Exercising their rights under the Homestead Act, James David and Rhonda Jane Hill settled in 1886 on 110 acres (45 ha) of land in what is now Chatsworth.
[4] Minnie Hill married Alfred Palmer in 1908 and moved to Hawthorne, California, later relocating to Montana where she and her husband farmed.
[2][6] She continued to raise her own fruits and vegetables and canned 300 jars of old-fashioned jelly each year for Christmas gifts.
[3] The one modern convenience Ms. Palmer enjoyed was television soap operas, which she watched faithfully from 11 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. after working in the garden.
When a reporter from the Los Angeles Times visited the homestead in 1968 to write a feature article about her, she cut the interview short at 11 a.m., noting that she refused to speak to visitors or answer the phone while her soap operas were on.
It is owned by the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks and maintained by the Chatsworth Historical Society as a monument to the pioneers who homesteaded the San Fernando Valley.