Prior to European contact, the residents of the area were Plains Miwok Indians.  They lived in the river drainages of the Cosumnes and MokelumneRivers, in present day Sacramento, Amador, and San JoaquinCounties.  Even after the intrusion of the Gold Rush, the Miwoks remained in the area and this included a Round House close by Fiddletown. 

Although no evidence of Miwok presence on Trembath Mountain Ranch exists, they led a subsistence existence that included the harvesting of acorns all over this area.  But major changes were to come with the discovery of gold.

On the other side of the world, back in the Bronze Age, some 1800 years BC, the Tinners were at work in Cornwall, at the far southern tip of what would some day be part of England.  Tin, blended with the copper ore from Ireland, was turned into bronze, and from bronze, utensils and weapons were forged.  Tin had a hundred uses.  In Europe, the largest deposits were in Cornwall. 

In the twelfth century, a code of laws was drawn up for the Tinners that established the Tinner as his own master and gave him a unique position of independence amongst his fellow men.  He was not a serf, servant or hired laborer, so was not bound to a master or piece of land.  As a free artisan, the Tinner could take a lease or “set” from any landowner, sharing with him a portion of the tin found.

The start of the nineteenth century and the industrial revolution saw a boom in Cornish tin.  Cornwall was also the largest copper-producing district in the world.  Mining and the economy in Cornwall, however, were always an "up and down" proposition.

Times were good when Benedict Trembath (born 1824) married Ann Eddy (born 1826) on September 7, 1845 at Sithney Parish and resided at CrownTown in that parish.  Their families had lived for unknown generations in Cornwall.

Mary Trembath (born May 15, 1846) was the only child of Ben and Ann and she was able to attend private school.  In 1861, she married Joe Thomas, also of Sithney Parish, who was the youngest of 9 children born of Richard Thomas and Ann Sarah.  Joe’s father died early and Joe had to go to work in the mines when he was about 10 years old.

The mining boom reached its peak by the early 1860’s, and then the bottom began to fall out of the market.  Mines closed down and thousands of miners found themselves out of work.  There was no alternative to starvation but mass emigration.  A third of the mining population left Cornwall before the end of the century, taking their skill to America, South Africa, Australia, and other mining centers around the world.

In 1866, Ben and his son-in-law, Joe, left their families in Crown Town and traveled to New York, then to the Isthmus of Panama, where they crossed by train, boat and walking, to the Pacific coast, then to San Francisco on a steamer, up the river to Sacramento and then to Amador City, where they both went to work as highly desirable “Hard Rock” miners from Cornwall.  They began work in the “Little Amador Mine” and would not see their family until they could afford to bring them to their new home in AmadorCounty.

Five years later, when a strike was declared at the mines (this was known as the Amador War and the state militia had to be called in July of 1871), Ben and Joe took this opportunity to go back to England to bring their wives and children to their new home.  Joe returned with his wife and two of their children aboard the SS Nevada, shipping out of Liverpool, England, and stopping at Queenstown, Ireland.  They arrived at the Port of New York in September, 1871. 

Joe and Mary Thomas, and their six year old son, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in Steerage with 570 others (another 60 people had cabins), then traveled west from New York to Sacramento, by way of the newly completed trans-continental railroad. They arrived in AmadorCityOctober 4, 1871.  Ben and Ann Trembath followed with their eldest grandchild, Mary Anne Trembath Thomas, in 1872.

In the mid 1870’s, Mary Thomas opened a popular boarding house for miners in AmadorCity and many boarders were “Cousin Jacks” from Cornwall.  In 1877, Mary and Joe started a general merchandise store, and were able to give up mining. Ben Trembath became a U.S. citizen that same year.  In 1880, Mary and Joe bought 400 acres of ranch property in New Chicago, just outside Drytown where Ben and Ann Trembath lived.  Ben Trembath died on August 15, 1883

Around the 1890’s, Mary and Joe bought a number of other properties including the 440 acre “Dunbar place” on October 23, 1889 for $8.00 per acre.  Lucian A. Dunbar had owned it for three years.  In addition to their other ventures, Joe cut and hauled timbers for the Bunker Hill mine, and others, using 12 to 16 mule teams. 

By the 1890's, times became difficult again as mining slowed in the area.  Then the Thomas store, two of their houses, a big barn and sheds burned down.  They also had their safe blown and money and jewelry stolen.  About 1895, the mines failed and they were left with worthless checks and I.O.U.’s from property sales and merchandise transactions and had to start selling pieces of land to keep going.

Ann Trembath had been able to help Joe and Mary Thomas purchase the Dunbar in 1892 by carrying the mortgage.  She died on July 31, 1899.  Ben and Ann Trembath are buried in the Thomas plot at OakKnollCemetery, in the community of Bunker Hill, just north of AmadorCity.

Their grandson, Benedict Trembath Thomas, helped operate the ranch for the Thomas Estate Company (incorporated by the family in 1910) until the 1930’s when it was leased out.  The Fancher families, also cousins of Cornish descent, were excellent stewards as leaseholders.  They ran cattle, cut timber and fire wood on “the Dunbar” for over 60 years.

Trembath Mountain Ranch today is owned by Rick and Lin Sanders.  Their children are seventh generation descendants of Ben and Ann Trembath.

 “TrembathMountain” is named in honor of Ben and Ann who stood by their daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren all their lives, giving time, love and financial support.  By doing so, they also gave all their descendants an irreplaceable heritage in AmadorCounty and America.