Herbert and Sumner Cobb were born in Gorham, Maine on February 8th, 1895. They lived in the Woodfords area of Portland with parents William and Fannie P Cobb. The boys are pictured in suits for a studio portrait around the age of five.

Later in life both boys would enlist into the U.S. Army to help the war efforts of WWI ca. 1916. Sumner would stay stateside in training camps, while Herbert would head overseas for officer training and fighting in the French trenches, until his untimely demise on October 14, 1918.