30 May 2008

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

Friday was glorious at the cemetery. The weather was crisp and clear, perfect for hauling branches to the chipper machine. Our main focus was to continue debris removal left over from the massive tree cutting operation in April. I had hoped we might finish this phase on Friday, but it will take at least another work day to complete. We also continued the mapping process (many thanks, Cathy), moved the repaired headstones from Gary Galeazzi back into place, and uncovered more foot stones.

Regional Parks sent the chipper, chain saw, and largest dump truck, along with a crew of three. Jesse of Regional parks used the chain saw to cut branches off the downed trees, and 10 sturdy volunteers hauled them to Pat and Dasan for chipping. There are still massive downed tree trunks in the south and west of the cemetery that need to be chain sawed into manageable hunks and removed, although we have hauled off the bulk of the downed branches.

The volunteers were joined by Will Layfield. Will has taken on the restoration of Cloverdale cemetery, a Cloverdale city-owned cemetery with many damaged stones in need of repair. He joined our work party to see how we were approaching headstone restoration at Spring Hill, and lent us his very welcome labor in the process.

Our most exciting discovery of the day was that of Ward foot stones. One of the largest 4 sided markers at Spring Hill has details of Luther L Ward; his wife, Lydia A Titus Ward; and their son William H Ward on 3 of its 4 sides. Originally, the marker sat on a very substantial plinth, although it is now laying on the ground next to its base. Previously, we uncovered a smaller "WHW" marker nearby. Now we have found more of the "parts" of the Ward grouping. There would have been 6 markers in the group, the large marker with details of all three Ward burials in the center of the grouping. Six feet to the west of the large marker we have found the LLW foot stone. To the south of the large marker is a small headstone with just WHW (for the son, William H Ward) - and its related (and newly discovered) foot stone lies 6 feet west of the small head marker. Luther L Ward's wife has similar small headstone / foot stone markers just north of the main Ward monument.

Lydia Ward was born Lydia Titus in 1835 in Canada, the daughter of James Nathan Titus and his wife Mary Ann Bowen. Lydia's father, James, had been born in NY, as was Lydia's husband Luther Ward. James Titus's first two children (Robert b. 1833, Lydia b. 1835) were born in Canada. In 1838 the third son, Charles, was born in Michigan. The 1850 MI census shows James a farmer at Perry, Shiawassee Co, MI. His household included his second wife, Emeline, and 7 of his children. Living nearby was daughter Lydia, already married to farmer Luther L Ward. Lydia was just 14 years old, Luther 22 when they married. Several other Ward and Titus families are on the same 1850 MI census page.

I have had some difficulty tracing Luther and Lydia Ward, as I have yet to find them in any of the Sonoma County Census records. They are in Michigan in the 1850 census, and they appear in the Yuba Township, Sutter Co, CA 1880 census. Their son, William H Ward, who is interred with them at Spring Hill, died at age 24 in 1875. This places the family in Sonoma county prior to 1875. Jerry Lites sent me a lovely picture, which I have attached, taken around 1900 of Luther and Lydia Titus Ward in front of their Freestone home. I don't know when they moved back to Sonoma County from Sutter County. Luther died in 1902 at age 76, Lydia died in 1904 aged 69.

We know more about the Titus family, as there are several "Friends" related to the Titus group. In addition to Lydia, there are 7 other Titus relations buried at Spring Hill. Their plot is just to the south of the Ward grouping. The Titus/Wards were together in Michigan, and again in Sonoma county, either coming at the same time or else one group following the other. Do any of you Titus-related "Friends" know more details about the Titus / Ward migration into Sonoma County?

I apologise for the noise that removing and chipping the dead tan oaks has caused our wonderful cemetery neighbors. For safety reasons, the dead trees had to come out. As a result of the tree removal, the cemetery is beginning to look lovely with the cemetery's center opened to more sunlight. And the large trees (such as the fir in the middle) are much more prominent. We will need the chain saw once again to finish sectioning the remaining large downed tree trunks, and we will need to weed whack the ivy in the southern section of the cemetery. Once those tasks have been completed, Spring Hill will return to its very peaceful self.

Pending Regional Park's approval, our next work day is tentatively scheduled for Friday, June 20th. I hope to see many of you then.