Colored Settlement Cemetery

No unauthorized commercial use may be made of this material©
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.
In 2005 I received a letter from the great grandaughter of Joshua Emanuel.. She said she is the grandaughter of Nellie Ruh Cherry Emanuel who was still alive at that time. Her grandmother who was born in 1907 was still alive and remembered the facts on the cemetery. Nellie is the only remaining of the 13 children born to Joshua and Mary Emanuel. Buried behind the church according to family members?

Name	Birth	Death
Brown, Infant (of Maurice & Gertie Meehan Brown)	No dates
Brown, Jemima Scott (wife of George Brown) (buried 1/2 mile northwest of present river bridge)	1858	Last documented 1920 Census
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)	03-1863	?
Hansen, Thomas	no dates
Masterson, Ruthie( dau of Clarence & Mary)	no dates
Meehan, Ralph(son of Dennis & Ida Mae Shores Meehan)	1908	1908
Price, Nellie Mrs. (wife of Turner Price)	1901	11-11-1922
Steel, Nora Mrs.(Possibly wife of Harrison Steele, not confirmed)	no dates
Thomas, Lewis(sosn of Jacob & Anna Thomas)(brother of Nellie Price)	1896
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.

Return to the Cemeteries Listpage