The Sheriff’s granddaughter sat composed and alert while I probed her memory for pieces of Madera County’s past. She told me of her days in Pershing School and then Lincoln School.

The woman left her little Italian village in the province of Lucca and walked along the dusty road with a cart full of flowers to sell. Suddenly she stopped and thought,

If they ever establish a Madera County Hall of Fame, Judge William M. Conley will surely be near the top of the list. He became the first Superior Court Judge of

Once upon a time herds of antelope roamed over much of the San Joaquin Valley. So numerous were they in the 19th century that one community not far from Madera took

The 4th of July has become one of America’s most celebrated holidays. Family barbecues, homemade ice cream, and fireworks consume the nation, as its citizens pay tribute to what they consider

The Rev. William B. McElwee was an ecclesiastical workhorse. He and his wife, Emily, came to Madera in 1891 to pastor the local Presbyterian Church. He had been born in Missouri

The Chinese were among the first settlers in Madera. Most of them came here from the little town of Borden, four miles to the south. By the late 19th century a

Madera’s early history has several watersheds. The town was founded in 1876; it became the county seat in 1893. Construction of the brand new granite courthouse was commenced in 1900, and

GOLD! That precious metal drew thousands of placer miners to what is now Madera County, and by 1851 they were calling their gathering Grub Gulch. Through the years Grub Gulch emerged

One of the worst accidents in Madera’s history took place on May 4, 1901, when Fred Kirkpatrick, a young man in the full flush of his manhood, was accidentally killed while