04/16/2026
Morley Cemetery, Washington County, Nebraska
Cemetery Information:
Morley Cemetery, also known as Colby-Morley Cemetery, is located one mile north of U.S. Highway 30 on County Road 15, or two miles east and one mile north of Arlington, Nebraska. A dirt lane west from the road crosses a field to the cemetery's southern edge. This lane was once a county road, but its western portion beyond the cemetery was closed and converted to farmland in the late 1800s.
It is among the oldest cemeteries in Washington County, with burials linked to some of the area's earliest settlers. The earliest unconfirmed burial may date to 1857; the first confirmed are from 1866, the twin daughters of Calvin Morley, on whose land the cemetery began.
In the eighteen years after 1866, more than fifty burials took place at this rural cemetery. In 1884, the Morley family deeded the two-acre site to the newly formed Richland Cemetery Association for management. It may have first been known as the Seventh Day Adventist Cemetery, reflecting the Morley's faith, a designation still used in county records. The association retains ownership, though it has been inactive for decades following the deaths of its directors.
A Seventh Day Adventist church once stood about half a mile east, built after 1892 on land donated by pioneer Calvin Marshall. It appears on a 1908 map but was gone by 1912.
Local newspapers referred to the site as Morley Cemetery from about 1900 through the 1930s. When it was rediscovered in the 1970s, it was called Colby Cemetery, likely because that family marker was easily visible.
About 75% of the burials at this cemetery occurred before 1900. After the turn of the century, use declined rapidly, with most later interments in existing family plots. Following the deaths of Calvin and Maria Morley (1896 and 1900), the Richland Cemetery Association may have lacked strong leadership, contributing to the decline. This also paralleled a broader shift toward town and city cemeteries over rural burial sites.
The last burial at Morley was in 1960, preceded by one in 1943. A major cleanup in 1980 cleared heavy overgrowth. As an abandoned pioneer cemetery, the county now provides periodic mowing and removes dead or fallen trees as needed. Most markers are damaged or sunken.
In 2026, efforts began to restore and repair the fallen markers.
There are 129 graves in this cemetery according to this sites burial records.
Cemetery Contacts:
Bill Rhea
1994 County Road P30
Arlington, NE 68002
402-478-4344
Additional Links for the Morley Cemetery:
Search WCGS Cemetery Records
Visit this cemetery on findagrave.com
Directions:
From the intersection of CR-115 and Highway 30, Colby (Morley) Cemetery is approximately 1 mile north and 0.1 mile west of the intersection of CR-115 and CR-232 (CR-32).
Additional Location Info:
2 miles east, 1 1/2 north of Arlington.
