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By Bill Coate

Shepherd's Home as it looks today. Henry Clay Daulton built this house in 1865. When William King Heiskell joined the gold rush to Alaska, he left his daughter, Lucile, in the care of his mother-in-law, Mary Jane Daulton. Lucile lived a good portion of her early life in this house with her grandmother.

Photo by: For The Madera Tribune

Lucile Heiskell Desmond left a legacy in Madera County that will be difficult to match. By the time of her death in 1967, she had dedicated 32 years of her life to teaching. She had been a lifelong, compassionate neighbor to her fellow Maderans and had developed a lifetime commitment to her community.

How can such devotion be explained? How can it be that one individual can make such a mark in her journey of life, while so many others pass through with hardly a notice? To a large extent the answer must remain speculative, but surely in the case of Desmond a look at the pioneer spirit which she emulated will give a hint as to some of the reasons for her impact upon Madera.

The pioneer spirit that rested upon Lucile Heiskell Desmond had its California origins when two young men, Tyler Davis Heiskell and Henry Clay Daulton, joined the gold rush in 1849. Both had come via the Platte River route at about the same time. Heiskell settled in El Dorado County and commenced his mining operations at "Indian Diggings." Daulton, in company with his brother, Wakeman, staked his claim near Hangtown (present day Placerville).

Both men dug in to pry their fortunes from the land of Ophir but in the main were unsuccessful in their search for gold. They should not, however, be regarded as failures. They left something for future generations to build upon. It was their pioneer spirit that they passed on to their granddaughter, Lucile.

When the placer mining gave out, Heiskell turned to politics. He served as a representative to the state legislature from El Dorado County. Within a few years, he moved to Stanislaus County and served that area as a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1878.

Daulton also turned to politics. After going back to Missouri and then returning to California in 1853, he finally settled down in Fresno County. For nine years, beginning in 1865, he served as chairman of the Board of Supervisors. All the while, he was building a huge sheep and cattle operation on a 17,000 acre spread in the northern end of what was then Fresno County. Both Heiskell and Daulton were pioneers of the first water, and they passed this legacy on to their children.

As fate would have it, Tyler Heiskell's son, William, also made his way to northern Fresno County, and it wasn't long before he was in the employ of Daulton. It is no surprise that in the course of his sheep tending, young Heiskell met Daulton's children - in particular, Agnes.

Agnes Daulton was the sixth child of Henry Clay Daulton and his wife, Mary Jane. She was the last Daulton child to be born in the old home place, before Shepherd's home was built in 1865. When young Heiskell showed an interest in her, she reciprocated the sentiment, and soon the couple became engaged.

On April 6, 1881, William King Heiskell and Agnes Daulton were married at Shepherd's Home, and the pioneer spirit of Tyler Heiskell and H.C. Daulton were joined. By this time, William had his own sheep and was doing a little mining. In time the couple had four children who lived to maturity - all girls. The youngest of these was Lucile.

On Nov. 27, 1895, when Lucile was just four years old, her mother died. Soon after that, her father caught a powerful case of the gold fever and took off for Alaska. Lucile and her three sisters were left with their grandmother, Mary Jane Daulton, who was by that time a widow.

Herein lies, perhaps, the most decisive ingredient in the makeup of Lucile Heiskell Desmond. Living at Shepherd's Home with her grandmother, she learned of that rugged pioneer life that had brought the Daultons to California and had pushed them into playing their part in the creation of Madera County. She learned of the hardships and of triumph over tragedy. She learned of determination and the cultivation of an indomitable will to overcome adversity. At the knees of her grandmother, she absorbed the attributes of a pioneer, and when she was grown, she put them to work.

Except for a short time at the Daulton home in Oakland, Lucile's early school years were completed at the Daulton School near the Sam Wood ranch. After grammar school, she attended Madera High School, graduating in 1909 in a class of 12 among which included her cousin Henry Clay Daulton II and the man she would marry, Frank Desmond.

In the fall of 1909, Lucile enrolled at San Jose State Normal School and earned her teaching credential in 1912. She began a teaching career in Madera County, which would take her to Eastin, Alpha, Webster, Ripperdan, Lincoln, Pershing, and Washington Schools. At three of these institutions, she served as principal.

In typical pioneer fashion, Lucile Desmond was not content to just receive; she also felt a strong sense of responsibility to give back. From 1936 to 1947, she served on the Madera County Board of Education, which at the time was an appointed position. She was instrumental in organizing the Camp Fire Girls and was actively involved with the Boy Scouts and 4-H. Desmond served on the Madera County Probation Board, the first Committee of Recreation for the City of Madera, Chairperson for the March of Dimes for several years, and Worthy Adviser for the Order of Rainbow Girls.

In addition, Lucile Desmond served in the P.T.A., the Madera Business and Professional Women, and the state central committee of the Democratic Party. She was also a loyal member of the Order of Eastern Star and the Trinity Episcopal Church.

Indeed, Madera County was blessed to have been the recipient of the labors of such a person. Lucile Heiskell Desmond was extraordinary in every sense, and one is forced to wonder if those pioneer traditions that coalesced for her at Shepherd's Home were not in some measure responsible for her own drive.

Bill Coate William "Bill" Coate is a San Joaquin Valley historian, author, television personality and retired public school teacher with 36 years of classroom experience. He is the award-winning founder of the Madera Method, a research-based educational program that uses primary source materials to help students explore history. He writes about the past of our nation and valley with a weekly column and story. He also writes articles pertaining to local schools. The Madera Tribune online subscription To subscribe or log on, CLICK HERE. For more information first, CLICK HERE.