Agassiz, Harrison Mills & Deroche Cemeteries Burial Index
Valley View Cemetery – 5065 Cemetery Road, Agassiz
GPS 49.260980, -121.817085 – Updated 2025/03/03
Valley View Cemetery is on Cemetery Mountain on a flat plateau at the end of Cemetery Road overlooking the Agassiz Valley. It was established in 1936 when the first person buried was Alexander Munro MacPherson, who died on June 5, 1936. He was the first of about 1500 burial plots. The cemetery is approximately 4.0 hectares (10 acres) in size and is owned and managed by the District of Kent.
It has a colourful history including being used to hold cattle during the flood of 1948. Later, when the Doukhobors trekked from the Kootenays to settle along the road to Mountain Institution, they buried their loved ones in this cemetery. Many settled in the area and their families are here to this day.
For more information contact the Agassiz-Harrison museum or District of Kent
Agassiz, Harrison Mills & Deroche Cemeteries Burial Index
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Kent Municipal Cemetery – (AKA. Old Agassiz Cemetery) – 5989 Limbert Road.
GPS 49.23688, -121.80349 – Updated 2025-03-05
Old Agassiz Cemetery was established in 1898 and decommissioned in 1946. It is located on Limbert Road atop the eastern flank of a steep hill known as Limbert Mountain. It is owned and maintained by the District of Kent who also maintain an adjoining property owned by the IOOF (International Order of Odd Fellows). The first burial recorded was Charles Trotter (1835 – 1895), who was originally buried on a neighbouring farm, then moved in 1898 when the cemetery opened. Other early burials were Marth Williamson (December 1898) and Ester Anne Hubbard (1899). The last burial, which occurred 30 years after the closure of the cemetery was Norman McGill (1913-1975) in 1976.
For more information contact the Agassiz-Harrison museum or District of Kent
Agassiz, Harrison Mills & Deroche Cemeteries Burial Index
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Pretty Family Private Cemetery – Harrison Mills -15500 Morris Road.
GPS 49.16960, -121.56898
The Pretty Family Cemetery was established in 1940 and is located approximately 4 kilometers north of Highway 7. The earliest of the sixteen burials in the cemetery is for the founder, Charles Fenn Pretty, in 1940. All the 20 burials are either family members or close associates. The most recent is Phillis Stenson (nee Lepine), daughter of Rowena Lepine (nee Pretty). The site is maintained by the Pretty family who gather annually for a cleaning bee.
The original homestead, 640 acres, was acquired by Charles near Harrison Mills in 1893. Mr. Pretty used the vast fish supply for his cannery located in New Westminster. As the timber industry become increasingly important to British Columbia, Charles Pretty began to sell timber. In 1908, he founded Pretty’s Timber Exchange. The house which Charles Fenn Pretty built on his homestead in 1903 still stands today. The house was originally used as a weekend fishing and hunting getaway for the Pretty family and friends. Today, Fenn Lodge is run as the Sasquatch Crossing Eco Lodge bed and breakfast.
Sources: Wikipedia; Sasquatch Crossing Eco Lodge website
Agassiz, Harrison Mills & Deroche Cemeteries Burial Index
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Roman Catholic – Deroche
GPS 49.191321, -122.070311
The Roman Catholics established a church as early as 1890, long before any other denomination. What is believed to be the second church was built on what is now the Lougheed Highway at Cooper Road with a cemetery next to it.
This cemetery is decommissioned and abandoned with no maintenance for many years. There is no path to the cemetery and while it is only about 4 meters off the north side of the highway it is not possible to see it from the road due to the heavy growth of bush and blackberries. You can gain entrance to the cemetery by bushwhacking between the Lions Club and Deroche Gas Bar roadside signs.
The oldest remaining burial evident is for Mary Louise Beaulieu 1894 with the most recent 1936. Some graves were disinterred and the remains moved to the Hatzic cemetery when the highway was widened. Only 12 burials can be identified today, why they were not moved with the others is not known.
Sources: Sleigh, Daphne, Discovering Deroche: from Nicomen to Lake Errock, 1983
Mission Community Archives
Agassiz, Harrison Mills & Deroche Cemeteries Burial Index
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Yeomans Protestant Cemetery – Deroche
The Protestant Cemetery is a small plot at the edge of a wooded slope on land originally owned by George Yeomans east of Brooks about 2km east of Deroche. Only one gravestone is evident with two burials of Yeomans children, John 1891 and Blanche 1899.
Sources: Sleigh, Daphne, Discovering Deroche: from Nicomen to Lake Errock, 1983
Mission Community Archives
Agassiz, Harrison Mills & Deroche Cemeteries Burial Index
For more information please, contact President Pat Confrey.
Updated: 2019/11/15
