Cora May Elwell was born in Newark Valley, NY on August 20, 1867. After finishing public school, she attended seminary school in Pennsylvania and then came to the Denver area with her husband Stewart “Grant” Dilley in 1886. She was still a teenager.

In 1894, Cora joined the Evangelical United Brethren Church and was appointed to its Big Thompson Mission in Colorado that year.

Reverend Dilley became a circuit rider, a roving evangelist who travelled by horse and buggy to preach to her congregations at Twin Mound School near what is now Mead and at White Hall school, formerly located on the Whitehall family farm in what is now Johnstown. She also preached in Berthoud and Loveland, working tirelessly as God’s servant to help stabilize these budding communities.

It was Reverend Dilley’s White Hall congregation that, in the fall of 1894, became so inspired by her sermons and her work, they decided to fund and provide the labor for the first church in the area.

The Dilley Chapel was built at what would become known as Elwell – the small community carved out of a corner of the John W. Purvis farm along with a portion of the John Sloan farm, both facing CO Hwy 60 and extending north along both sides of Colorado Blvd, including the cemetery.

Named after Reverend Dilley’s family name, Elwell is where community in this part of Weld County first began to blossom before Johnstown was even an idea. Elwell predates Johnstown by almost a decade and holds much of the area’s early history.

Mr. Dilley passed away in 1896 and Cora was remarried two years later in February 1898 to Abraham L. Morrison.

Reverend Dilley wouldn’t live to see the vibrant little community that grew up around her church, nor the general store that would help stabilize Elwell’s existence for many years. Just two months later after becoming Mrs. Morrison she succumbed to a lingering illness she had contracted earlier that winter and she died on April 19, 1898. Her death certificate notes hemorrhaging of the bowels as the culprit. She was 30 years old.

There was no cemetery in the area at that time. At Reverend Dilley’s prior request, she was laid to rest beneath the south windows of the chapel.