Yates County Cemetery Project
Part I: Cemeteries in the town of Benton

Benton Rural Cemetery is owned and beautifully maintained by an association whose records begin early in the 20th century. These were used to correct and augment this listing and are denoted thus: [reg: ] followed by whatever the burial register could add to the information on the gravestone.

The cemetery is a large one, with the oldest burials up front near the road. The Yates County Chronicle of 14 February 1923 states that early records of burials at Benton Center were found if among old papers belonging to the late Robert Edmonds." These burials were transcribed and are included here.

The cemetery was originally on the property of Levi Benton, after whom the town was named. Almost all the remaining old gravestones are legible, but a few have fallen and broken, others are being overgrown by the grass. No doubt many of the very earliest have disappeared over the two centuries the place has been in use. All known earlier readings have been used to correct this one.

This cemetery, like all those for which written burial records were used, reveals a great many unmarked graves. No attempt was made to determine whether persons whose dates of death have not been carved on their stones are actually deceased; as in all active cemeteries, there will be many cases where they are not.

The cemetery is now known by the name of the association that owns it, but in earlier times it was often called the Benton Center Cemetery after the hamlet a short distance to the west.