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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 Spillville (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 Spillville. 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.

Spillville is located in Winneshiek County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Winneshiek County: Allamakee, Chickasaw, Clayton, Fayette, Howard, Fillmore (MN) & Houston (MN).

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

  • Winneshiek County     (The home county of Spillville)
  • Allamakee County
  • Bremer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spillville, with the one closest to Spillville listed first.
    • Sumner
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Frederika
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Frederika have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frederika
      • Frederika is located in Bremer County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 205 people
  • Chickasaw County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spillville, with the one closest to Spillville listed first.
    • Lawler
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Lawler have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lawler
      • Lawler is located in Chickasaw County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 422 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lawler <2>
    • Jerico
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Jerico. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jerico
      • Jerico is located in Chickasaw County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Jerico
      • From Spillville to Jerico
    • Fredericksburg
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fredericksburg have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fredericksburg
      • Fredericksburg is located in Chickasaw County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 916 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fredericksburg <2>
    • New Hampton
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Alta Vista
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Alta Vista have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alta Vista
      • Alta Vista is located in Chickasaw County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 248 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Alta Vista <2>
    • North Washington
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the west)
    • Deerfield
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the west)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Deerfield. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Deerfield
      • Deerfield is located in Chickasaw County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Deerfield
      • From Spillville to Deerfield
    • Ionia
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Republic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Chickasaw
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Bassett
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Clayton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spillville, with the one closest to Spillville listed first.
    • Hardin
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hardin. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hardin
      • Hardin is located in Clayton County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Hardin
      • From Spillville to Hardin
    • Luana
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Luana have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Luana
      • Luana is located in Clayton County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 276 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Luana <2>
    • Gunder
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Monona
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
  • Fayette County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spillville, with the one closest to Spillville listed first.
    • Saint Lucas
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Waucoma
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the south)
    • Douglass
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Alpha
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Hawkeye
      (18 miles [29 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Hawkeye. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hawkeye
      • Hawkeye is located in Fayette County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 399 people
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Hawkeye
      • From Spillville to Hawkeye
    • West Union
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for West Union have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Union
      • West Union is located in Fayette County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,270 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for West Union <2>
    • Clermont
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clermont have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clermont
      • Clermont is located in Fayette County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 580 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Clermont <2>
    • Donnan
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Donnan. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Donnan
      • Donnan is located in Fayette County
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Donnan
      • From Spillville to Donnan
    • Brainard
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Randalia
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Randalia have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Randalia
      • Randalia is located in Fayette County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 60 people
    • Elgin
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
    • Fayette
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Fayette have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fayette
      • Fayette is located in Fayette County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,378 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Fayette <2>
    • Illyria
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Howard County
  • Fillmore County (MN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spillville, with the one closest to Spillville listed first.
    • Canton
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Canton have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canton
      • Canton is located in Fillmore County (MN)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 342 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Canton <2>
    • Granger
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Granger. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Granger
      • Granger is located in Fillmore County (MN)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Granger
      • From Spillville to Granger
    • Mabel
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
    • Harmony
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Newburg
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • York
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for York. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for York
      • York is located in Fillmore County (MN)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to York
      • From Spillville to York
  • Houston County (MN)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spillville, with the one closest to Spillville listed first.
    • Bee
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Bee. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bee
      • Bee is located in Houston County (MN)
      • Google driving directions:
      • From your current location to Bee
      • From Spillville to Bee
    • Riceford
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Spring Grove
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Spring Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Grove
      • Spring Grove is located in Houston County (MN)
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,262 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Spring Grove <2>

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

Cemeteries Near Spillville ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Spillville.

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

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

  • St. Wenceslaus of Spillville Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Wenceslaus of Spillville Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Wenceslaus of Spillville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Haug Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • St. Clement Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
  • St. Peters Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Peters Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Peters Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Kruse Farm Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Kruse Farm Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Kruse Farm Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Oak Hill Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • St. Johns Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Johns Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Johns Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Lincoln Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Lincoln Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Lincoln Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Calmar Community Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Calmar Community Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Calmar Community Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • St. Aloysius Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the St. Aloysius Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the St. Aloysius Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Madison Settlement Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Madison Settlement Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Madison Settlement Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Bohemian National Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Bohemian National Cemetery
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Bohemian National Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
  • Continue List   (302 more) ...
    • McIntosh Cemetery
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McIntosh Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the McIntosh Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Young Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Young Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Young Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Springfield Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Springfield Cemetery
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Springfield Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.

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>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that Spillville had a population of 352 people in 1895 with a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Spillville had a population of 341 people.

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

  • Conover
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Conover have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Conover
    • Conover is located in Winneshiek County
  • Fort Atkinson
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Calmar
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Calmar have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Calmar
    • Calmar is located in Winneshiek County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 934 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Calmar <2>
  • Ridgeway
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Festina
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the southeast)
  • Protivin
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Jackson Junction
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Jackson Junction have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Jackson Junction
    • Jackson Junction is located in Winneshiek County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 54 people
  • Little Turkey
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Little Turkey have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Turkey
    • Little Turkey is located in Chickasaw County
  • Navan
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Navan. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<3>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Navan
    • Navan is located in Winneshiek County
    • Google driving directions:
    • From your current location to Navan
    • From Spillville to Navan
  • Saint Lucas
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
  • Nordness
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Nordness have been provided by the GNIS.<1> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nordness
    • Nordness is located in Winneshiek County
  • Ossian
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (17 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Spillville ...

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 118 newspapers that have been published in the area around Spillville.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Spillville, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<6>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Spillville.

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 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 Spillville:

Unfortunately, we don't know of a website for Spillville. If you can help, please contact us through our Feedback Page.

The official website for State of Iowa: https://www.iowa.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>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.
<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 Spillville, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<6>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- Spillville) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Spillville. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 43.2034, Longitude: -91.9510    









 

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This page was last modified/updated: 28 Apr 2025