LOCATION:      Township 9 North, Range 23 East, W. M., Section 31, NE 1/4
               Latitude 461343N, Longitude 1195907W
               USGS Quadrant o46119b8 - Mabton East

MABTON CEMETERY is located approximately 1-3/4 miles northeast of central Mabton. From the intersection of State Highway 22 and Main Street in Mabton, follow Main Street north three blocks. Turn right on Washington Street. Go east approximately 5 blocks. (Note: Washington Street becomes East Euclid Road.) Turn left on Vance Road, formerly known as Mabton Cemetery Road. Go north one mile. The cemetery is located on the east side of the road surrounded by a modern fence with driveway entrances.

Mabton Cemetery is owned by the City of Mabton. It sits on high land with vistas of the Yakima River valley to the north and a vinyard to the east. The grounds are well maintained and have mature trees. In 2003, the cemetery held over 1,300 burials.

The first store and post office opened in Mabton in 1892. The earliest burials in the cemetery date from the period between the first plat of the town by the Mabton Townsite Company in 1902 and incorporation in 1905. Mabton I.O.O.F. Cemetery once adjoined the city cemetery on the south side. (Graves in this section are assigned lot numbers 26 and higher.) The two cemeteries are now merged.

Many people in this cemetery resided in Belma, Washington, established in 1894 across the Yakima River from Mabton (now called Grandview). Belma post office closed in 1909. Belma continued to be the place name used on some state vital records to 1918, possibly later.

The original source of this data is maintained by the City of Mabton, P.O. Box 655, Mabton, WA 98935. Statistics were extracted from a Cemetery File Report generated at City Hall from September 25 through October 2, 2003. Many of the records contain only the name of the deceased and plot location. (When a burial record had No Dates, "n.d." is noted below in the "Burial" column. Record account identification numbers are stated in the "Acct" column. Other record notations are shown under "Comments". The word "Lot" precedes the purchaser's name for a gravesite of an infant.) Thanks to efforts of the city staff, this report is possible. Special thanks also go to C.L. Thiesenhusen for his proofreading assistance.

Researchers are encouraged to collect dates and facts directly from cemetery markers in Mabton, which are not shown below, to supplement these city office records. A few Marker Readings of birth and death dates by the transcriber are indicated by "MR".

The transcriber of this data does not live in Washington State and is unable to do cemetery research. E.F. Charvet, , December 1, 2003.