Charlotte and her daughter Yvonne in front of the Holbrooke Hotel in Grass Valley Sunday, September 19, 2010. They stayed in the Mark Twain Room. We took them around to some of the old places they wanted to revisit.

More Old Photos and Mysteries to Unravel

 

Cousin Charlotte and her daughter Yvonne were here last year. Hadn't seen them for a long time, and it was wonderful exchanging old photos, visiting and exploring old family home sites. Yvonne has done extensive genealogy on the Killoren's and Callister's on grandma's side, and brought some of her old pictures for me to copy and fix. I put mine and hers on a CD for her. I'd also heard from an unknown relative Margaret Butler around the same time. She was very excited about the history and is in contact with Yvonne. I think more mysteries will unravel. She wants to see the Boston photos with grandma. Thinks she might be able to recognize some of the people. Anyway, I love a good mystery, and the internet is an amazing help to unravel them. Here's some of the photos Yvonne had. I don't know where the photo below was taken, but put it in Uncle Earl's story.

This one was in an old frame, small, yellow and you couldn't tell who was in it. After the scan we discovered great grandma Mary Killoran-Callister-Tresise on the left, little Charlie Henwood, Hoval and mom grandma Grace, and her sister Agnes Henwood and other son Larson. We don't know where this was taken, but dad's so little that she was still married to Wayne.

 

Here's an invitation to a farewell Saturday night dance given in honor of grandma and grandpa Wayne at Mogollon. Another mystery...Who were Pickering and Grant?

Seated from L-R Larson Henwood, Imogene Henwood, Charlie Henwood, Ellen Curtis, Wilfred Callister. Standing L-R Earl Wayne, (?) with dog, CR Henwood and Agnes, Hoval Wayne.

I guess this is  where Hall Caine lived. It was the cover of a Christmas card sent from the Isle of Mann in 1928. Uncle Earl said we were related to him, and gave me his collection of Hall Caine's books. Hall Caine was born May 14, 1853 in Runcorn, Cheshire, England and christened Thomas Henry Hall Caine, but he disliked the name Thomas and never used it. His father came from the Isle of Man, but in the absence of work there he emigrated to Liverpool, where he trained as a ship's smith. At the time of Hall Caine's birth, he was working temporarily in Runcorn docks. Within a few months the family were back in Liverpool, where Caine spent his childhood and youth. He was educated at the Hope Street British Schools until he was 14. During this time he paid a number of visits to relatives on the Isle of Man where the foundations for a life-long attachment to the island, to its language, its myths and its legends were built.

 

Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine was a Manx author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. He was exceedingly popular, and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his contemporaries. Many of his novels were also made into films. His novels were primarily romances, involving love triangles, but also addressed some of the more serious political and social issues of the day. Caine acted as secretary to Dante Gabriel Rossetti and at one time he aspired to become a man of letters. To this end he published a number of serious works, but these had little success. He was a lover of the Isle of Man and Manx culture, and purchased a large house, Greeba Castle on the island. For a time he was a Member of the House of Keys, but he declined to become more deeply involved in politics. Caine was a short man who tended to dress in a striking fashion. His eyes were dark brown and slightly protuberant, giving him an intense stare. He had red-gold hair and a dark red beard which he trimmed to appear like the Stratford bust of Shakespeare. A man of striking appearance, he traveled widely and used his travels to provide the settings for some of his novels. He came into contact with, and was influenced by, many of the leading personalities of the day, particularly those of a socialist leaning. Caine's novels are considered outdated by creators of English literature curricula today, and despite his immense popularity during his life, he is now virtually unknown and unremembered. He died at age 78  in 1931.