The Kneebone Ranch and Cemetery were designated Nevada County Historical Landmarks, with the dedication of a boulder plaque. This was a multi-year project near Spenceville that included building a trail, conducted a survey, and created monuments to preserve local history, overcoming funding delays and securing boundary marks for a legal designation. Organized and supported by landmark commissioner, Chuck Scimeca, key contributors included Steve Fry (monument work), Karen Hill and Terry Kneebone (genealogy leadership), and a team of local supporters; the effort culminated in a plaque ceremony and a main monument beneath an oak. The narrative centers on the Kneebone family from Cornwall to California, their 1,600-acre Spenceville ranch, mule-team wagon networks, and five family members buried on a hill overlooking the property; a neighboring monument honors the family too. Interwoven are personal reflections on home, heritage, and gratitude—bridges between Spenceville, Bridgeport, and broader community history—along with ongoing digitization of records and a commitment to pass the story to future generations.

Full Transcript of the Video:

The team is made up of several people that have been out here, not only building the
trail through the monument, which is just under the Oak Tree, but doing a
gallery survey for the last three and a half plus years.

It's going to go on to
four years pretty soon.

We didn't give up, thanks to a lot of key players.

It
should have been easy, but this one was a challenge, but it was a learning
experience.

So we developed a metal detecting unit to do the survey, to find
our home site, which is under that large oak tree over there, and surrounding
several outbuildings.

We were able to define those through aerial photography
and through a metal detecting and just looking and looking and looking.

Then we
had to do a boundary survey that was required by California Fish and Wildlife,
and that took several months to put together because we didn't have the
money.

I wouldn't ask Supervisor Hook if she could ask the county if they would
pay for it, but it was far far too expensive.

And then I think it was
Commissioner, I don't know whose idea it was, let me think, Bruce Boyd.

Commissioner
Bruce Boyd is an architect on our commission, happens to be an architect,
and he went to Nevada State Engineering and talked to Andy Casano.

So he was one
of the very good gentlemen that helped us that day.

That's Andy Casano sitting
right there with the ball cap on.

He managed to direct me and the team where
to look for boundaries.

I think that's what they're called, boundary marks.

I had
not a clue, but we were fortunate.

We found at least three of them, so we were
able to establish what they needed to do a legal survey, and then we were rolling
and we were able to designate this after the many years that I just mentioned.

Now, to introduce the team itself, it was made up of Steve Fry, who's in the crowd
somewheres, right there in the orange vest.

Steve Fry has been a constant help
to us throughout all of our endeavors on the Landmarks Commission.

He is, I call
him the Stonemason extraordinaire.

He is our lead point person when we put
up a monument or a plaque on a granite boulder or whatever it may be.

He's always
there giving us advice and assistance and lending his direct hand and doing the
work.

When you get a chance, look at the binders I brought.

It'll show you pictures
of everything I just mentioned.

It'll show you pictures of us doing the survey,
of mounting the plaques, and what it took to do these things.

There's also a nice
story of Joseph Neibone and Mary Reed, how they met in a little town of, Karen,
remind me of the little town, went up in Cornwall, and the Trafellan Farm.

What we
like to say is that Joseph married the farmer's daughter, is what I think the
family likes to refer it as.

They did have Andrew Neibone shortly after they
were married.

He was the oldest son, born sometime in 1860, I believe.

So we just
talked about Andrew Neibone's home down the road, and now we're at Joseph, the
patriarch's home.

In any event, Joseph Neibone came to California from Cornwall,
acquired eventually about 1600 acres of ranch land near the old town of
Spenceville.

Together with his sons Andrew and Joseph, might say Joe Jr.

, but
Joseph his son, they drove upwards of 20 mule team wagons using the jerk line.

We
can talk about that more later, but that was a unique way of handling a lot of
mules and a line upwards of two or more wagons in tandem.

They followed many
times the old Hennis Pass Road, and it got as far as the Comstock Strike in
Virginia City.

The many times they would leave Wheatland on their way, Sacramento
was well through Nevada City and on up.

The Neibone teamsters were well known in
the Nevada County area as some of the finest handlers of a team anywhere.

So on
June 3rd, 2025, the board of the city officially designated this the Neibone
Ranch and Cemetery County landmarks in 2005, 06, 06, 25.

Joseph Neibone Sr.

again
was a hard-working individual, and he did have a lot of family tragedy which
you're probably well aware of that I could go into now, but the reality is
that we have about five of the family members buried on the hill overlooking
the monument here.

We'll point that out in a minute and that part of the story
as well.

Going further, Joe Jr.

was tragically murdered at a 23 years of
age in 1888 on the old Spenceville Road, which this is, halfway between here and
probably Penn Valley.

Not sure exactly where, and regrettably his father almost
20 years later was also regrettably killed halfway between the residence and the barn
site that's right about there.

And later if you have time and you want to walk out
to the other monument that's adjacent to the grave site, you'll see a very fine
story written by the Neibone family on that plaque.

What I do want to say now is
I want to thank Andy Casano, Chris Ward, Steve Fry, Torban Erickson,
Torban there in the red jacket, you already met Steve Fry.

These are all
members of the team that participated.

Pam Samaica, Daniel Samaica, and Bruce
Boyd, Jerry Martini, Mike Cochess on camera, and many others that worked out
here on the ranch.

I want to thank in particular the spearhead of this adventure
in many ways is Karen Hill of Atlanta, Georgia.

Karen is right there.

Along with her industrious cousin, Terry Neibone, somewhere's out there.

There he is.

Of Grand Junction or thereabouts, Colorado.

Tell me the name of the town again.

Cedar Edge, got it.

60 miles south of Grand Junction.

Karen was also the applicant on this
project with the state, and much of the research that was accomplished was through
her efforts and her genealogy research.

Also many of the historic photos were both Karen's
and Terry's that you'll see in these albums that I brought for you to take a look at today.

Karen and Terry have an obvious love of history and a love of family to have persevered over
these last three and a half years.

It's been quite emotional, I believe, for both of them.

Going on, I want to mention that both Spenceville and the Bridgeport ranches are tied together at the hip.

We have the descendant Andrew marrying the hotel owner's daughter at Bridgeport, and that's Victoria
Cole.

I can't remember the year.

Can anybody remember the year? I guess it's not all that
important, but to them it was.

They were married and they had fine, strong boys, no girls,
and they lived in the house that I mentioned just down the road.

They lived all their lives there,
and Victoria died there, and I think Andrew Nebone moved to Bridgeport
just a few years after she passed away and died at Bridgeport.

I have an emotional interest in tie to this as well because I'm a retired California State Park
ranger, and I work with many of the Nebone descendants over the years, some of which have
passed on, of course, and I was always doing my best efforts to tell their story, and I wanted
to conclude the story here today to make sure that everybody knew what value this family had to
Nevada County and how everything is tied one way or another.

So Bridgeport is tied at the hip
with Spenceville.

In fact, we have two cemeteries.

We have the cemetery at Bridgeport, and we now
know about the cemetery here in Spenceville.

With that, I was hoping Mark Carroll would be here because I want to definitely mention his name.

Mark Carroll is the Fish and Wildlife Manager that manages the Spenceville Wildlife Area.

He is the point person that hung in with us the entire way over all these years,
provided a huge backhoe to move this boulder to create the monument that's out by the graveyard.

On Thursday morning, he rolled in that bathroom that's over there.

I can go on and on about Mark
Carroll.

Mark, are you here? He is not here, but we do have a certificate of award for him
that I will track him down some day and give it to him.

With that said, I'd like to ask Terry
Kneebone to say a couple of words if he doesn't mind.

I'm not going to forget Karen either.

Well, after going all the way back, it's hard to get close to people.

I'd like to get close to
people that I'm talking to.

I can't go into the history and I won't even try in the presence of
my cousin, Karen, and Chuck.

That would be silly.

I'd like to talk a little bit about my personal
connections here and why this means so much to me.

I wasn't born in Nevada County.

I wasn't
born in California.

I wasn't born in this country.

I came here at the age of three,
a refugee from the war with my mother, father, and sister.

We had nothing.

We came here because
this was home.

This is my father and his ancestors were born and raised and because
it would nurture us and it did until we were back on our feet and my father went back overseas
to work in the mines.

As a proper cornish man, he thought he should be mining and he did his entire life.

And then we continued to come back and it's kind of my story is one of coming back again and again
we came back every home leave when we came home.

We came home here.

We came home to family.

We came
home to the land.

We came home even here in the silence about seven years old on I remember the
first time my father fought me out here.

He came out here and I don't remember drove up or walked
up or what but I didn't focus on those things those days but I remember always going up to the
cemetery and looking at the names so we could read them in those days and then every single
home leave after that until I came back to the states to go to college and I lived in grass valley
in the summer with my grandmother and we came down here.

We went to Bridgeport all the time.

So those are burned into my memory and then when I was married and started my career
again overseas and every home leave we would come back here and we'd come back and visit
family and visit the land and visit these places and we got in here every time we got
and after I retired settled down in Colorado and we came back every year at least once again to visit
family but to visit the land and we visited here when we could get in it's a little more
complicated than getting into Bridgeport.

We went to Bridgeport all the time
and now I come back every year and I go to Bridgeport to visit my parents
my wife and two children who are all buried at Bridgeport and where I will be at
don't point to future my name's already there so I don't have an option but
so I didn't spend very much time in total living here because it's always been home
and what makes it home is the people who are alive here and the people who are ancestors
who are buried here.

It's a connection that I feel very very strongly.

I'm eternally grateful
to my great great grandfather Joseph and Mary who took that enormous step of leaving the home
and back to the family who've been close I don't know how long and came to an unknown land,
to an unknown future and they made a future.

They made as took so aptly to slide they made
an impact in this area they were part of what was made Nevada County California what it is
I'm extremely proud of them for that.

I'm also enormously thankful to Chuck and everybody who
made this happen who is giving them the recognition that I of course think they deserve
so that's sort of the story come back to the home back to the same place back to the roots
I feel my roots here very very deeply and this day is very important to me wonderful to you all here
today thank you thank you Terry um we have three great great grandchildren here today
we have Leonard Ferretti I think you're a great great okay and of course here in here in hill
another great great and I'd like to ask Karen would you like to say a few words next
is this working okay um hi I just want to say a few things I grew up in Dixon and Sacramento
and left California on a corporate transfer back east when I was 35 but this has always been what I
could say um my grandmother sat me down when I was 12 years old and I asked her you know what
did you tell me about our family and I still have the piece of paper where she wrote down
all the names that she could remember about family where they all came from so I've had
a deep appreciation and connection to the knee bone branch we've come out here when I was a child
and I'm sort of a family historian I'm a genealogist so I gathered information over all these
connected with me three and a half years ago and said hey do you want to work with me on this project
um and it was a journey that I never anticipated that we'd be here three and a half years ago
I'm here now with everyone that's here and cousins I've never met an extended family that
have come in following um I'm so grateful you all have the interest you're here you care about the
project um and that we can pass on to our kids um this was an elaboration between Natalie
Chuck and I but um partner Paul from the Department of Human Life and the Community
Commissioner of the Historic Society on Searle's Library um landmarks mission um
the Department of Human Affairs had to get an authorization going at the project because
they wanted to make sure there was nothing serious about the problem that we had to be careful of
so many people had a piece of information Steve um were so grateful that you know there was probably
a never a meeting at the community supervisors without having us on your agenda and there were
times when after three years going on I'm losing it was though and he was always like you know
we're working hard don't give up we're still we're still working for it so um I'm so
so I'm so grateful you know to everyone who's here um no
no
Carol of course who's the um he's been still wildlife he's not here but he was the one that brought
that that's not throughout and found big enough boulder took it up to the grave so we could mount
the flap on it um Steve's right okay Steve thank you um
well I actually got a photograph of a selection of boulders like which one right
so um
Sue's born here she still continues to ranch in the valley and you are two later to the whole thing
so um we appreciate you standing by it the entire time um uh
who's here
the surveying when we couldn't find a way to fund a professional survey or to come out and
Andy came out and and surveyed the property for us which one of the stumbling blocks that we had
and getting this through um there's Torbin Torbin Torbin Torbin was here every
day
this is our history it's our family history it's also California's history um and it's a history
that will pass down to our families you know
so
okay that was your mic that thank you Karen Leonard would you like to say something
you want to say a lot or just a little
um
and they would uh they'd be very proud to see this happen especially uh Michael's mom she
she she's shaped every bit of history she's good for years one yeah right I remember the
dock together for after a few years and you were just driving and you said yeah you retire
I would say it's your retirement but my mom and especially because uh she's she's safe yeah
yeah but uh they would uh they would love to be here fortune vehicle thank you very much
everybody that put the effort into this really has a lot of fine records that
Leonard has now uh have allowed the uh historic uh society to scan and that is of course the
group that Dakota represents that's here today um we look forward to looking at that online once
it's finished it's just about complete yeah
okay
is there any anybody else that would like to speak or do you want to get out of the rain
okay um we wanted to unveil the main monument plaque which is just up this little gravel
trail underneath that large oak tree so i'm going to ask uh terry kneebone to uh lead anybody
up there that would like to go and just take your time and terry will go ahead and uh take off the
tarp on the plaque as a I don't know what you want to call it but I think it's appropriate
and it's the green one over there yes
go ahead you go ahead what's that
you
I would really like the bottle of champagne
I'm going to wait for Karen to get it I have to wait for you to be here
it's perfect I just haven't seen you yet well it's true
well god like launching a ship again thank you all for being here it's just an enormously
meaningful experience for all of us here and everybody related and friends um
yeah I find it hard to come up with the appropriate words to express the emotions I feel at seeing
our ancestors honored this way in a prominent way and of you all being here they're honoring them
and wonderful yeah I get a little choked up about that Karen do you want to say something
okay well with that said let's show the plot
yeah hope it's still there
let me read that the knee bone ranch and cemetery joseph knee bone came to california
from cornwall england in 1867 acquired this 1595 acre ranch a historic town of spenceville
and started a very successful teeming business from the 1860s to 1890s his sons andrew and joseph
from 20-year-old king wagons from wheatland to ciching the city using the jerk line
to leave one lead animal following the old pennist past growth joseph's wife mary martin knee bone
arrived in spenceville in 1871 with three of their children william joseph reed and ester
the oldest eldest child andrew reed knee bone remained in england to complete his education
andrew born and arrived in in spenceville in 1875 on the hill overlooking the knee bone ranch
are buried five of the original pioneer knee bone family members joseph knee bone wife mary martin
knee bone joseph reed knee bone rickard knee bone and mary knee bone and it is very the appropriate
um certification of where it comes from it's landmark registered by nevada county
june 3 2025 nevada 25 that's real thick black dedicated 2025 by the nevada county historical
landmark commission and the opposition with caron hill on behalf of the knee bone family
thank you all
did a good job well now it's up to you guys when you want to go back
if you want to stay longer we'll have a shuttle waiting for you to take you back
if you want to take the time and traverse a little distance of course you can see the uh
cement burial site and you can go take a look at that plaque as well
so with that we're adjourned thank you
the knee bone family cemetery life was hard and often cruel on the frontier
joseph's namesake son was murdered driving his freight wagon home after delivering goods to the
mines in the high country while his son richard drowned in the farm's pond at the age of two
mary and their new baby died in childbirth only a few years after that loss
joseph himself was murdered at the family home some years later
uh
You