Joseph Flementine “Flem” Murray was born about 1845. Little is definitively known about his parents or early life. Flem first appears in the 1870 census, living near Ash Grove in the household of George Johns, and working as a farmhand. In that year, he claimed a personal estate value of $150. On January 19, 1875, Flem was married in Ash Grove to Fanny Stanford. After his marriage, Murray continued farming in the Ash Grove neighborhood. By 1910, he had taken a job firing lime at the Ash Grove limekilns. When Berry Cemetery was officially created in May of 1910, Flem was among the trustees. He died on October 18, 1919 (Russel 2012).
Grave Marker: Flem Murray's specific place of burial within the Berry Cemetery is unknown and there is no known individual gravestone for him. However, Flem is memorialized by the inscription of his name (shown below) on the new monument, installed in 2017, for individuals interred in unmarked graves in the Berry Cemetery.
