The Gaines and Brown Families of Carbon Canyon, Part Six: Flying Cow Ranch Photos

Thanks again to Joyce Harrington, who generously shared many photographs from the Gaines and Brown families, who lived in the Carbon Canyon/Olinda area for many decades from about the 1900s onward.

Past entries in this series included a couple of views of the Gaines family home on their Flying Cow Ranch in what is now the Olinda Village community on the Brea side of the canyon.

The home stood on what is today's Hollydale Mobile Home Estates property on the south side of Carbon Canyon Road, though the ranch extended north into the Olinda Village subdivision.  Edward F. Gaines used the ranch to pasture livestock and Joyce's photos include a number of great images of the ranch property.  He died in 1956 and less than a decade later, Olinda Village was developed.

So, today's entry highlights more of those snapshots, with the first being a view, of an unknown date, but perhaps in the 1910s or 1920s,  taken looking northwest towards the Gaines ranch house and framed nicely among some trees.

 

Among the gentle rolling hills sloping gradually downwards towards the photographer and, behind that person, the confluence of Carbon and Soquel canyons, is a man with a team of horses.  Presumably, he and the animals are grading the land or preparing it for planting crops.

In the distance are two stands of trees, the Gaines ranch house, what looks like a water tower, and an outbuilding.  In between the trees and further off is the distinct sharply pointed peak of a hill that can easily be seen today at the west end of the Olinda Village tract.

The second photo, perhaps from about the same time as the first, shows a pair in a buggy pulled by two horses and a group of four persons seated on the front steps and porch of the Gaines house.  Behind the house is a portion of the sloping hills in what is now the Olinda Village area.  Presumably the photo shows Gaines and his wife, Fannie Atwater, along with family and/or friends.

Finally, there is an image of a barn, horse and a man behind the animal on the ranch, again maybe from the time of the other two.  In 1939, a devastating fire burned down the barn; destroyed Edward Gaines' original and restored stagecoach, which he used for parades and other events; and killed some of his prize horses.

There are more photos from Joyce's collection to be posted, so check back for more soon.

The Gaines and Brown Families of Carbon Canyon, Part Three

Here are some more great photos, courtesy of Joyce Harrington, of members of the Gaines and Brown families, who lived in the Carbon Canyon area for decades during the 20th century.

Ed and Fanny Gaines were owners of the Flying Cow Ranch, which is where the Olinda Village community is located, and their home sat where the Hollydale mobile home park is.  Argus and Margaret Brown resided in the Olinda oil fields area where the Olinda Ranch subdivision is now, and Angus was a longtime employee on the Santa Fe lease.

This 1911 photo shows Argus Brown, right, and Emil Haskel, left, who were neighbors and carpenters on the Santa Fe lease at Olinda posed with their handiwork at an oil well.  The photos are courtesy of Joyce Harrington, a descendant of the Brown and Gaines families.

The first photo shows Brown and Emil Haskel in 1911 at work on the construction of an oil well at Olinda.  The two men, who were neighbors as shown in the federal census of the preceding year, were carpenters and the image was obviously taken to show their handiwork in the building of the apparatus of the well.

Brown, a native of Missouri who also lived in Iowa and worked as a farmer, migrated to California in the first decade of the century and found a job at Olinda in September 1907.  He later was a pumper on the lease and remained working in the area for several decades.  He and Margaret stayed in the area until she passed away in 1935 and he died about a decade later in 1946.

The 1910 federal census listed the Argus and Margaret Brown family just below Emil and Minnie Haskel at Olinda.  From Ancestry.com

Joyce Harrington provided some reminiscences from her great-aunt, Nora Brown, daughter of Argus and Margaret, and these will be shared in future posts.

Edward Gaines and his wife Fannie Atwater married on Christmas Eve 1889 and farmed in Clearwater, later Paramount, in southeastern Los Angeles County, as well as had the Flying Cow Ranch in Carbon Canyon, to which they later moved.

Fannie Atwater (1861-1947) and Edward F. Gaines (1868-1956), owners of the Flying Cow Ranch, at what is now the Olinda Village area, ca. 1900s.

The couple not only had the ranch, but were also involved in the early use of the La Vida Mineral Springs just east of their home.  Ed Gaines was well-known for his breeding of foxhounds and hunting, as well as for his ownership of a rare original stagecoach which he rode at parades and other functions.

Fannie Gaines died in early 1947 and her husband passed on just under a decade later in April 1956.  Eight years later, in 1964, the Gaines Ranch became the site of the new subdivision of Olinda Village and the construction of the Hollydale mobile home park and an adjacent church removed the Craftsman-style residence the family used for many decades.

Ed Gaines with one his cows (though it doesn't appear to be the breed that could fly) on the ranch, ca. 1940s.

Again, more history of the Gaines family, much of which has been presented in this blog in the past, will be shown through photos.

The Gaines and Brown Families of Carbon Canyon, Part Two

Here are a couple more great photographs provided by Joyce Harrington of her ancestors in the Brown and Gaines families, who were in the Olinda oil fields (Brown) and at the Flying Cow Ranch (Gaines) where Olinda Village is now.

The first photograph shows Earl Brown and others at an office, probably the Santa Fe lease where the Olinda Ranch subdivision now is located, on the Olinda lease.  The date was given on the photograph as 1909 or 1910.

Employees at an office, probably on the Santa Fe lease, at Olinda, ca. 1909-10.  The photos shown here are courtesy of Joyce Harrington.

The second image is a look at the Gaines family home from the southeast.  It looks as if the photo was taken on what is now the Hollydale mobile home park.

The dirt road leading to the house probably came up from the old road through Carbon Canyon, which was down along the creek as it came from Olinda to the west, met the confluence with Soquel Canyon and its creek and then headed uphill to Carbon Canyon just east of the ranch.

The Flying Cow Ranch house of Ed and Fannie Gaines seen from the southeast.  The location of the photo appears to be on what is now the Hollydale mobile home park and the peaked hill in the background is to the west of the Olinda Village subdivision.

People familiar with the area will recognize the peaked hill in the background, which is to the west of the Olinda Village tract.

More fantastic photos coming soon!