A Texas Historical Commission-designated pioneer cemetery on an active community college campus, famous for an 1894 severed-arm burial and lore of a one-armed phantom haunting the theater.
3737 Motley Dr, Mesquite, TX 75150
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free public access to cemetery during campus hours.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved campus paths lead to cemetery.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1863 · Texas Historical Commission Historic Cemetery Designation, 1976 · One of the oldest documented family cemeteries in Dallas County, established 1863 · Contains graves of enslaved individuals alongside Motley family members · Site of unique limb-burial custom — separate interment of John S. Motley's severed arm (1894)
Zachariah and Mary Motley arrived in Dallas County in 1856, leading a wagon train from Kentucky. They settled on a large tract surveyed from the Crittenden grant — some accounts cite 3,000 acres stretching from present-day Casa View to the Mesquite area. The family established their homestead approximately 200 feet northeast of what is now the cemetery marker on the Dallas College Eastfield campus.
The Motley family cemetery dates to 1863, when Penelope Motley McLain, daughter of Zachariah and wife of Captain J.B. McLain, became the first recorded burial. The cemetery eventually held approximately 25 known graves, including Motley family members and individuals who were enslaved by the family — a dimension the Texas Historical Commission marker acknowledges directly.
The most unusual burial is a headstone reading simply 'The Arm of John S. Motley, 1894.' In that year, seventeen-year-old John Motley lost his right arm in a cotton gin accident at a Reinhart gin in Dallas County. Following a custom of the era, the severed limb received its own burial in the family plot. A second limb burial occurred in 1911, when Grover Cleveland Motley's foot was interred at the cemetery after an amputation accident. Both men went on to live full lives despite their injuries.
The Motley mansion stood on the campus site for 88 years before burning down in 1967. Eastfield College (now Dallas College Eastfield Campus) was established on the property in 1970. The Dallas County Community College District purchased the land for $970,552 in 1966. In 1976, the Texas Historical Commission designated the Motley Cemetery as a historic site, erecting a marker (Atlas No. 5113006789) at the cemetery's location on the campus grounds.
Sources
The legend most associated with Motley Cemetery centers on John S. Motley (1877–1925), whose severed arm was given its own headstone in the family plot after a cotton gin accident in 1894. According to reporting in the Eastfield student newspaper (The Et Cetera), Motley reportedly suffered phantom limb syndrome after the amputation, sensing his buried arm crawling with ants beneath the earth. Family members allegedly exhumed the arm and found it 'swarming with ants,' reinforcing the eerie lore around the grave.
The Lakewood/East Dallas Advocate magazine published an independent feature on the ghost and the grave of the severed arm, documenting that decades of campus ghost stories attach to John S. Motley and the cemetery grounds. Campus tradition, reported across multiple student generations and covered independently by the Eastfield student newspaper, holds that the one-armed ghost of John Motley lingers on the grounds — particularly near the college theater, which sits approximately where the Motley family home stood before the mansion burned down in 1967. According to the Shadowlands Haunted Places Index, a spectral male figure has been reported watching theatrical rehearsals in the campus theater over a span of roughly two decades, consistent with the broader campus ghost tradition documented in student and local press.
The cemetery's sensitivity as the burial site of both enslaved individuals and their enslavers deserves acknowledgment: the paranormal lore should not overshadow the documented human cost of the site's history.
Notable Entities
Walk the Texas Historical Commission-marked Motley family cemetery on the Eastfield campus grounds. The distinctive headstone for John S. Motley's severed arm — buried separately after an 1894 cotton gin accident — is the focal curiosity. Twenty-five known graves span from 1863, including Motley family members and the graves of enslaved individuals.
For visitors who prefer not to enter the active campus, the historic Motley Cemetery and surrounding landscape can be viewed from Motley Drive.
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