Morrill began as a settlement called Collins, founded in 1886 by settlers from Fort Collins, Colorado, about a mile north of the present townsite. Anticipating the Burlington Railroad's arrival, the town relocated south in the early 1900s and was replatted as Morrill, named for Charles Henry Morrill, president of the Lincoln Land Company — a different man from Justin Morrill, the U.S. Senator for whom Nebraska's separate Morrill County is named.

Incorporated as a village in 1907, Morrill had a 2020 population of 934, roughly stable over the past two decades. U.S. Highway 26 runs directly through the village.