This ca 1900 photo is significant in that it contains my Bud's mother as a young girl of eleven or twelve (the earliest picture of her I've seen). She's sitting on the lawn at the right with the long braid: Olive Edna Mills, born February 5, 1889 to Christiana Russlend and Homer Charhart Mills. That's Homer standing in the back row, and Christiana, daughter of Johann's sister Catherine Anne (who married David Russlend) is the woman sitting second from the left; better known to my family as Mother Mills.

The woman sitting to Christiana's right is her sister, Theresa Catherine Russlend, who married Henry Heath (not pictured). Theresa and Henry had two children: Grace Heath, born 1885, the girl standing with the bow in her hair (the picture was taken at her graduation party), and Florence Heath, born June 1893, the other girl sitting on the ground. Oh, and the dog's name is Gypsy.

The other two women seated are (left to right): Mrs. Kennel and Mrs. Bennett. I don't know who they were; there are no Kennel's or Bennett's in any of my family trees, which are fairly extensive. I guess it's possible, since this is a graduation picture—and judging by the way Grace has her hand on Mrs. Kennel's shoulder—that these women might have been Grace's teachers.