W.C. Tighe, Madera’s oldest merchant died on April 11, 1950, after a lingering illness. He was 82 years old. Tighe was known to at least two generations of Maderans as the proprietor of Tighe’s Department Store on Yosemite Avenue between C and D Streets.
The news passed quickly from one Maderan to another on that Wednesday morning, and they began to tell anecdotes by the dozens about this early resident. Bill Tighe had grown up with Madera. He helped make Madera. Now in 1950, he joined a long list of sturdy pioneers who left their mark on this community and became a piece of its colorful past.
Bill was born in Oakland on Jan. 5, 1868, just as the nation was licking its wounds from the Civil War. He attended the Oakland Grammar School, and that was to be the only formal education he ever received. At the age of 13, he went to work in a men’s store and soon acquitted himself most admirably in the field of business. But he was never quite satisfied. Bill had a speculative streak in him. He wanted something more out of life than clerking in a clothing store for someone else. That’s when he heard about Madera.