RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of California >> Shasta County >> Horsetown >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
California

The Commemorative Quarter for California





Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about Horsetown. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Horsetown to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Horsetown, please Contact Us.

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 Horsetown (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 Horsetown. 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 Horsetown ...

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.

Over the years, Horsetown had several name changes:

  • Prior to its current name of Horsetown, it was known as One Horse Town.
  • Before changing to One Horse Town, it was named Clear Creek Diggings.
  • Horsetown was originally named Clear Creek Diggings

Another variation: Clearcreek Diggings.

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.

A Few Details for Horsetown ...

While it's still very early in our research, we found that:

  • Horsetown was established in 1849.

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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Although our information shows that the community of Horsetown is historic, it would have been located within present day Shasta County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Shasta County: Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Siskiyou, Tehama & Trinity.

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

  • Shasta County     (The home county of Horsetown)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Horsetown, with the one closest to Horsetown listed first.
    • Briggsville ‑ Historic
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Briggsville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Briggsville
      • Briggsville is located in Shasta County
      • Former name for Briggsville:
      • Moorestown
    • Centerville
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centerville
      • Centerville is located in Shasta County
    • Cloverdale
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cloverdale
      • Cloverdale is located in Shasta County
    • Texas Springs ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Texas Springs. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Texas Springs
      • Texas Springs is located in Shasta County
    • Igo
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Middletown ‑ Historic
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Middletown have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Middletown
      • Middletown is located in Shasta County
    • Redding Rancheria
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Redding Rancheria
      • Redding Rancheria is located in Shasta County
    • Gas Point ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gas Point
      • Gas Point is located in Shasta County
    • Smithville ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Smithville. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Smithville
      • Smithville is located in Shasta County
    • Happy Valley
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Happy Valley
      • Happy Valley is located in Shasta County
      • Former name for Happy Valley:
      • Oak
    • Bell's Bridge ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bell's Bridge. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bell's Bridge
      • Bell's Bridge is located in Shasta County
    • Girvan
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Girvan have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Girvan
      • Girvan is located in Shasta County
    • Canon City ‑ Historic
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Canon City. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canon City
      • Canon City is located in Shasta County
  • Tehama County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Horsetown, with the one closest to Horsetown listed first.
    • Hooker
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hooker
      • Hooker is located in Tehama County
    • Bend
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bend
      • Bend is located in Tehama County
    • Dales
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dales
      • Dales is located in Tehama County
    • Red Bluff
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Rawson
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rawson have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rawson
      • Rawson is located in Tehama County
  • Trinity County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Horsetown, with the one closest to Horsetown listed first.
    • Deadwood ‑ Historic
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Deadwood have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deadwood
      • Deadwood is located in Trinity County
    • Lewiston
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Douglas City
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Minersville ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Minersville have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minersville
      • Minersville is located in Trinity County
    • Weaverville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Wildwood
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Horsetown ...

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 52 newspapers that have been published in the area around Horsetown.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Horsetown. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Horsetown and those printed in the larger area surrounding Horsetown.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<5> of Horsetown.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first turn to 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 Horsetown:

Cemeteries Near Horsetown ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Horsetown.

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 Horsetown covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

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

  • Northern California Veterans Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Cloverdale Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
  • Texas Springs Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Texas Springs Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • The Texas Springs Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Upper Texas Springs Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Texas Springs Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2217622 <6>
  • Igo Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Igo Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Igo Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2242774 <6>
  • Middleton Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Middleton Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Middleton Cemetery
  • Middletown Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
  • Ono Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Ono Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Ono Cemetery is located in the vicinity of Ono
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Ono Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2208511 <6>
  • Pinckney Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Whiskeytown Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
  • Philpott Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Philpott Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
    • The Philpott Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Old Ono Cemetery
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Philpott Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2238211 <6>
  • Fann - Slaughter Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Continue List   (30 more) ...
    • St. Joseph Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • St. Josephs Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Josephs Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Josephs Cemetery
    • Shasta Catholic Cemetery
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for the Shasta Catholic Cemetery. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Shasta Catholic Cemetery
      • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2354998 <6>

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.

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

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

  • Igo
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
  • Gas Point ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gas Point
    • Gas Point is located in Shasta County
  • Ono
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ono
    • Ono is located in Shasta County
  • Olinda
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Olinda
    • Olinda is located in Shasta County
  • Girvan
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Girvan have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Girvan
    • Girvan is located in Shasta County
  • Waugh ‑ Historic
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Waugh have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waugh
    • Waugh is located in Shasta County
  • Shasta
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Redding
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Anderson
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Anderson
    • Anderson is located in Shasta County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,565 people
    • Former name for Anderson:
    • American Ranch
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Anderson <3>
  • Buckeye
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Buckeye
    • Buckeye is located in Shasta County
  • Hart ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Hart have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hart
    • Hart is located in Shasta County
    • Hart has also been known as:
    • Hart Village
    • Hart's Camp
  • Copley ‑ Historic
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Copley have been provided by the GNIS.<4> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Copley
    • Copley is located in Shasta County
    • Former name for Copley:
    • Motion
  • Continue List   (13 more) ...
    • Cottonwood
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Hooker
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hooker
      • Hooker is located in Tehama County
    • Balls Ferry ‑ Historic
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Balls Ferry. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<2>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Balls Ferry
      • Balls Ferry is located in Shasta County

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

The official website for Shasta County: www.co.shasta.ca.us/

The official website for State of California: https://www.ca.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Horsetown, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>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.
<5>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Horsetown) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Horsetown. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.4936, Longitude: -122.4952    
<6>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.




 

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