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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Towner (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 Towner. 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.

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 doctors and hospitals 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.

Towner is located in Kiowa County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Kiowa County: Bent, Cheyenne, Crowley, Lincoln, Otero, Prowers & Greeley (KS).

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

  • Kiowa County     (The home county of Towner)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Towner, with the one closest to Towner listed first.
    • Sheridan Lake
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Water Valley
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
      • Water Valley is located in Kiowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Water Valley
    • Chivington
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Chivington is located in Kiowa County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chivington
  • Cheyenne County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Towner, with the one closest to Towner listed first.
    • Arapahoe
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Cheyenne Wells
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Prowers County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Towner, with the one closest to Towner listed first.
    • Hartman
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Holly
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Granada
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
  • Greeley County (KS)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Towner, with the one closest to Towner listed first.
    • Kanco ‑ Historic
      (Less than 2 miles to the east)
      • Kanco is located in Greeley County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kanco
    • Horace
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
      • Horace is located in Greeley County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horace
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 66 people
    • Tribune
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Tribune is located in Greeley County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tribune
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 724 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tribune <1>
  • Hamilton County (KS)
    • Coolidge
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
  • Wallace County (KS)
  • Wichita County (KS)
    • Selkirk ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Selkirk is located in Wichita County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Selkirk
      • Selkirk has also been known as:
      • Selkirk Station

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

Cemeteries Near Towner ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Towner.

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.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Towner - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Towner Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • G.A.R. Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for G.A.R. Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the G.A.R. Cemetery is located 11 miles [17.7 km]<2> to the west of Tribune (KS).
    • The G.A.R. Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Rodgers Cemetery
    • Rogers Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #93519 <3>
  • Mathews Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Sheridan Lake Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Greeley County Cemetery
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greeley County Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Greeley County Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the south of Tribune (KS).
    • The Greeley County Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Greely County Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #92577 <3>
  • Stockholm Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
  • Plainview Cemetery
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
  • Water Valley Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
  • Hartman Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
  • Chivington Cemetery
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
  • France Cemetery
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
  • Arapahoe Cemetery
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Continue List   (9 more) ...
    • Sunnyslope Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Amity Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Bethany Cemetery
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)

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.<4>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Towner had a post office and railroad service.

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

  • Stuart
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the west)
    • Stuart is located in Kiowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Stuart
  • Astor
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Astor is located in Greeley County (KS)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Astor
  • Sheridan Lake
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Horace
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Horace is located in Greeley County (KS)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Horace
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 66 people
  • Tribune
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Tribune is located in Greeley County (KS)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tribune
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 724 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Tribune <1>
  • Brandon
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Brandon is located in Kiowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brandon
  • Water Valley
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Water Valley is located in Kiowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Water Valley
  • Whitelaw
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
    • Whitelaw is located in Greeley County (KS)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Whitelaw
  • Chivington
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
    • Chivington is located in Kiowa County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chivington
  • Continue List   (6 more) ...
    • Holly
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
    • Selkirk ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Selkirk is located in Wichita County (KS)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Selkirk
      • Selkirk has also been known as:
      • Selkirk Station
    • Cheyenne Wells
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Weskan
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Coolidge
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)

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

Newspapers Published in Towner ...

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 45 newspapers that have been published in the area around Towner.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Towner, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Towner.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These websites either 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 Towner:

Footnotes ...

<1>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- Towner) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<3>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.
<4>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 Towner, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.