22 February 2019

Dear Friends of Spring Hill Cemetery,

Another amazing day. Eight of us, including Michelle and Gustavo of Regional Parks, gathered at the cemetery under a clear blue sky. It started off COLD with the temperature not much above 30 degrees, but the hot sun warmed us up quickly.

We found the cemetery strewn with quite a bit of large branch debris.  Recent storms and strong winds brought many limbs down.  Luckily, Regional Parks supplied us with tools and a dump trailer, so we were able to haul off the collected debris.  Our focus was to clean up the cemetery, restore the paths, and reset Evilena Heffron's foot stone.

Evilena's foot stone was uncovered last September as reported in the September 28th recap report, but was in a couple of pieces. Jeremy epoxied the pieces together and brought back the whole foot stone for setting (Picture 1). Evilena's headstone was uncovered in May of 2017, the same day her sister, Cora's, stone was found. You may remember from the May 2017 recap that Evilena was fatally scalded by a kettle of hot water being overturned upon her when she was not quite 2. She died in 1870. It was exciting enough to see the cemetery with the Luther Burbank daffodils in bloom (Picture 2), and to get the chance to set little Evilena's almost 150 year old foot stone back where it belonged. But our adventures did not end there.

WE FOUND YET ANOTHER HEADSTONE!! Gustavo was probing for us around an empty headstone base, when he heard that lovely "chink" that indicates stone. Picture 3 shows us eagerly gathered around the "chink" location, and picture 4 is an enlargement of just what he found.

The stone is that of Charlie M. Johnson, son of J.J. & M.A. Johnson (John Jasper Johnson and his wife, Mary Ann Morton Johnson). Charlie's sister, Olive's, stone had been found in November of 2017, along with an empty base for her brother. We probed the area extensively and unsuccessfully that November day, looking for the missing headstone, but Charlie was just not ready to be uncovered until today. Only the top part of his stone was found today. We will continue to probe for the rest of it on future workdays. Luckily we know from the DAR listing for CM Johnson that he died January 1, 1865, but unfortunately, the DAR listing did not indicate his age. Picture 5 shows Jeremy holding Charlie's piece up to his sister, Olive's headstone. The stones are nearly identically carved, leading us to speculate that they may both have been carved at the same time, presumably at the death of Charlie in 1865. The remaining family moved shortly afterward to Southern California.

Whenever we make a new "find" I am always asked if there is anything more to find. The answer is YES. I am attaching a PDF document detailing our missing stones. Some may have been looted from the cemetery some time ago in the past, but many are just hidden snugly beneath the forest debris, waiting to be discovered.

Many thanks to Regional Parks for continuing to support our efforts with equipment - and today with workers!! Our next workday is set for April 5, 2019. Please come and join us if you can.

Best Regards,

Sue

Picture #1
Setting EH Foot

Picture #2
Daffodil

Picture #3
Discover of CM Johnson stone

Picture #4
Closeup

Picture #5
Cleanup

Picture #6
Group