[1] Herbert W. Hamilton was a wealthy lumber baron from Wisconsin who homesteaded lands in what was to become the future the City of Glendale founded by William John Murphy.

[5] Hamilton built a home for his family, unlike any of the typical Arizona farm houses of the time.

It was a Queen Anne Victorian style house with a "Sky Parlor," a square windowed tower rising above the building's center.

Sands, a prominent Arizona businessman and rancher, named the farm "Manistee Ranch" after his hometown.

[5] Sands developed techniques in his ranch for rotating cattle pastures to work within the limits of the land.