Authors Phyllis E. Smith, left, and Victoria M. Tudor hold copies of their book “Historic Marysville City Cemetery” during a recent speaking and signing event. The two historians are board members of Friends for the Preservation of Yuba County History and spent years researching burial records, photographs and local archives for the project. Photo courtesy of the Sutter County Museum

MARYSVILLE, CA (MPG) - Two local historians, Phyllis E. Smith and Victoria M. Tudor, have released a new book highlighting the rich and often dramatic history of the Marysville City Cemetery as part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series.

The book was announced in October 2025 and formally presented to the Marysville City Council soon after. Following the announcement, Smith and Tudor began a local speaking tour, appearing at Rotary Club meetings and other community events throughout Yuba and Sutter counties to share their research and promote the project.

Both authors are longtime board members of Friends for the Preservation of Yuba County History, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and sharing the region’s historical resources. Tudor writes the group’s monthly newsletter, “The Yuba Legacy,” while Smith serves as its editor. Together, they help coordinate fundraising efforts and lead guided tours of the cemetery.

Tudor has spent years working hands-on in the Marysville City Cemetery, including coordinating headstone repair projects with a local monument company. Smith undertook a four-year effort to digitize handwritten burial records dating from 1870 to 1930, creating an invaluable resource that helped inform the book’s development.

The “Historic Marysville City Cemetery,” part of Arcadia Publishing’s Images of America series, documents the people, events and evolving history of one of the region’s oldest city-owned cemeteries. The book was written by local historians Phyllis E. Smith and Victoria M. Tudor for the Friends for the Preservation of Yuba County History. Proceeds will go towards the restoration and ongoing maintenance of the Marysville City Cemetery’s graves and grounds. Photo courtesy of the Sutter County Museum

The Marysville City Cemetery is one of the oldest city-owned cemeteries in the region, with burials dating back to 1850. More than 10,000 individuals are interred there, including early city founders, politicians, Western figures and victims and perpetrators of some of the area’s most infamous crimes. Among those buried are a survivor of the Donner Party, the brother of the founder of Macy’s department store, a U.S. minister to Japan appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant, and founders and co-owners of the Union Lumber Company, established in 1852.

The cemetery was officially closed to new burials in 1939, with exceptions later made for existing family plots and cremated remains. The most recent interment took place in 2016.

In January, the Sutter County Museum in Yuba City selected “Historic Marysville City Cemetery” as its Book of the Month, describing it as an “outstanding local treasure.”

Smith and Tudor wrote the book as a fundraiser for Friends for the Preservation of Yuba County History. The 128-page volume features more than 200 historic and contemporary photographs, drawing from cemetery and city records, newspaper accounts, personal letters and decades of research. Some of that research was conducted by Tudor’s late mother, Virginia “Ginny” Tudor, a longtime cemetery volunteer whose work helped document many of the stories preserved in the book.

The book retails for about $25, with all proceeds benefiting the restoration and ongoing maintenance of the Marysville City Cemetery’s graves and grounds.

“Friends for the Preservation of Yuba County History is a group of people who recognize the value of preserving and sharing our local community’s rich heritage, landmarks and Historical Points of Interests,” said Judy Mann, a local historian. “We are so excited about this book!”

“Historic Marysville City Cemetery” is now available for purchase at the Sutter County Museum in Yuba City, the Mary Aaron Museum in Marysville, or online through Amazon and Arcadia Publishing.