Madera County Historian

A joint partnership between California Revealed and Sierra Historic Sites Association has enabled 49 issues of the Madera County Historian to be digitized and freely made available online. We can only hope for those researching their Madera County California genealogy that the partnership will continue to digitize the remaining issues.

The Madera County Historian was a quarterly published by the Madera County Historical Society starting in 1961. I do believe they have stopped publishing this quarterly, but am not certain as to when.

Due to copyright restrictions, only reading of the original material and not downloading are enabled.

The Madera County Historian, Volume 3, Issue 1

The Madera County Historian documents the history of Madera County and was published by the Madera Historical Society beginning in 1961. This is issue 1 of volume 3, was published in January of 1963 and totaled 8 pages. Since the 1800s California has diverted its rivers to assist farmers in producing the crops that feed America. Harry Barnes takes the fragmentary evidence starting in 1871/2 and provides a history of the efforts to divert the Fresno River in the first article in this issue. The man largely behind this early diversions, Isaac Friedlander, would create the roots of the future … Read more

The Madera County Historian, Volume 2, Issue 4

The Madera County Historian documents the history of Madera County and was published by the Madera Historical Society beginning in 1961. This is issue 4 of volume 2, was published in Oct of 1962 and totaled 8 pages. Doris E. Foster continues her article on the First Annual California Mission Meeting held in 1961 that she started in Issue 3 of Volume 2, July 1962. This portion of her article discusses the tour of Mission San Antonio that the delegates made. The second article also brings to close an entertaining story about the gentleman stage robber Kenneth Hopper “met” while … Read more

The Madera County Historian, Volume 2, Issue 3

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 2, was published in July of 1962 and totaled 8 pages. A visit to one or more of the four Presbyterian Missions in California is like walking back two hundred years. It is in these missions that you see, feel, and know living history because today the Padres provide a direct link with the past. And it is in these missions where you become a part of history by standing on the very … Read more

The Madera County Historian, Volume 2, Issue 2

The Madera County Historian documents the history of Madera County and was published by the Madera Historical Society beginning in 1961. This is issue 2 of volume 2, was published in April of 1962 and totaled 8 pages. The issue starts out with an article by Archie Marston concerning the beginnings of the town of Chowchilla, California. Marston deals with the “legends” of the Chowchilla area, properly placing them each in their place before he discusses the real story of Chowchilla and the dreams of one man, Orlando Alison Robertson, the “Father of Chowchilla.”. On page 3 mention is made … Read more

The Madera County Historian, Volume 2, Issue 1

The Madera County Historian documents the history of Madera County and was published by the Madera Historical Society beginning in 1961. This is issue 1 of volume 2, was published in January of 1962 and totaled 8 pages. This issue starts out with the Mordecai family of Madera County who descend from Augustus Mordecai and Rosina Young of Richmond, Virginia. After the Civil War, and after their father’s death, the youngest, John Mordecai headed West by ship with others from the area in Virginia and settled in the San Joaquin Valley. His descendants would settle upon the Ranch they called … Read more

The Madera County Historian, Volume 1, Issue 4

The Madera County Historian documents the history of Madera County and was published by the Madera Historical Society beginning in 1961. This is issue 5 and totaled 8 pages. Doris and Clyde Foster, members of the Madera County Historical Society, wrote and submitted two articles on the history of the Foster Hogue Ranch. The first looks at the first hundred years of this famous ranch. The couple share interesting tidbits of factual history interspersed with the names of those pioneers who contributed to the development of the Hogue Ranch, which was actually the Ross Ranch until the Hogue family came … Read more

The Madera County Historian, Volume 1, Supplement

This alphabetical list was taken from the the original roster of John C. Fremont’s California Battalion, nine companies of volunteers which operated against the Mexican forces in California at the time of the occupation of the country by the United States (1846-1847).

The Madera County Historian, Volume 1, Issue 3

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.

The Madera County Historian, Volume 1, Issue 2

This issue starts with an article written by the President of the Madera County Historical Society, Nathan C. Sweet. Nathan examines an original Time Book from the E.W. Chapman Ranch situated just outside Madera, California which covered the year of 1876. He describes various facts he can elicit from it, such as the wages in 1876 for the farm hands, a description of grain raising at that time, and how straw was used for fuel. Arch Westfall gives a brief accounting of his father Fremont Westfall, and mother, Isabelle Smither, arrival and settlement in Madera County in 1895. Finally, Muriel W. Sweet describes an early trip her mother, Miss Annie Hoyt, made to Yosemite from Vassar College in 1872.

The Madera County Historian, Volume 1, Issue 1

This inaugural issue begins with a review of the Madera County Historical Society activities for the year 1960. Then Guy Crow relives the construction days of the Central Pacific Railroad as it was being built through the San Joaquin Valley to what was then the town of Berendo and now is a ghost town.