17 November 2017

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

Today was our last workday of a very productive 2017. Thursday had been extremely stormy, so we found the cemetery soggy but holding up well. The sun was shining for us, making conditions perfect. Eight sturdy volunteers tackled the debris, leaving the cemetery in good shape for our winter break.

The highlight of the day was yet another new discovery. While raking the Robertson/Parmeter section, Patsy discovered another complete stone. Further probing led to finding one head stone, 2 bases and one foot stone. The head and foot stones belonged to "Olive M. daughter of JJ & MA Johnson." It is one of our older stones. Olive died in 1859 when just 1 Y, 5 M, and 19 days old. The DAR record listed Olive, and a "C.M. Johnson" who died in 1865. One of the bases uncovered is Olive's, we assume the other to be CM's, although we were unable to find the second head stone today. I know of no connections for the Johnsons to the other stones nearby -- if any of you know of a connection, please let me know. It is possible that Olive and "CM" are children of John Jasper Johnson and his wife, Mary Ann Morton Johnson. The family was in the Bodega area in the 1860s, but had moved on to Southern California by the late 1870s. Interestingly, the Johnson head stone and 2 bases were on one side of a large 2 1/2 foot diameter stump, the foot stone on the other. It looks as if the tree grew up after the Johnson burials, and may have originally knocked over the stones. We spent considerable time breaking up and removing the stump, hoping that might help us find the other stone. We will have to wait until February to probe further.

It has been another good year for the cemetery. 2017 saw the uncovering of 2 more complete stones in ADDITION to today's finds, those of the Heffron sisters, whose stones had been buried deep in the cemetery undergrowth for decades. It is particularly satisfying to still be making new discoveries this far into our cemetery restorations. Besides finding, resetting, and updating our official map to reflect the Heffron stones, the "Friends" and Sonoma County Regional Parks once again kept the cemetery tidy and peaceful.

Please mark the 2018 dates on your calendar, and come and join us in 2018 when you can. Our work dates for next year are:

Feb 23

Apr 13

June 8

Aug 3

Sep 28

Nov 16

Thanks to all of you for joining in support of our efforts. Wishing you all very happy holidays, and hope to see many of you in 2018.

Attachment #1
Finding a stone

Attachment #2
Stone for Olive M. Johnson

Attachment #3
Uncovering head & foot stones

Attachment #4
Removal of the stump

Attachment #5
Group