Medora de Vallombrosa, Marquise de Morès

Medora was the daughter of Louis A. von Hoffman (Hoffmann, with 2 n in German), a wealthy New York banker who was one of the founders of the Knickerbocker Club,[1] and his wife, Athenais (née Grymes) von Hoffman (1832–1897), whose family had been prominent in Virginia and Louisiana.

[2] Her younger sister, Pauline Grymes, was married to the wealthy German industrialist Baron Ferdinand Eduard von Stumm whose family owned the Neunkirchen Iron and Steelworks in 1878.

[6] Her maternal grandfather was John Randolph Grymes, the former U.S. Attorney for Western District of Louisiana under President James Madison.

The Marquis's meat packing plant failed and the town fell into a decline after the family left.

The 26-room clapboard-sided ranch house the Marquis built for his heiress wife, known as the "Chateau de Mores", has been restored, and tours of it are given.