Captain Russel Perry Mace: Madera’s Innkeeper
Mace was born in Boston on May 14, 1820, the son of a financially strapped manufacturer of carpenter tools. He was adopted by an uncle and spent his boyhood days on a farm in Putney, Vermont. Becoming distressed with school and life in the country and anticipating the delights of a life at sea, young […]
Robbery in Berenda
It was late in February when Leonard Hammond walked into the saloon of the Vignolo Hotel in Berenda. The spacious, two-story building was full and running over. The rooms were all occupied and the bartender was having a time keeping up with the requests for libations. Business in Berenda had been brisk throughout 1901; the […]
Madera’s Southern Hotel
Near the turn of the 20th century, the Southern Hotel, shown here, was located on Madera’s North B Street. With a plank sidewalk running in front, the frame structure sat east of Curtin’s Livery Stable. Most of the time it was business as usual at the Southern Hotel, but once the proprietor, J.M. Hambleton, became […]
Home of Return Roberts, Madera’s lumber magnate
Pictured in 1890, this home on North C Street was built by Return Roberts, Madera’s lumber magnate. Dr. Dow Ransom later purchased the home. In the 1950s, the Madera Tribune purchased the home and tore it down, announcing that it was going to build its newspaper plant on the site. Alas, not one newspaper was […]
The House That Lumber Built
The E.H. Cox residence, located on North C Street in Madera, was known as “the house that lumber built.” Elmer Cox came to Madera in the 1880s and worked as a telegraph operator. By the turn of the century, he was running the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company. The fact that the enterprise lasted so […]
Madera almost died in infancy
Although the search for precious metals brought the first pioneers to what is now Madera County, that quest does not account for the establishment of civilization in this area. More than picks and shovels were needed to lay a foundation here. It was the lumber industry that gave the local economy its first permanent base. […]
How did Madera High School come to be?
The crowd gathered at the Athletic Hall on Yosemite Avenue for Madera High School’s commencement exercise in June 1903. Folks had to climb the stairs to the second floor that night, as they had for the past six years, but this would be the last time. Madera was going to have a new high school […]
Lumber flume meant work and fun
During the 33-year existence of the flume, which gave birth to Madera, more than one billion feet of lumber, floated down the big trough from the mountains toward the mill near where Millview School now stands. Built in 1876, by the California Lumber Company, the V-flume followed along mountainsides, through steep canyons, and often had […]
Richard Nixon, Madera, and the ‘Checkers Speech’
Thursday, Sept. 18, 1952, was a big day for both Senator Richard M. Nixon and the City of Madera. It was a presidential election year, and California’s junior senator had been chosen by General Dwight David Eisenhower to be his running mate in the race for the White House. Everybody was giving the Republican ticket […]
The California Conquest
The 2021-2022 California Conquest research project, the first Madera Method project by Madera South High School students, was an ambitious undertaking spearheaded by eager third-year teacher Valerie Shelton and 14 seniors in her elective historical literacy course. Unsure of where to begin, Ms. Shelton met with Madera Method founder Bill Coate and perused the archive […]
