Eighteen-ninety-three was a watershed year in Madera’s history. That is when the northern portion of Fresno County was sliced off to form Madera County. The battle to accomplish this is well-known, but what is not so well known is the part that Madera County’s first Superior Court Judge, William M. Conley, played in the drama.
In 1892, Conley ran for the office of Merced County District Attorney but was defeated. Casting about elsewhere for a more propitious place to build his future, the 26-year-old lawyer came to Madera to rest after his campaign. As fate would have it, the sentiments for county division were running rampant here. They were absolutely uncontainable, and Conley hopped on the band wagon.
The alert and ambitious young attorney promptly made a couple of speeches in favor of the proposed county division. The next day a group of very impressed local citizens asked him to represent Madera in Sacramento in the effort to create Madera County since he knew many of the state legislators personally.