The Hindorff
Homestead at
Vallecitos...
For
Per Gustav and Leanore Hindorff
These pictures were taken
of Gus & Leanore Hindorff about the time that they were living on the Homestead
Ranch at Rainbow. . .their last 5 years together.
Temecula, California 1885
These were scanned from old
Xerox copies I had since the 70s. I tried to clean them up as best I could.
Maybe I can get a better copy to replace these, but they will have to do for
now. Suffice to
show how much the TB had aged Gus at only 29 yrs of age, and to show how the
stress of his illness took its toll on them both.
They were only in their late twenties when these photos were taken in 1885.
The HINDORFF
CHILDREN - (CLICK on thumbnail images to view larger versions)
Leora Anna HINDORFF age 4 yrs. & Eric Charles HINDORFF age 2 yrs - 1885,
Temecula, California - (taken
at the same time as the above photo of Gus & Leanore, their parents)
Dora Alma "Dode" HINDORFF (infant) - 1886, Temecula, California
SWEDEN- A little about his nativity
Per Gustav Hindorff
was
born on 23 Jan 1856 in Stockholm (area) just southwest in Regne Parish,
Södermanland län, Sweden. When Gus (as he was known by family and friends) was
about seven years old, streetcar or train ran over both of his legs. The doctors
amputated the worst leg, and were about to remove the other one, when his father
arrived. The doctors explained that the boy would probably die, from gangrene,
unless the other leg was removed. Eric refused to allow them to proceed, stating
that he would rather the boy die, than live without either leg. Gus recovered
and learned to walk again, on his new wooden leg. In later life, Gus carved his
own wooden leg, from heavy hardwood, and used a leather harness over his
shoulder, to keep the leg in place. In 1868 when the family left
Stockholm and immigrated to the USA, Per Gustav HINDORFF, who was
the eldest child, was only 11 yrs old.
Bible that belonged to Mrs. & Mr. P.G.
Hindorff
The table scarf under the Bible was embroidered by Leanore Hindorff many, many
years ago.
This old Bible is now in the
protective care of a Hindorff grandson.
Gus
and Leanore
had come to Temecula, California by
Emigrant Train in 1883,
from
Lewis, Cass county, Iowa, with
their toddler daughter, Leora Anna Hindorff,
age 2 years, and their infant son, Eric Charles Hindorff,
who was only 9 weeks old. Gus
came to Temecula to work with his former friend and employer in Lewis, Iowa, a
Mr. George Hind. George Hind
owned and operated a Saddle & Harness shop
in Temecula,
which then was in Northernmost part of San Diego County (now in southernmost
Riverside county). Later, Leanore's sisters, Martha VAUGHN-SHINLEY, Margaret
VAUGHN-NEWCOMB, & Alice VAUGHN-MACHADO, and their mother, Ann
BRADSHAW-VAUGHN also had came at an early date to the Temecula Valley from
Lewis, Iowa. Although Leanore had gone to "Normal School", which was for
students who had finished regular school and wished to become teachers, and had
taught school there. She grew up on a
Missouri
Farm
and later lived in Lewis, Iowa on a farm, and was no stranger to the
work it required. In 1884, Gus took over an abandoned homestead of 120 acres
located about 13 miles south of Temecula in the Rainbow Valley, then called
"Vallecitos".
(See old MAP below showing
the location of the Hindorff Homestead with notations for other Rainbow Valley
residents and businesses. This map was a sketch made from memory by their niece,
"Node").
They filed a Homestead
claim in Los Angeles on the abandoned claim with the California Land Office in
Los Angeles, with the intent to "Prove up" on the land, as required in the
Homestead Act. Apparently, there was no house on
the property at the time. In a
letter written by Gus to Leanore
in 1884 (he wrote '83), he wrote that he and "Hind"
had made several attempts to move "the house" that was up in
the mountains on Mr. Hind's property, down to the ranch in the valley.
The house,
which was an old abandoned cabin on George Hind's ranch, was partially dismantled and loaded onto a
team-drawn wagon and they were proceeding to haul it down the
mountains to the new Ranch-site at Vallecitos. However, it had
rained for three weeks straight and there was massive flooding. The Sante Fe
Rail Road tracks were washed away and the flooding did much destruction all the
way to San Diego, some fifty miles south. They were
finding it impossible to make much headway because of the muddy
& hazardous conditions. It says much about the man that he
did not let his physical handicap of having only one leg, daunt
him one bit. How they were able to move a house down a mountain
under all those circumstances is a testimonial of the Pioneer
spirit and fortitude the people of those times. He goes on to
tell her that he has planted a little vegetable garden. He says
there are some 'volunteers peas & potatoes' growing there,
which means they came back from whatever was left in the ground
the last season, or from seed, probably by the former
homesteader. Leanore and the babies are staying elsewhere,
possibly at the home of her sister Amanda (Vaughn) KEELER, until
the house could be made ready for them to join him and reunite
the little family, as soon as the weather permitted.
THE
LETTER - May 3 1884
Hind Rancho
................................................May
3 / 83 (84)
Dear Wife &
Babeyes
Well how are you all getting along by this time?
I have not haid a word from you yeat
but Harrey
(Harry
Hind) is
going to the post offive to
day & I ecspect to get some letters then.
Raining every day since I got here till yester =
= day. & the roads are in bad shape, but we
are
going to try to move the house down next -
Monday if it don't rain any more. We have got
it all apart & ready to haul.
page 2
I
have bean over to the place every day to work.
Have got some readishs & lettus & carrots
planted
& there is a big lot of Valinteere peas &
potatoes
growing...I have also a lot of squashuhs planted
an
going to plant some Beans to day.
I sent up to S.B. for that smallest box of
cutting floures &
so as sonne as it is pos able to travel
Hind is comming up after you
Will try & rig a four horse team & take the big wagon
He said he can laod you in that bag & Bag
age.
page 3
but
it is no use to start untill the raods are
settled.
When we want over to take the House down
we came near bog down & drove back. So you
se that it would be of little youse to start
untill
the raods is beatter.
Well I well have to come to a close as it is
about
time to off to work.
from Your loving
Husband
Gus H.
Back to story about the
New Homestead
On July 9, 1886, in
Temecula, a third baby was born to GUS & LEANORE HINDORFF. She was named
DORA ALMA HINDORFF. . . Gus had a younger 1/2 sister named Alma Hindorff. Dora
Alma Hindorff was known
all her life as "Dode. She married CHARLES EDWARD STUBBLEFIELD, "Charlie",
who had come to California from Missouri.
Sometime after Dora was
born in Temecula, Mr. Hind retired, due to ill health, and
sold the Harness shop to Gus.
Some of the old ledgers for his Saddle & Harness shop in Temecula show
that he did many different services for the surrounding
community: repaired shoes, built coffins, made saddles, made or
repaired harnesses, did carpentry work, repaired clocks, cleaned
guns, sharpened saws, and played his fiddle for local dances.
Once, a Warren boy cut his finger clear off. The parents held the
finger in place and rushed to Gus, who sewed it back on. The boy
eventually regained complete use of that finger.
At the 1976 HINDORFF
Family Reunion at Live Oak Park, Edward Stubblefield told me that P.G.
Hindorff's Saddle & Harness shop in Temecula was located on the west
side of the old Bank building in Temecula and that it
was still standing. I have written to Temecula
Historians and the city councilors and they all told me that they were not aware of
the Hindorff family. Apparently some of the old records were lost in a fire or
flood or something like that, so did they have any record of the contributions
Per Gustav Hindorff made to the community nor that the Hindorff Vaughn families,
other than Aunt Allie Machado, had been part of the 1880s Pioneer families who originally settled
in Temecula. They did not know the P. G. Hindorff had at one time held office as
the Justice of the Peace and had been the San Diego County Registrar of Voters
for Northern county.
(CLICK on this LINK to read the
1979 Newspaper Article below, that was from an Interview
with Edward Stubblefield about the Hindorff Family and the Old Homestead in
Rainbow from an interview of Edward Stubblefield, one of Gus & Leanore
Hindorff's grandson).
The FIDDLER
On the
weekends, there was plenty of work to be done to "prove up" on the homestead and
often there would be Community activities or dances, in which case, Gus was
often called upon to play his violin. Gus played his fiddle for all the
community dances in Temecula and Rainbow valley in those days. Times were hard
and folks liked to get together for a little recreational dancing. The whole
family would go and everyone would join in the fun. The ladies would go all out
to cook delicious foods for these dances and someone was bound to spike the
punch, if there wasn't anyone looking. His "fiddlin' music" was highly
valued by both communities. In his old business ledger, Gus Hindorff noted that
he was often paid as much as $5 a night for his fiddle playing. That was five
days wages in those days!
Knowing
the value of violins, Gus once took an old one in on a bill at the harness shop.
Rumor has it that it was "all to piece", and Gus put it back together and it
played good as new. This violin was very valuable and Gus had told Leanore,
never to allow it to be destroyed. Some years later, when the Hindorff family
moved to the newer house downtown on the corner of Pico & Hawthorn. it was left
in the house on the hill on Dougherty Street,
Leanore's first home in Fallbrook, where she stored some of her
things, The violin was burned when some boys who were playing with matches set
fire to the house. Leanore was broken hearted about losing Gus's precious
violin.
P.G. Hindorff was
considered an "educated man" in America in his day. He had attended school in
Sweden and then continued his education in America when the family Emigrated
from Sweden in 1868. In the 1870 Cass County, Iowa census, it states that "Pere Gustav Hindorff, age 14, attends school". Gus probably attended
school later in Cook County, Illinois, when his family lived in Riverside, now a
suburb of Chicago. Per Gustav HINDORFF learned to play the violin. He
belonged to the Great Western Band & Chicago Orchestra while the family
lived in Cook County, Illinois, in a suburb of Chicago. His father applied for
and was granted American Citizenship, so his children also became
'Naturalized Citizens", by virtue of their father's status. In 1875, the
Hindorff family returned to Iowa and the children completed their schooling in
the Iowa schools where the Immigrant family finally settled. So it should not be
so surprising to discover that Per Gustav Hindorff, a Swedish Immigrant and
Naturalized Citizen of the U.S.A., who could read and write, and "Calculate
& do sums", was appointed to the office of the San Diego County
Registrar of Voters in the late 1880s. He also served as the Justice of
the Peace for Temecula for a time, marrying 3 or 4 couples. Temecula was, at
that time, part of Northern San Diego County. It is now part of Southern
Riverside County.
Original Voter's Ballot Box for Northern
San Diego County
CLICK on thumbnail photo
to View Larger Image
The
following two-page letter is from the then Dept. Assessor, S. Clements ,
written June 3rd, 1889.. It is a scanned image of the actual letter written to
P.G. Hindorff, the Registrar of Voters for San Diego County at that time. It
is also immediately evident that there was a POLL TAX in Southern
California in the 1887. The Poll Tax was eventually rescinded by state
legislative act at some point after that.
"We know about the poll tax
because a handwritten letter still exists, sent to P. E. Hindorff on June
3, 1889, by a deputy assessor who had an Oceanside office. His name was S.
Clements. He lists the taxes from which he was enclosing receipts in the
letter - and one of them was poll tax, in the amount of $2. Hindorff, who was
serving as a deputy county clerk, lived in Temecula at that time.
"Of the voters in the official register of 1888, six gave Temecula as their
place of residence. The rest lived in Bonsall and De Luz and West Fallbrook, as
well as in this immediate Live Oak Park area. Most gave their occupation as
farmer, rancher, or beekeeper - but there was a lumber dealer, some carpenters,
a couple of physicians, a tanner, a watchman, a merchant or two, a mail carrier,
a furniture dealer, a teacher, a printer, a millwright, and a minister.
Obviously, a town had been founded and was growing.
"There are some very familiar names on the list: James Bonsall, Andrew
Clemmens, Charles Dicey,
Fred Fox, H. H. Gird,
Per G. Hindorff, Denver Lamb, J.P.M. Rainbow,
Charles V and Vital
C. Reche,
G. F. Van Velzer
- and others.
"Mrs. Margaret Hindorff-Ray is the granddaughter and great granddaughter of some
of those men, and my maternal aunt. I would like to thank her for letting me use
her stories and photo scans from her collection of early-day documents in my
research. The original ballot box those early-day voters used is housed in the old Fall Brook Schoolhouse." now the
Reche Community Club
Scan (1) of the old letter
Scan (2) of the old letter, showing
the envelope and and postal stamp.
(Images courtesy of Mrs. M. N.
Hindorff-Ray)
But, P.G.'s health did not improve. It was a
13 mile walk
to into Temecula to the Saddle & Harness shop- 26 miles round trip. They did not own a horse and buggy, so Gus had to walk,
and since the distance was too great for him to travel on foot every day,
Gus had to stay in town all week and return to the Hindorff Ranch on Saturday
evening. The trail up the mountain to Temecula Pass from Vallecitos
(Rainbow Valley) was a difficult ride by horse or mule in those
days, but on foot it had to have been a terribly difficult walk
for a man with a wooden leg. The heavy harness strap that he had
fashioned to hold his wooden leg in place was fastened tightly
across his chest and around his back. It pressed against his
chest, aggravating his condition. Starting from home early every
Monday morning, he had to start the long trek to Temecula up the
mountain to the top of the pass. From there, it was a steep Rocky
grade down into the Temecula Valley and across the Temecula River
to get to town. The return trip at the end of a long, hard
work-week on Saturday evening could not have been easy for him.
To "Prove up" on a homestead, one had to plant fruit trees, put in crops and
make other improvements on the land. The claimant had to show by the end of 6
years, that he had made the designated improvements. But, sadly, on August 20,
1889, at his Ranch in Rainbow (Vallecitos), San Diego County, California, Gus
died of Tuberculosis. He was only 33 years old, leaving behind his young wife
and three small children:
Leora, age 9, Eric, age 6, and Dora, age 3.
*NOTE:
Rainbow, California - W. J. Gould and the community's namesake, James P. M.
Rainbow, plotted the town site in 1887, after they purchased the original
homestead of Peter S. Larson. Vallecitos was later renamed Rainbow Valley
for a Mr. J. P.M.
RAINBOW. The name Vallecitos means "Little Valley".
Mr. J. P. M. Rainbow
Mr. Rainbow and
Gus Hindorff both were faithful members of the
I.O.O.F., (Independent Order of Odd Fellows), in the Temecula / Rainbow
Valley area. Gus's membership in Lewis, Iowa, was transferred there to San Diego
county, California, and he remained in good standing with the Fellowship until
his death.
Per Gustaf Hindorff was so well thought of, that upon his death, the local
I.O.O.F. pitched in to help Leanore with the funeral expenses. Even the I.O.O.F.
in Lewis, Iowa offered their help. Gus was buried in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery
in Fallbrook.
On September 12th, 1899, only two weeks
after her beloved Gus had passed away, Leanore had to file a Homestead
application for her " intension to make final proof " to establish her claim to
the land by November 4 of that same year, and show proof that they had made all
the necessary improvements on her "...residence and cultivation. ..."on the
homestead in order to keep from losing the ranch. A long trip to Los Angeles was
made to make this final application. Leanore's efforts paid off. She was granted
the Homestead Rights and was able to keep the their little home that she and Gus
has built together.
Before Gus died,
Leanore had been taking care of the Homestead and their children, tending the
stock and their garden. Gus would walk back home from Temecula on Saturday night
and do what he could on Sunday, only to return to the shop in Temecula on
Monday, so Leanore had been handling the full responsibility of the ranch for a
long time before Gus passed away. After Gus died, Leanore came into some
inheritance money from Gus's father's estate, and she bought a horse and buggy.
Leanore was able to take in laundry and did housekeeping for extra income. She
traded goods for her laundry & housekeeping service with the Machado's in
Temecula. Her younger sister, Alice VAUGHN and her husband, Macedonia MACHADO, owned the
Machado Mercantile in Temecula.
Read about the Spanish California MACHADO Family and learn more about
Uncle Mac -
Macedonia Llora Merrion Machado
RAINBOW SCHOOLS
Vallecitos School House
The Hindorff children,
Leora, Eric and Dora attended the old Vallecitos School. It was a long, dusty
and sometimes muddy walk to the little frame school house that was at that time
located on the Butler ranch, later 5th street, where the modern school building
was built many years later.. The little school house was later sold and moved to
another location. The new larger frame schoolhouse was built, also on the old
Butler ranch.
(See Node's Map of
Rainbow, below)
Vallecitos School, Rainbow,
San Diego County, California, May 21st, 1890.
This photo was taken only 9 months after Gus Hindorff died. It must have been so
hard to lose their daddy. Their vacant, sad little faces says a lot, now doesn't
it?
Eric Hindorff was 5 years old, almost 6, when this photograph was taken. Eric
is seated on
the 2nd row at the far left - the little boy in the very first seat with blonde
hair.
Dora Hindorff and Leora Hindorff are also in this photo. Leora is seated on the 3rd row, 2nd from
the last at the very back. She has on a plaid dress and white collar.
Dora is seated on the 5th row, in the 2nd seat behind the big boy. She has
dark curly hair and is wearing a dark-colored Calico dress with round collar and
a long white pinafore. The stern looking teacher is standing at the back of her
row.
Node Shinley's
Map of Early Rainbow
South
North
Node's Rainbow Map LEGEND:
1. I gave (1) to the old peak
2. where the D---'s house stood
3. red hill
4. old adobe on Butler ranch
5. Butler House
6. where first school house stood
7. Gould house
8. Woolman's store and post office
9. Large frame school bldg.
Notation:
This Map & Legend of
early Rainbow were drawn on a piece of Christmas stationary by Mrs.
NAUDE LEANORE KEELER-SHINLEY, "Node", the daughter of
AMANDA JANE VAUGHN-KEELER. Node was my grandfather's 1st cousin, but
she always had me call her
"Aunt Node". She was a teacher. She died in a facility for
retired teachers around 1978, not long after she turned 99 years of age. I will
always cherish her memory.
See her as a child in the photos below.
Old photos taken at the Hindorff Homestead in
Rainbow
These two old photos are of P.G. & Leanore
Hindorff's 3
children, Leora, Eric & Dora.
As well as some of the NEWCOMB & SHINLEY children, all VAUGHN Cousins.
In this photo, they are all sitting on a rounded granite boulder near the
Hindorff Ranch house at Rainbow. They appear to be dressed up for a
"Minstrel Show".
I do not know who the two men are with the
banjos, shown in both photos. If you know who they are, please write to me and
let me know. These photos once belonged to Edith Newcomb, one of the
young girls in the photos.
Here they are again under one of the large sprawling Live Oak trees
in Rainbow Valley. Eric C. HINDORFF, my grandfather, is the flaxen-haired
boy with the long fishing pole (as Tom Sawyer??). Two of the girls are Eric's sisters, Leora and
Dora Hindorff, and the other 4 children are VAUGHN
cousins. The three identified
are: Conwell "Con" KEELER (little boy in the hat on the LEFT), Naude "Node" KEELER (next to Con), & Edith NEWCOMB (little
girl, far right- her face is blurred in the bottom photo), all first cousins to the
HINDORFF children. They were some of the children of 2 of Leanore's sisters,
Amanda Jane VAUGHN-KEELER
& Martha Emaline VAUGHN-NEWCOMB.
(To See photos of the VAUGHN sisters, CLICK HERE)
In the first photo, you can see the Hindorff Ranch house in the background on
the left. This is the very house that Gus Hindorff
and George Hind dismantled and brought down the mountain to Rainbow Valley in
1884, and reassembled on the Homestead (See
The Letter,
above - Click "BACK" on your Browser to return to here.). The rock was a favorite place to play
for many generations of Hindorff-Vaughn children. It was a ship, or a fortress,
or an iceberg, and any number of many places created through the imagination of
children.
NOTE: Minstrel shows were very popular in the later 19th Century and the early
20th Century in America, and many communities and schools put on these shows,
more or less as talents shows. Minstrels were a result of the Pro-Abolition
writings of the famous BEECHAM family, who were activists against slavery and
authors of many books on theology, women's rights, and many other new ideologies
in the 19th Century, & even gardening and farming journals, oddly enough that
were laced through and through with these same "Liberal" philosophies. Minstrel
shows were performed across America for many decades, and were a direct result
of the Beecham family's life's works & the publishing of Harriet Beecham's first
book, known as "Uncle Tom's Cabin", that spoke out against slavery.
1895- The Family of Per Gustav & Leanore Vaughn-HINDORFF moved to Fallbrook
Grammie Hindorff moved into Fallbrook
when Leora started high school and the little family lived in the
house on the hill on Dougherty Street on the north side of town. Around
1900, Leanore moved from Dougherty street to the little house on the corner of
Pico & Hawthorn, where she lived out her life. In 1908, the
old house on Dougherty street
was burned when some boys were playing with
matches and caught the dry grass on
fire. It quickly spread to the old house, burning it to the ground. Everything
being stored inside was lost, including the old violin that P.G. once took in on
trade. He had told her that it was of great value and to never, ever sell it.
"Aunt Dode", Leora
Alma HINDORFF married Charles Edward "Charley" Stubblefield,
(NE View of the house on the corner of Pico & Hawthorn).
This was the final home
of my
Great-Grammie Hindorff, nee Nancy Leanore VAUGHN, on the corner of Pico &
Hawthorn streets, Fallbrook, Calif. Grammie worked as a housekeeper for the old
Ellis Hotel (aka the Fallbrook Hotel and first called the Naples Hotel), and
continued to work hard clear up to her old age, when she helped her son, my
Grampa, with his business and by caring for his young children after his first
wife, Pearl HINDORFF - nee BELL, died of Tuberculosis.
(To read more about this, go to
EARLY FALLBROOK MEMORIES
Look at the size of those Geraniums in the center foreground! And the beautiful
Lady Banks roses blooming against the house! There was a little tropical
Cumquat tree growing by the front door that had the most luscious little orange
fruit...sweet and good. I used to go there with my mother and Grannie Hindorff
to visit my Grampa's sister,
Aunt Leora Hindorff-Pitman, who lived out here last years in the home.
Leanore
visiting at the old Homestead - Abt 1920
"Grammie"
-
Nancy Leanore (Vaughn) Hindorff
Wife of
Per Gustav Hindorff
(This
photo came from the collection of Winifred Pitman, & shown here courtesy of Mrs.
M. N. Ray.)
Photo taken about 1920, when the
Stubblefield-Hindorff family lived on the old Hindorff Homestead at Rainbow.
Grammie Hindorff
with her three
adult children,
Eric, Dora & Leora.
In front of them are their children.
Left to Right:
Jerald,
Richard, Velma HINDORFF in front of their father,
Eric Charles
Hindorff
Edward
STUBBLEFIELD in front of
his mother, Dora
(Hindorff) Stubblefield - "Aunt Dode"
Winifred
PITMAN in front of her
mother, Leora
(Hindorff) Pitman - "Aunt Leora"
Here is my Grammie Hindorff
(Leanore VAUGHN) helping her son Eric, with hard work at his place near Live
Oak Park, near Fallbrook, California on April 12th, 1916. This is how my Mom
says she remembers Grammie. My Mom looks a lot like Grammie.
Leanore completed
the homestead and raised her children there until Leora was ready for high
school. Leanore's sister, Martha VAUGHN-NEWCOMB, bought her a house on Dougherty Street in Fallbrook. This was the first
Fallbrook residence of the Hindorff family and was always referred to by older
family members as "the house on the hill". Leanore and her children lived
there "for quite a while", until they moved to a "newer house downtown", on the
corner of Pico & Hawthorn. This is on the west side of the Downtown Main Street
area, up on the hill across from where the old Baptist Church used to be.
Leanore attended church there. Her home was near the location of the Maie Ellis
Elementary School, if you know where that is. (I went to school there). The
house on Dougherty, as already mentioned above, was burned to the ground after
the family had moved into the "new" house at the southwest corner of Hawthorn
and Pico streets. Grammie's house was nearly obscured from the street view by
her large bougainvillea vines that grew all along the length of the front porch
(facing east), and the Lady Banks roses that grew on the corner of the house.
There was a large umbrella tree out back and pepper trees (I used to love
climbing in the Pepper trees. She had beautiful roses and geraniums and growing
on the corner by her front door, there was a Cumquat tree, that grew little
orange-like fruit, so sweet but tangy. I just loved them. There were all kinds
of shrubs and on the south side of her house, there were orange, lemon, avocado,
and fig trees. There was a small outbuilding, primarily used for storage, (seems
like it was originally an old pump house for pumping her well water), and a
years later, a propane tank, for household gas service that set on the hawthorn
side of the house. With it's large back yard under the trees and the open
fields, the residence was often the site of large family gatherings.
After Grammie moved into the house on the corner of Pico & Hawthorn, she
sold the old Homestead to Charles E. STUBBLEFIELD - "Uncle Charley", her
son-in-law and husband of her daughter, Dora HINDORFF - "Aunt Dode".
The Stubblefield
family lived on the Hindorff Homestead
for for the rest of their lives. The little house that Gus Hindorff and George
Hind hauled down the mountain in 1884 was replaced by a larger house in 1922.
Their only child, Edward, attended school at Rainbow. Edward STUBBLEFIELD
owned a home on the other side of the valley in Rainbow Heights. The old
Hindorff homestead house no longer exists, but Edward said he still owned the
land the last time I saw him at the 1976 family Reunion.
The 1922 house on the
HINDORFF Ranch was still standing when I was a young woman. The new 395
Hwy (I-15)
ran right by the old house. You could see it up on the west side of the highway,
going north toward Temecula. Now the new Interstate runs right through the
old Homestead,
sad to say. Thousands of vehicles pass over the Hindorff Ranch
daily without knowing of the little Swedish-American Family that once made
this their home.
Her oldest child and
daughter, Leora HINDORFF, had married Thomas Clarence PITMAN. For many years they lived
in the Los Angeles area. After Clarence died, Aunt Leora moved to Fallbrook and
lived in the house with Grammie on Pico street. She successfully ran a child
care service, although crippled with diabetes and confined to a wheelchair in
her later years. I remember going there to visit Aunt Leora as a child.
The Fallbrook
Musicians
This is a photo of one of the
Hindorff family gatherings at Leanore's home on the corner of Pico & Hawthorn.
In the photo, Left to Right:
Thomas Clarence PITMAN; Walter PITMAN, his brother; Eric
Charles HINDORFF (the really tall guy- my Grampa); out font & center on
guitar is Walter Pittman's son, Hugh PITMAN. My Aunt Velma recalls when this
picture was taken. She says
the Pitmans came down to visit, and they took this picture & another one with all
the Hindorff (Cousins) kids sitting on the step of the front porch.
Click on the LINK above to read
more about Per Gustav's son, Eric C. Hindorff, "The Fiddler" and read more about
the "Fallbrook Musicians" of Pitman & Hindorff.
Nancy Leanore
VAUGHN-HINDORFF,
Grammie Hindorff passed away at her home on 25 Aug 1938 in Fallbrook, San
Diego county, California,
after suffering from a long battle with Colon Cancer.
Notes in the family
Bible reads: Leanore died Aug 25 - 1938 at 10 minutes till 8 in morning 82 years
old
CLICK on the image to Read this Newspaper
Article written in 1979, from an interview with my mom's cousin, Edward
Stubblefield, son of Charles Edward "Charlie" & Dora "Dode"
Hindorff-Stubblefield and grandson of Leanore Vaughn -Hindorff.
Per Gustav & Nancy
Leanore (Vaughn) Hindorff were buried in the Fallbrook I.O.O.F. Cemetery.
Credits - original photo images courtesy of
Mrs. Margaret Hindorff-Ray
Read their story
written by Velma Hindorff-Sierras
Back to
Hindorff Family Page
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* MIDI playing is a Swedish folk tune -
"Bondebroellop-schottis" - a Swedish Schottische
The Web Site was created and published by Teddie Anne "Annie"
Driggs
Copyright 2001/2002
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