The restaurant on the grounds of Murphin Ridge has been a strong drawing card, and the bed and breakfast attracts a significant proportion of its guests from west-central and southwest Ohio. The sale is scheduled to close next week.
“It was time,” Sherry McKenney said. “Darryl is 70, and I’m 68. We were losing steam.”
The new owners “will be a good fit” for the inn, McKenney said.
Jerry Schutt said he first encountered Murphin Ridge as a guest when he took his wife there for the couple’s 25th wedding anniversary in 2008. “It was wonderful,” Schutt said. “We’re country people, but it was just so quiet and peaceful there.”
The Schutts owned four farms — two in Darke County and two in Preble County — and Schutt has worked as a grain farmer, welder, mechanic and substitute school bus driver in addition to operating the restaurant. Jerry, 50, and Paula, 49, kept up with Murphin Ridge, which has been for sale for several years, and finally made the decision to negotiate to purchase it from the McKenneys. The couple sold their four farms and are preparing to move to the property, which is nestled in rolling hills of Amish Country southeast of Cincinnati.
Sherry McKenney worked as a teacher and caterer, and her husband as a salesman, in the Dayton area before the two bought Murphin Ridge 16 years ago.
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