town, came to Madera looking for Judge Joe Barcroft. He wanted to tell him that he had shot a man by mistake the previous night.