RAINBOW RANCH

 

 

 

         

   


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

 Table of Contents

Back to The Harness Maker

Rainbow Wildflowers

E-Mail

* 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