Tragedy on the Rivas Ranch

For The Madera Tribune

G.L. Burke was taken to the cemetery in this motorized hearse instead of Jay’s horse-drawn hearse.

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Throughout its 131-year history, officials of Madera County have had to deal with a variety of crises. Lawmen, firefighters, and various elected officials have from time to time been called upon to perform tasks that demanded dedication above and beyond the call of duty. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the history of the coroner’s office. 

One of Madera County’s first coroners was Richard Curtis Jay, founder of Jay’s Chapel and a pioneer in this area. Upon the retirement of the elder Jay, his son, Robert Seldon Jay, assumed the business, as well as the position of coroner, and one day in early December 1915, the younger Jay learned the full implications of holding his father’s office.

It was in the afternoon of December 8, that Jay received a call from a frantic young lady by the name of Inez Rivas, informing him that she had found a man dead near a cabin not far from her home. The Rivas family knew the deceased to be one G.L. Burke, age 55, who had been living on his homestead in the hills for a number of years. He had been in poor health for as long as the Rivas family had known him, having come to the foothills of Madera County on account of a respiratory condition.