The Madera County Historian documents the history of Madera County and was published by the Madera Historical Society beginning in 1961. This is issue 3 of volume 1 and totaled 6 pages.
Starting on June 21, 1880, a group of Madera County friends made a camping trip to Yosemite Valley. They kept a diary of their vacation, taking turns in writing of their impressions and progress. The Daulton’s, joint editors of this article, narrate the trip for us while highlighting specific passages from the Diary itself and the words of those who wrote the Diary. Names of the authors of the Diary were C. E. Brown, his wife Matilda Gilmore Brown; Tillie’s half-brother Willie Mace; Jack and Jonathan Daulton and their sisters Ida and Agnes; and Addie Raynor.
This article included a full-page photo of some of the members of the 1880 camping trip to Yosemite Valley on page 3. Left to right standing: Jonathon Daulton, Willie Mace, Jack Daulton, Dr. G. E. Brown. Left to right seated: Agnes Daulton, Adelaide Raynor, Ina Mace, Mrs. Mace, Mrs. Tillie Brown and Ida Daulton.
Mention is made of a book called In The Heart of the Sierras by J. M. Hutchings (page 272) where one of the stops taken by the camping crew became a stage stop and later was called Bates Station. A map printed in this manuscript of the various routes to Yosemite is included here. The book can be found online in PDF format and Read Format.
Mention is made in this issue of a book titled The Last of the California Rangers by L. Crossley-Batt on page 5. This book is available online in PDF format and HTML format. This book is the biography of Captain William James Howard (1829–January 1924), the last surviving member of the California State Rangers. Howard ranched west of Mariposa and joined the Rangers, a posse formed by Harry Love to stop bandit gangs in central California. When the camping party left Mirror Lake they expected to find a house that William James Howard had built in 1874, only to find it burned to the ground.
Another stop on the camping trip was an excursion to “Snow’s (page 5).” Albert Snow built his “La Casa Nevada” in 1869-1870 and C. P. Russell mentions the building of the trail to it in One Hundred Years in Yosemite, p. 80. This book is available online in PDF format and HTML format.
Table of Contents:
- From an 1880 Diary, edited by Mr. and Mrs. H. Clay Daulton