Liberty Lake Pioneer Saw Century Of Progress

Amanda Madson, who was born in a homesteader’s cabin at Liberty Lake in 1892 and tended cattle on the same land into her late 90s, died last week.

She was 103.

A relative remembered the life-long Valley resident as a strong-willed but caring woman who loved life.

Niece Elaine Lippert said Madson remained upbeat during the last years of her life even though a stroke left her unable to get around without the help of a wheelchair.

Until the stroke, Madson took care of 27 head of cattle that roamed the family’s 280-ranch on the west end of the lake.

Neighbors remembered a 95-year-old Madson chasing the cows when they broke out of their pen in 1987.

“She was tough, boy,” Lippert said. “You don’t find them like that very often.”

After the stroke, Madson moved into the Valley Good Samaritan Center, where she composed poetry.

The Madson family had been a fixture at Liberty Lake since 1887, when Amanda Madson’s father bought the family ranch from a Canadian guide and trapper named Steve Liberty, for whom the lake is named.

Madson is believed to be the first child other than a Native American to be born at the lake. She attended the first class at the Liberty Lake grade school in 1897.

She graduated from high school in Coeur d’Alene and received a teaching degree from Coeur d’Alene College in 1912.

Madson spent 35 years as a school teacher in the Spokane area and more than 40 years teaching Sunday school.

Her family donated the land on which the Liberty Lake Community Church now stands, and Madson herself donated the church’s bell.

“The work you do keeps you happy. The things you accomplish keep you happy,” Madson said in an interview on her 100th birthday in 1992.

Madson never married and never left the family ranch.

“Well, that was home,” she said in 1992.

The ranch was sold recently and the house torn down.

“It’s just the end of an era, is what it is,” Lippert said.

Madson, who died last Thursday, was buried Monday at Fairmont Memorial Park, in one of the plots she purchased for the family in 1935, her niece said.

She is survived by a sister, Elma C. Nashe of Spokane, and numerous nieces and nephews.

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