It is thought the cemetery was laid out and used soon after the First Church of Christ of Reno Center was organized. The Church was organized in December, 1873. The cemetery was under the direction of the Trustees of the church. At this time, the Church and parsonage were located on a tract of approximately four acres some distance south of the cemetery on the west line of the Southwest Quarter. The first deed on record in the Reno County Court House at Hutchinson, Kansas, concerning the land on which the cemetery is located was dated July 26, 1879, which covered a tract of approximately two acres in the northwest corner of the Southwest Quarter (SW 1/4) of Section Fifteen (15), Township Twenty-four (24), South, Range Seven (7) West, Reno County, Kansas.
The land was deeded to Hugh Ghormley, T. J. Crotts, J. T. McAdams, M. C. Bussinger and Elmer Everett, The Board of Trustees of the First Church of Christ of Reno Center of Reno County, Kansas, and their successors in office. This tract was deeded by Rev. Samuel Dilley and Belinda Axtell Dilley, his wife, to be used for a public cemetery. The first recorded plat of Reno Center Cemetery was dated December 24, 1883, and surveyed by J. McLean Harsha, and filed in Plat Book No. 4, Part 1, Reno County Court House, Hutchinson, Kansas.
It is thought that after the cemetery was in use that graves from near-by "private" cemeteries were moved to this location. It is believed that when the Methodist Church was moved from the country to the town of Partridge, that graves from that cemetery were moved to the Reno Center Cemetery.
The West Annex, consisting of twenty-four lots immediately west of the original layout of lots, was apparently added about 1916.
The new Annex, or North Annex, was added November 12, 1921, on land acquired from Claude W. Puckett and Edna Puckett, his wife, by deed to Reno Cemetery Association; recorded November 26, 1921, in Book 147, Page 29. The plat for the Annex was prepared by W. H. Dunkin and dated September 29, 1921.
The cemetery was under supervision of the Church until 1923 when Center Township took over maintenance and supervision. The Township levies a tax now for the maintenance and upkeep of the cemetery. The records are kept by the Township Trustee. As shown on deeds now issued for lots, the name of the cemetery is "Partridge / Center Township Cemetery".