When it was reported that the town of Raymond was going to be honored with a visit from President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903, everyone wanted a piece of the action, especially the flatlanders around Berenda and Madera. Before it was all over, they got their wish, but it didn't make some Fresno folks very happy.

Meanwhile the folks from the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company were busy making sure they would not be forgotten.

When the White House announced that Abraham and Mary Lincoln would be attending the theater on that Good Friday evening, Leonard Grover was sure the President would choose his establishment. He was featuring "Aladdin or His Wonderful Lamp" while his competitor, John Ford, was playing "Our American Cousin."

Actually, nobody knew for sure where the Lincoln's would wind up that night. That is why John Wilkes Booth reconnoitered both Grover's and Ford's Theaters before he made his final plans to assassinate the president.

Not everyone rejoiced at the prospect of creating a new county in 1893. Certainly the sentiment south of the San Joaquin River was decidedly anti-divisionist. Numerous public meetings were held in Fresno to map a strategy for thwarting the move to carve Madera County out of Fresno County's First Supervisorial District.

Strong feelings were expressed on both sides of the issue, and occasionally violence was the result. It was for that reason that Senator George Goucher carried a pistol.