Description
The Madera County, California Sheriff's office used this wanted and
reward circular scrapbook from 1895-1911. The scrapbook of 246 pages is
comprised of reward and wanted notices from counties all over California and
from other states as far away as Illinois and New York. Notices are in the form
of postcards, printed flyers, and written letters. Many notices include
photographs of the criminals or missing persons. There are detailed
descriptions of stolen property and the suspected individuals. Many of the
descriptions include Bertillon measurements. Crimes run the gamut from bigamy
to theft. There are a number of circulars from detective agencies and from
state prisons at Folsom, San Quentin and the Preston School of Industry, Ione.
The scrapbook provides a review of criminals in California and the names of law
officers in the state for the years covered.
Background
Madera, was a lumber town that had been created when the California
Lumber Company built a flume from their timber properties to the railroad
(1876). For this reason, "Madera," the Spanish word for lumber, was chosen as
the town's name. On March 11, 1893, that part of Fresno County north and west
of the San Joaquin River was organized as a new county and named after the
town. The granite city jail was built in 1876 and was the one of the oldest
jails in California when torn down (ca. 1990). During the time in which these
records were kept, S. W. Westfall, C.A.H. Warfield and S. C. Cornell were
sheriffs in Madera County, while Frank B. Braire, was Madera city Chief of
Police.