Raymond went hog wild

For The Madera Tribune

The town of Raymond may have been a little rough around the edges, but occasionally it had a moment of culture like the time President Roosevelt visited the little village in 1903.

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After the little mountain town of Raymond was founded in 1885, it had some growing pains. There were a few sublime moments like that visit from President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903, but there were also those ridiculous episodes like that war over hogs between David Helmuth and Michael Hamerich that almost got the latter killed and the former put in jail in 1916.

Helmuth was a 43-year-old who had immigrated from Russia to Raymond, and Hamerich was a 60-year-old who had come to the Madera County foothills from Germany. They lived near each other about 10 miles outside of Raymond.

The two men didn’t cause any trouble for anyone except Constable Tom Leonard. The lawman was constantly bombarded by complaints from Hamerich that Helmuth’s hogs spent all of their time on his property rooting up his sizable garden. It all came to a head on March 20, 1916,