When disaster struck on Christmas Eve, 1906
The new courthouse and jail were the pride of the county for a short while. Then disaster struck on Christmas Eve, 1906. Sometime in the afternoon of December 24, an arsonist broke into the courthouse and set a fire on the second story using kerosene and dirty rags. The granite, of course, did not burn, […]
Madera gets a new courthouse
At the turn of the 20th century, Madera finally began to build a courthouse. Prior to that, county business was done at various offices on Yosemite Avenue. This 1900 photograph shows the crowd assembled for the laying of the cornerstone of the new courthouse. The building was constructed with granite brought down from Raymond. Among […]
Madera in the 1880s
Madera celebrated its fourth birthday in 1880, firmly ensconced along the Southern Pacific Railroad, between Berenda to the north and Borden to the south. Within five years, its population of 231 would grow to 500 (130 of them voters), and its downtown area would begin to take on the trappings of a typical pioneer village. […]
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 […]
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 […]
The Jay Chapel Story
In 1893, Richard Curtis Jay made a coffin for an indigent woman who had died on the dole. The embalmer who was serving Madera at the time refused to give the woman a funeral because she had no money. Jay stepped in and took care of the matter. The insensitivity of the embalmer prompted Jay […]
The Madera Flume
This rare 1898 photograph of flume construction shows what a Herculean task it was to build the 56-mile water slide. The trough traversed a rugged country far from roads during its journey. In many places, it literally clung to the sides of steep bluffs; at other points tiptoed precariously across deep ravines on spindly trestles. […]
The Six-Mile House of the Madera Flume
These two unidentified women went to a lot of trouble to get their picture taken on this flume tender’s house c. 1900. Known as the Six-Mile House, it was one of a string of flume tender stations along the lumber flume. As the name indicates, it was six miles from Madera. The flume tenders had […]
