Colored Settlement Cemetery

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DeWitty Cemetery
Located 10 miles west of Brownlee, Ne
Section 27, Range 30, Township 28.
Caretakers are Don & Clara Hanna
The DeWitty cemetery is located about ten miles west of Brownlee, Ne. on land now owned by Bob Hanna. There are no markers or fence anymore but you can see where a few graves are.
The sod church was just to the northwest of the cemetery. It was in 1908 that the first colored families started moving in and filed on Kinkaid Homesteads. There is a grave on the homestead of Joshua Emanuel (section 32 township 28 range 30) just to the south and east of the old cemetery(section 34 township 28 range 30).
The grave is marked with the four posts of a bedstead and is that of a baby. The foundation of their home is still there.
Some of the early settlers were C.H.Meehan, W.P.Walker, Joshua Emanuel, George and Albert Riley, George Grown, J.A.Hatter and William Crawford.
Goldie Walker Hayes taught rural schools in Cherry County most of her life.
The Rileys were the only family that stayed. Most of them sold out to neighboring ranchers during the depression.
This information is from M.r & Mrs. Don Hanna.

Name	Birth	Death
Brown, Infant (of Mr.& Mrs. Morris Brown)	No dates
Brown, Mrs. George (buried 1/2 mile northwest of present river bridge)	no dates
Crawford, Hazel	no dates
Curtis, Grandma(buried 1/2 mile south of River. Approx. 2 miles east of present river crossing)	No dates
Emanuel, Joshua(Doss)	no dates
Hansen, Thomas	no dates
Masterson, Ruthie( dau of Clarence & Mary)	no dates
Meehan, Infant(of Dennis & Mrs.)	no dates
Price, Nellie Mrs.	no dates
Steel, Nora Mrs.	no dates
Thomas, Lewis	no dates
Williams, John	no dates

We apologize for any errors in reading or transcribing of information. For corrections please contact the Cherry County coordinator. Pictures donated by Ruth Harms.

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02-2005