5 August 2016

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

Eight of us met at a misty, cool Spring Hill this morning. The cemetery was in great shape, other than being littered with leaves (attachments 1 and 2). Most of our time was spent raking the paths and hauling debris (attachments 3 and 4), although we did spend time on compiling map updates. Our "official" map was just updated in 2015, but already we have two new additions - the newly discovered base in the Robertson area, and the return of the Thomas B Ashley stone. I am forwarding the new map information to Paul Schoch, and am hoping he will be able to make the updates for us.

Lately, I have spent a lot of time going through a very interesting book on Bodega and Sebastopol history. Arden and Jerry Lites lent me their copy of An Intimate History of Bodega Country and the McCaughey Family written by Ruth McCaughey Burke, published in 2007 by the Tomales Regional History Center. Many Spring Hill families are mentioned with colorful descriptions of the families and times they lived in. I am always struck by how interconnected Spring Hill families are. Among the many Spring Hill families mentioned are the Cheney-Cunningham-Whites. Buried at Spring Hill are James White and his son, John, as well as Edmund Cheney and his daughter Sarah. The White and Cheney families connect through Sarah Cunningham, wife of James White, and later wife of Edmund Cheney.

Ruth Burke's book tells us that Sarah Cunningham was born in 1833, a native of Northern Ireland. She was an older sister to William J Cunninghame. William came to Bodega in 1862 and became a prominent Justice of the Peace as well as road overseer. "She (Sarah) came to the United States in 1850, at age seventeen, following the potato famine, getting a job in Philadelphia where she stayed three years. In 1853, Sarah came to California by way of Nicaragua and the Pacific. She found employment as a servant girl in San Francisco."

Sarah married James White in 1856, and the pair with infant son, John, moved to Bodega Ranch in 1857. According to Ruth, they were housed in "a roomy, comfortable home which stood at the southeast corner of the large beautiful grounds surrounding the Smith adobe." The home was a dwelling of Russian Construction. "Like all the Russian buildings the dwelling had a modified hip roof, adze timbers, heavy doors with intricate fastenings, and a fireplace of almost indestructible concrete." James White died just a year later, in 1858, when Sarah was pregnant with their second child, James.

Sarah married Edmund Cheney on November 18th, 1860 in Sonoma County, and she had four children with him - one being Spring Hill's Sarah (Sadie) Cheney, the beloved school mistress who died in 1896 when only 25 years old of consumption. Tragedy also struck this family 30 years earlier, in 1866. Sarah's son, John White, was killed on the Bodega "Gulch" School grounds. "The children, in play, dragged one of their playmates down the bluff that bordered the school. The child's neck was broken. The boy had been warned by his mother not to slide down the bluff because it ruined the seat of his pants. When he refused to join the others in sliding down, according to the many times repeated tale, the children, in fun, dragged him with them on the slide." John was buried next to his father, James, at Spring Hill Cemetery. Edmund Cheney, Sarah's second husband, died in 1889, and was also interred at Spring hill.

Sarah Cunningham White Cheney lived to be 97, dying near Bodega in 1930. In later years she lived with her son, the bachelor Edmund Cheney Jr. Although Sarah buried 2 husbands and 2 children at Spring Hill, she herself is not at Spring Hill. I am not sure just where she was buried. What a long and diverse life Sarah lived, from Ireland to Philadelphia to Sonoma county. There is yet another Spring Hill connection with Sarah - Sarah's niece, Jane Cunninghame, daughter of William J Cunninghame, married John C Parmeter, son of Spring Hill's Lavinia Robertson Parmeter.

Our next workday will be Friday, September 30th. Please come join us!

Attachment #1
Finley area with leaves

Attachment #2
Robinson area with leaves

Attachment #3
Hauling debris

Attachment #4
Sally raking

Attachment #5
Raked paths

Attachment #6
Group