14 November 2025

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

Yesterday at Spring Hill was delightful, as usual. Although the cemetery was very sodden following heavy rains the day before, it was in good shape, other than the mass of fall leaves littering the cemetery floor (first attached picture). Six volunteers and three Regional Parks workers met at the cemetery to clean up the cemetery and get it ready for winter.

While Patsy was raking leaves off the Robertson part of the cemetery, she heard that exciting "clink" indicating she'd come across one of our lost stones. Jeremy came over with his excavation/cleaning tools, and, sure enough, one of our lost footstones had been discovered (second and third attached pictures). We still have over 20 markers missing from the cemetery, and each time we find one, it sends a thrill through the entire group. This particular footstone bore the initials, "NLS." Cross referencing the initials with our burial lists, the footstone belonged to Nettie L Stump. Little Nettie died when 2 1/2 WEEKS old on Christmas Day, 1877.

Nettie's headstone was recovered back in 2009, having been found in the backyard of a rental home in Pacheco. Quite a story - and the stone's discovery and subsequent return to Spring Hill was written up in the East Bay Times Newspaper on February 17, 2009. ("Marker returned to original site in Sebastopol cemetery" – East Bay Times https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2009/02/17/marker-returned-to-original-site-in-sebastopol-cemetery-2/https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2009/02/17/marker-returned-to-original-site-in-sebastopol-cemetery-2/ )

When the headstone was returned to the cemetery back in 2009, we had no clear idea of just where the marker belonged. At the time, we decided to situate the stone near some related family stones. With the discovery of Nellie's footstone, we found we had placed her marker in the wrong spot. With the help of 2 of the very strong Regional Parks staff (fourth attached picture), we were able to place Nellie's stone back in its original position(5th attached picture), leaving Nettie's markers back where they belong at last.

If you are interested in finding out more about little Nettie and her family, I did do a longer write up on Nettie back in 2009, it can be found at the Spring Hill website - Nettie's write up on Spring Hill's website:.

This was our last workday of 2025. I am hoping to restart workdays February 20, 2026. I will send details closer to the time. Meanwhile, wishing you all the best of holidays.

Many thanks to all who have joined in and/or supported our efforts to reclaim and protect this pioneer cemetery - and my sincere appreciation and thanks to Sonoma County Regional Parks for all their efforts.

Best Regards,

Sue

Attachment #1
Sodden floor

Attachment #2
Rediscovered footer

Attachment #3
Identifying stone

Attachment #4
Moving stone in place

Attachment #5
Reset stone with footer

Attachment #6
Clearing Path

Attachment #7
Group