Henry Clay Daulton

Henry Clay Daulton (7 April 1827 – 28 October 1893) was an American rancher and public official who helped to create Madera County, California. Starting young, he worked as a farmhand. A series of family deaths, including his parents, sent him and his brothers looking for work outside Hannibal. He left in 1850 to join the California Gold Rush with his brother Wakeman arriving in August in El Dorado County. He prospected for two years until, seeing merchants making more money than miners, he returned east via Panama to purchase sheep and cattle.

Daulton traveled back overland with Thomas Hildreth's party, of which he was the second-in-command, arriving in Los Angeles in November 1853. On this journey he found some gold in the Rocky Mountains. The party was also attacked by Indians, but they fended them off. in an area twelve miles north of what is now Madera. In 1865, a total of approximately 18,000 acres. and restocked the livestock. It was passed through his family after his death. and had ten children. In May 1893, residents voted in favor of forming the county.

At his funeral, more than a hundred buggies lined up, the total cortege being more than a mile long. The fraternal organizations of which he was a member participated in his funeral.

He is a member of the Hall of Great Westerners, inducted in 1958.