McMurtrey Cemetery lies in the sandhills of central Cherry County, in Section 11 of Township 29, Range 35, on what is now the McMurtrey Ranch.
It was laid out in the spring of 1897 by Charles M. Kime, when his father-in-law, Mr Bartley, died and there was nowhere nearby to bury him. Kime's own son Levi was buried there in June of the same year. Kime believed he had laid the cemetery out on his own land; a later survey proved it lay across the fence, on ground that became the McMurtrey Ranch — which is why a cemetery holding several generations of Kimes carries the McMurtrey name.
Kime, Merrick, Farnham, Garroute, Russell and Wengander are among the families recorded. Around 9 memorials have been recorded, which is a record of what has been photographed and indexed rather than a count of everyone buried there.
No mapped coordinates are published for this cemetery, so the directions above are the best guide. This is working ranch ground. The section, township and range put it roughly twenty-nine miles west of Kennedy, and it is listed under Kennedy — close enough to say which village it belongs to, not close enough to navigate by.
For burial records or plot enquiries, contact the Cherry County Clerk in Valentine. Ownership can also be confirmed through the Nebraska Statewide Cemetery Registry at the State Historical Society.