Martin & Zelda Capehart Genealogy Website

Cemetery & Grave Marker Photos

~~ Morgan/Stanley ~~

Martin & Zelda Capehart Genealogy Website

Chelsea Cemetery, Fillmore Co., NE

Fillmore County is located in southeast Nebraska. Early settlers came from many different countries and the first homesteads were filed in 1866. Fillmore City, the first town, was platted four years later in 1870. Officers were elected the following year and the county was named Fillmore for President Millard Fillmore. An election was held in Nathaniel McCall's dugout and the county seat was named Geneva after his former home in Geneva, Illinois. A group of tough pioneers battled grasshoppers, prairie fires, droughts and blizzards, to found towns, start businesses, built churches and schools which helped Fillmore County grow. The Fillmore County Courthouse in Geneva was built in 1894. The estimated population in 2004 was 6,462.

The cemetery was organized in April of 1871 and was known as Bethel Cemetery. In 1884, the cemetery was reorganized and the name changed to Chelsea Cemetery. All burial plots have always been and still are free of charge to the public. The first land, consisting of 1 acre was purchased for $25 from Salathiel & Sara Stanley. They are parents of Paulina Stanley who married Benjamin Franklin Morgan, Martin's great grandfather. In 1919 Roy and Maude Yates donated 2.9 acres and an additional 40 acres of land was inherited by the cemetery from the estate of Ella Rhoda in 1968. Grain raised and sold on the 40 acres is used to pay for upkeep of the cemetery and purchase of equipment to maintain it. The church that use to be located at the cemetery is no longer there.

Cemetery Entrance

Inscription on plaque

"CHELSEA

CEMETERY"

Inscription on plaque

"IN MEMORY OF

FREDERICH & SOPHIA

RHODA

ENDOWED BY ELLA RHODA"

The bell that use to be in the belfry of the Chelsea EUB church and the monument which can be seen to the left.

Inscription on the monument

"CHELSEA E.U.B. CHURCH

1885 - 1955

"B E L L"

DONATED BACK TO THE CHELSEA CEMETERY ASSN.

BY THE JOE AND ROSE VAVRA FAMILIES. 1988"

The Chelsea E.U.B. church that use to be at the cemetery.

Salathael Stanley

Pvt Co. H 79 ILL Inf.

Civil War

b. 16 Aug 1822, d. 1 June 1906

Grave marker gives dates 1823-1906

Husband of Sara Ann (Hickley) Stanley

Salathael Stanley's marker

G A R

1861

1865

Sara Ann (Hickey) Stanley

b. abt 18 Nov 1924

d. 21 Jan 1890

aged 66y 2m 3d

Wife of Salathiel Stanley

Sara E. Stanley

b. abt Apr 1849

d. 10 April 1885

aged 36 years

She was the wife of Henry Stanley, son

of Salathiel & Sara A (Hickey) Stanley

Martin E. Morgan

b. Jan 1874

d. 18 Nov 1874

age 10 Months

Infant son of Benjamin Franklin & Perlina (Stanley) Morgan

Benjamin & Perlina Morgan lost 3 other children as infants who may be buried in this cemetery, too. There is plenty of room beside their brother's grave.

Sylvia Ellen

Morgan

b. 4 Jan 1875

d. 1875 Infant

Data Lois Morgan

b. 23 Oct 1887

d. 1888 Infant

Benjamin Franklin Morgan

b. 27 Oct 1889

d. abt 1889 Infant

Creations by Zelda

The Martin & Zelda Capehart Genealogy Website

Chelsea Cemetery is located two miles south of Hwy 41 in the NE 1/4 of Section 24, Chelsea Townhsip, Fillmore County, NE. It is 5-1/2 miles east of highway 81.

The information on this website has been compiled from many sources. We have tried to document and verify all information as much as possible and will continue to do so. If you find an error or have additional information please contact us.

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Year of birth and death may have been 1873 instead of 1874.

Note: We visited Chelsea Cemetery in May of 2005 and 2006 and took the photos shown here. It is a moving experience to visit the area where your ancestor's once lived and try to envision the heartache and sorrow they felt as they laid to rest an infant or small child. My great grandparents, Benjamin Franklin and Perlina (Stanley) Morgan, may have 4 infants buried in this cemetery. There is a marker for only one but since they were living in the area when all but one of their children, including my grandpa were born, it would seem logical they would all be buried here. There were also grave markers for several children of Cyrus & Mary Bechtel (Cyrus is the brother-in-law of Dianna Jane (Stanley) Bechtel; also for a son of John & Della (Stanley) Crom and for John Becthel's brother, Byron, the grown son of Henry & Susan Bechtel.

This farm was the originally the Salathiel Stanley homestead. Homestead location -- Chelsea Township, Fillmore county, Section 24, NE1/4. The deed was received from the United States Government on March 5, 1880. Chelsea Cemetery is located in the northeast corner of the homestead. Many of Salathiel and Sarah's children married homesteaders of the area:

Mary Elizabeth married Jesse Griffith -- he homesteaded in Section 26 -- Chelsea Twp.

after Jesse's death she married Richard Kinsey -- he homesteaded in Section 20 -- Chelsea Twp.

Perlina married Benjamin Franklin Morgan -- he homesteaded in Section 26 -- Chelsea Twp.

Leva Ann married Ellis A. Barnett -- he homesteaded in Section 23 -- Franklin Twp.

Minerva married Samuel E. Raines -- he homesteaded in Section 26 -- Chelsea Twp.

Diane Jane married John Bechtel -- he homesteaded in Section 26 -- Glengary Twp.

Chelsea, the first son of Minerva and Samuel Raines, was the first white child born within the 36 mile area of Chelsea Twp. and the township was named after him. -- Source: History of Milligan, Nebraska, 1888-1988

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