I wanted to identify the people in the photos on my blog’s header, especially after I recently learned from a cousin that she had no idea they were family members.

The first photo is of my maternal grandmother, Nana Marge aka Marjorie Cain. She is on the right and the woman on the left is her best friend, Wilhelmina “Bill” Vann. This was taken during the summer they spent in Hawaii in 1926. They were both school teachers. My mother says that Nana returned with a tan, and had taken to wearing bobby socks instead of stockings. I’m not sure which was more scandalous at the time.

The next photo has “Gramps” written on it. This would be Henry Jackson Bole, my maternal grandfather’s (John Hoffman) grandfather. He was born in 1836 in Leechburg, Pennsylvania, and came west to California sometime between 1861-63, settling in Sutter County where he farmed. He was a prominent citizen of the area, judging by articles appearing in the Woodland Daily Democrat back in the 1880’s and 1890’s. He lived in Sutter, Yolo and Colusa Counties until his death in 1922. He is buried in Knight’s Landing, Sutter County, CA.

The third photo is of my grandfather, John Hoffman. It was taken in the early 1920’s when he was attending Stanford University. Other than his years at Stanford, Grandpa John spent his entire life in the Sutter/Yolo/Colusa County area and where he farmed rice.

 

 

The final photo is of two sisters, Elizabeth Tenney Clarke Cain on the left, and her younger sister, Margaret Clarke Powers on the right. Elizabeth was my grandmother’s mother, as well as the step-daughter of William John Clarke. Margaret was Lizzie’s half-sister. They shared a mother, Catherine Foster Tenney Clarke.  I’m guessing this photo was taken somewhere between 1910 and 1920.