For The Madera Tribune George W. Mordecai, the Prince of Cottonwood Creek. This is the beginning of the story of how Cottonwood Creek became the magnet that drew Madera County’s founding father to California. It also tells how changing the name of “Cesar Chavez” school to “Cottonwood Creek” school was a serendipitous decision. It all began in 1868 when a group of Southern planters decided to abandon Dixie to escape the Yankee rule of Reconstruction. Three of the Rebels, S. A.

For The Madera Tribune This photograph of Spring Valley School in O’Neals was taken in 1894, one year after Victor Adams was hanged from a tree just up the road from the school. His body was left hanging for two days, and youngsters walking to school no doubt contemplated the consequences of breaking the law. Madera County has generally been a law-abiding place. Most of the time law and order has prevailed. Every once in a while, however, the people have taken things in their

For The Madera Tribune The Madera Theater. As Madera moved into the 1940s, many looked forward to the return of good times. The Great Depression was over, and Prohibition had wilted away. Agriculture had replaced lumber as the town’s economic base, and business downtown was booming. J.C. Penny, located on the corner of E Street and Yosemite Avenue, was offering the latest in fashions at low, low prices, and Montgomery Ward was shocking the town with its Wednesday sales, one o

For The Madera Tribune Madera’s Captain R.P. Mace led the celebration of the Democratic victory in the election of 1884. In November of 1884, Grover Cleveland was elected to the Presidency of the United States, the first Democrat to be so honored since 1856, and his party was jubilant. Joyous celebrations proliferated throughout the nation, but none like the one thrown in Madera. Most of the nation’s Democrats waited until the votes were counted before throwing a victory part

For The Madera Tribune The Fountain Saloon was located at Gateway and Yosemite. George Gruber, the owner, is shown here, second from the left. In 1907, Madera with a population of just more than 2,000, had 13 saloons within its city limits. The town’s trustees went on record as opposing such a high saloon/citizen ratio, and expressed a determination to reduce it. In this they were supported by a vocal segment of the population, especially the Women’s Christian Temperance Unio

For The Madera Tribune Cockfighting has always been popular in Madera. Posing with their birds before a fight in 1905 are, clockwise from top left, John Barnett, Walter Brown, Frank Barnett, and Fred Barnett. John Barnett later became sheriff of Madera County. “Two men arrested in cockfight raid at Madera home.” “Deputies arrest 2 at cockfight.” “Maderan faces cockfighting charges.” These recent headlines in the Madera Tribune give evidence of the persistence of cockfighting

For The Madera Tribune Ed Gwartney. The late Ed Gwartney was a self-described product of the “Okie” migration who never earned a high school diploma but became a pathfinder of new trails in the teaching of history. He was the founder of the James Monroe Children’s Museum, and he has left it to others to build on his passion that created the unique educational laboratory for teaching California history on the campus of James Monroe Elementary School. Gwartney and his family w

For The Madera Tribune Chief Encouragement Officer Carles Beckett. When Carles Beckett graduated from Fresno State in 1967 and began his career in education, he could look back on his first 22 years and recognize that his life had been a series of miracles. Born in Piggott, Arkansas, he spent his first nine years living in a tent in a Buckeye, Arizona cotton camp and in a chicken coop on a chicken ranch in Petaluma, California. In 1954, his father was killed in a car crash,