Summertime was no picnic in Madera

For The Madera Tribune

Madera kept Dr. Dow Ransom busy during the summertime.

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Today summertime means fun and games for many Maderans, especially the children, but it hasn’t always been that way. Once upon a time, Maderans, especially the doctors, faced summertime with a certain level of trepidation.

It seems that July was a particularly fateful month. Just consider some of the traumatic cases Dr. Dow Ransom had to face in Madera every time his calendar hit the seventh month of the year.

The pioneer doctor’s succession of July tragedies began in 1911. It seems that a newcomer to Madera from Orange County, Ray Smith, had decided to take a wagon ride with his family on the afternoon of July 22. He hitched up the two-seated vehicle and put his wife and 18-month-old daughter, Jean Lucile, in the rear while he took his place in the front. He slapped the reins and the team pulled the wagon out onto the road.