South King County Genealogical Society

History of St. Patrick Cemetery

The St. Patrick Catholic Cemetery is located at South 204th Street and Orillia Road South (51st Place South) on Kent's west hill, overlooking the Boeing Space Center.

It is believed that the first burials were Morgan O'Brien and his wife, Catherine, who both died in 1880 according to the tombstone inscriptions.

There was no known plot map of the cemetery until Mr. Ed L. Reitan of Kent and his son, Eric, performed that task in the 1960s. The cemetery has 4.6 acres, has 281 plots with twelve burials to a plot. A number of burials have occurred since this volume was finished in 1981.

History of the Saar Pioneer Cemetery

The Saar Pioneer Cemetery is located on a knoll, overlooking the Valley Freeway (State Highway 167), off the north side of South 212th Street (O'Brien Road) on Kent's east hill.

The entrance to the cemetery is marked by a monument with an inscription that reads:

SAAR PIONEER CEMETERY
ESTABLISHED 1873
WHEN FLOODING PREVENTED
USE OF ORIGINAL CEMETERY
PETER SAAR ERECTED THIS SITE

CITY OF KENT BICENTENNIAL PROJECT
DEDICATED MARCH 20, 1976
DONATED AND ERECTED BY
CITIZENS BAND FOR COMMON COURTESY

The cemetery was established following the death of Peter Saar's wife, Margaret E., who died October 1, 1873 and was buried on a portion of the family homestead. In 1905, Kent's United Methodist Church was granted the deed to the cemetery and remains the owner of the property today.

According to the tombstone inscriptions, 103 persons are interred in the cemetery, the last being Chris Hansen, who died January 19, 1949.

Although the tombstones of the Wilson, Iddings, and Liesinger families are found in the cemetery, the deceased have been reinterred in the Hillcrest Burial Park, an endowed care cemetery at 1005 Reiten Road in Kent. There may be more burials that have been reinterred elsewhere, but without recorded data for the Saar Pioneer Cemetery, an accurate count is very difficult.

History of the Mess Cemetery

The Mess Cemetery is located off Frager Road in South King County, Washington. Although the cemetery is surrounded by an industrial area and is virtually inaccessible, the memory of some of the early pioneers from this area lives on in the small abandoned burial ground.

The cemetery was started in 1878 when a diphtheria epidemic claimed the two young daughters of Julius and Anna Mess. Anna, three years, and Wilhemine A., two years, died in June and July of that year. A lovely spot, on the Mess farm, southwest of the family home, on a hill with a natural terrace, and a lovely view of the valley was chosen for their burials.

In time, others from the area asked to bury their loved ones in the same place. So, the Mess family had the grounds set aside for this purpose and taxed as such. It was managed by a board of directors. It is believed as many as fifty graves are located in the cemetery, although a plot map can not be found and many of the markers have long ago disappeared.

There were many shingle type markers, with names and dates, some of which could still be found in the 1940s. But time, nature, and cattle have obliterated them. In the beginning, a white picket fence with a gate surrounded the area. When that had to be renewed, there was a barbed wire fence, and then more barbed wire fences. Each time it was replaced, however, a smaller portion was fenced, until only the section with large stones was included. The last burial was that of Mrs. Anna Mess in 1910.

The cemetery was bequeathed to the White River Historical Society under the will of Mrs. Walter Mess, who died June 23, 1966.

The few known tombstone inscriptions were obtained form the records of the Tukwila Historical Society and those of Don Vincent and Arthur Fiske, which are on file at the Seattle Public Library. These records were transcribed during the mid-1960s.