Some Men We Know, or Would Have Known Sooner If I'd Been Paying More Attention

(Click on image to enlarge)
Image courtesy of the Hobart Historical Society and Fred Ols.

Notes on the back identify these men (left to right) as "John Ols (Chris's son), Charley Ols, John Baessler, John Thiede, Henry Bodamer, Martin Ols, Grandpa Henry Ols, Henry Thiede, Chris Ols."

We already know the Christ Ols family; son John was born circa 1906. Charley and "Grandpa" Henry Ols were brothers of Christ. And Henry Ols was Martin's father.

John Baessler had married Sophia Ols in 1888, so he was brother-in-law to Christ, Charles and Henry.

Henry Bodamer had married Minnie Baessler (John and Sophia's daughter) in 1915. Henry was a son of George and Freeda Bodamer, born in 1891. We encountered him once before, I believe, as a nine-year-old schoolboy, but I don't know how he is connected (if at all) to the Bodamers who have figured in more prominently in this blog (Benjamin and Bertha, and Alvah and Vernon).

Now, as for the Thiede family — I have done a good job of ignoring them. The name has popped up in the microfilm now and then, but I've rarely made note of it and only once mentioned it in the blog, when William Thiede bought a Water Street house from Charles Maybaum. At the time I had no clue who William Thiede was, but since then I have learned that he entered the Ols family way back in 1881, when he married Mary Ols (sister of Christ, Charley, and Henry). The two Thiede men in this photograph were children of that marriage: Henry was born in 1882, John in 1890.

So, I hope we have all that straight now!

The only information we have about the date of this photo is that it was taken before 1930. Most of these men have reached that middle point in life where you must guess their age within a range of decades, not years. But John Ols (at the far left) looks to be in his late teens or early twenties, which would place the photo roughly around 1926.