Madison H. Bear a farmer and dairyman near Newport, was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, December 6, 1841, the fifth child in a family of eight children of David and Maria (Anderson) Bear. Was educated in Harrisonburg and also worked upon his father’s farm until he was twenty-seven years of age, when he married Miss Cornelia Firebaugh, of Rockbridge County, Virginia, and a daughter of John and Ella (McCutchen) Firebaugh. Mr. Bear then bought 120 acres of land four miles west of Harrisonburg and managed a farm there four years; selling out then, he came, in November, 1873, to California, rented land two years and then purchased the tract which he now occupies, half a mile east of Newport. For some years past he has been very successful in the dairy business.
Politically he is an earnest and intelligent supporter of the Democratic party. He served as a soldier in the Confederate army, was captured in the Wilderness May 10, 1864, and held as a prisoner at Fort Delaware until the close of the war. He is a member of the Presbyterian Church, in which for fourteen years he has held the office of elder. He has the following named children: Ernest C., Lena K., Irene E. and David A.