RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Washington >> Walla Walla County >> College Place >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Washington

The Commemorative Quarter for Washington





Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about College Place (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for College Place. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Name Variations for College Place ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for College Place: College Pl. (or less commonly used: College Plc.)

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

College Place is located in Walla Walla County.

To see how the shape of Washington's counties have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Walla Walla County: Umatilla (OR), Benton, Columbia & Franklin.

Below are the counties that are near College Place. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to College Place:

  • Walla Walla County     (The home county of College Place)
    • The following are listed by their distance from College Place, with the one closest to College Place listed first.
    • Garrett
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Garrett have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Garrett
      • Garrett is located in Walla Walla County
    • Walla Walla
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Mojonnier
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mojonnier
      • Mojonnier is located in Walla Walla County
    • Calhounville
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Calhounville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calhounville
      • Calhounville is located in Walla Walla County
    • Kibler
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kibler
      • Kibler is located in Walla Walla County
    • Lowden
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Rulo
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rulo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rulo
      • Rulo is located in Walla Walla County
    • Dixie
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Touchet
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Paddock
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Paddock
      • Paddock is located in Walla Walla County
    • Prescott
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Prescott have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prescott
      • Prescott is located in Walla Walla County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 310 people
    • Waitsburg
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
  • Columbia County
    • The following are listed by their distance from College Place, with the one closest to College Place listed first.
    • Menoken
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Menoken
      • Menoken is located in Columbia County
    • Huntsville
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntsville
      • Huntsville is located in Columbia County
    • Dayton
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
  • Umatilla County (OR)
    • The following are listed by their distance from College Place, with the one closest to College Place listed first.
    • Calhounville
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Calhounville have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calhounville
      • Calhounville is located in Umatilla County (OR)
    • Milton - Freewater
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Milton - Freewater have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Milton - Freewater
      • Milton - Freewater is located in Umatilla County (OR)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 7,052 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Milton - Freewater <2>
    • Umapine
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Umapine
      • Umapine is located in Umatilla County (OR)
    • Blue Mountain
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Blue Mountain have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Mountain
      • Blue Mountain is located in Umatilla County (OR)
    • Weston
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Weston have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Weston
      • Weston is located in Umatilla County (OR)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 650 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Weston <2>
    • Athena
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Athena have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Athena
      • Athena is located in Umatilla County (OR)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,140 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Athena <2>
    • Helix
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Helix have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helix
      • Helix is located in Umatilla County (OR)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 191 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Helix <2>
    • Adams
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Adams have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Adams
      • Adams is located in Umatilla County (OR)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 359 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Adams <2>
    • Bingham Springs
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bingham Springs
      • Bingham Springs is located in Umatilla County (OR)
    • Tollgate
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tollgate
      • Tollgate is located in Umatilla County (OR)
    • Gibbon
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gibbon have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gibbon
      • Gibbon is located in Umatilla County (OR)
    • Cayuse
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to College Place, see our County-by-County Page for College Place.

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of College Place ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 103 newspapers that have been published in the area around College Place.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of College Place. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of College Place and those printed in the larger area surrounding College Place.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 27 miles [43.5 km]<3> of College Place.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to College Place:

Cemeteries Near College Place ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of College Place.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

If not found below, our Cemetery List for College Place covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from College Place, with the one closest to College Place listed first.

  • Mt. Hope Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • Blue Mtn. Memorial Garden
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Blue Mtn. Memorial Garden have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Blue Mtn. Memorial Garden
  • Ft. Walla Walla Military Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ft. Walla Walla Military Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ft. Walla Walla Military Cemetery
  • Mountain View Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
  • Valley Chapel Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Valley Chapel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Valley Chapel Cemetery
  • Ford Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Old City Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Old City Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Old City Cemetery
  • Bowlus Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bowlus Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bowlus Cemetery
  • Athena Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Athena Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Athena Cemetery
  • Weston Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Weston Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Weston Cemetery
  • Key Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Key Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Key Cemetery
  • Hyatt Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Hyatt Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Hyatt Cemetery
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Ivy Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Ivy Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ivy Cemetery
    • IOOF Cemetery
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the IOOF Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the IOOF Cemetery
    • Helix Cemetery
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Helix Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Helix Cemetery

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.<5>

While we didn't find College Place in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of College Place.

These communities are listed based on their distance from College Place, with the one closest to College Place listed first.

  • Walla Walla
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Spofford
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spofford have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spofford
    • Spofford is located in Umatilla County (OR)
  • Valley Grove
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Valley Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valley Grove
    • Valley Grove is located in Walla Walla County
  • Hadley
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hadley have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hadley
    • Hadley is located in Walla Walla County
  • Rulo
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rulo have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rulo
    • Rulo is located in Walla Walla County
  • Berryman
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Berryman have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berryman
    • Berryman is located in Walla Walla County
  • Gilliam
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Gilliam have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gilliam
    • Gilliam is located in Walla Walla County
  • Blue Mountain
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Blue Mountain have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Blue Mountain
    • Blue Mountain is located in Umatilla County (OR)
  • Dixie
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Downing
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Downing have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Downing
    • Downing is located in Umatilla County (OR)
  • Touchet
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Climax
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Climax have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Climax
    • Climax is located in Walla Walla County
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Weston
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Weston have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Weston
      • Weston is located in Umatilla County (OR)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 650 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Weston <2>
    • Vansycle
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Vansycle have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Vansycle
      • Vansycle is located in Umatilla County (OR)
    • Stanton
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Stanton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stanton
      • Stanton is located in Umatilla County (OR)

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around College Place. See our List of 1890's Communities around College Place.

The official website for College Place: www.ci.college-place.wa.us/

The official website for Walla Walla County: www.co.walla-walla.wa.us/

The official website for State of Washington: https://access.wa.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- College Place) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in College Place. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 46.0494, Longitude: -118.3886    
<4>The Find-a-Grave website is an excellent research tool with information about a cemetery's location and interments. They also offer a forum for their members which can provide additional help. More information about Find-a-Grave can be found on their website: findagrave.com.
<5>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about College Place, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2024
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024