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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 La Crosse (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 La Crosse. 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 southwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals and doctors 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.

La Crosse is located in Rush County and is the County Seat.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Rush County: Barton, Ellis, Ness, Pawnee, Russell & Trego.

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

  • Rush County     (The home county of La Crosse)
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Crosse, with the one closest to La Crosse listed first.
    • Rush Center
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
    • Bison
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Bison is located in Rush County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bison
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 224 people
    • Hargrave
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
    • Liebenthal
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
      • Liebenthal is located in Rush County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Liebenthal
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 91 people
    • Timken
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
    • Nekoma
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
      • Nekoma is located in Rush County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nekoma
    • Loretta
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Otis
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
    • Alexander
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • McCracken
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Barton County
  • Ellis County
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Crosse, with the one closest to La Crosse listed first.
    • Schoenchen
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
      • Schoenchen is located in Ellis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Schoenchen
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 206 people
    • Pfeifer
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Pfeifer is located in Ellis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pfeifer
    • Antonino
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Antonino is located in Ellis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Antonino
    • Munjor
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Munjor is located in Ellis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Munjor
    • Toulon
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Victoria
      (23 miles [37 km] to the north)
      • Victoria is located in Ellis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Victoria
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,215 people
    • Hays
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the north)
    • Yocemento
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Yocemento is located in Ellis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Yocemento
    • Walker
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Walker is located in Ellis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walker
    • Catharine
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
      • Catharine is located in Ellis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Catharine
      • Catharine has also been known as:
      • Catherine
    • Hog Back
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
    • Emmeram
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
  • Ness County
  • Pawnee County
  • Russell County
    • The following are listed by their distance from La Crosse, with the one closest to La Crosse listed first.
    • Milberger
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Gorham
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northeast)

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

Cemeteries Near La Crosse ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of La Crosse.

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 La Crosse - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • La Crosse Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • St. Michaels Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
  • Locust Hill Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Lone Star Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
  • Friends Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Hall Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
  • Union Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
  • Bohemian Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Holy Cross Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Baptist Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
  • Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (64 more) ...
    • St. Mary's Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Hampton Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Abbey Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)

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.<2>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that La Crosse had a population of 513 people in 1895 with a post office and railroad service. In 2020, La Crosse had a population of 1,197 people.

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

  • Rush Center
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the south)
  • Bison
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Bison is located in Rush County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bison
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 224 people
  • Hargrave
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
  • Nekoma
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Nekoma is located in Rush County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nekoma
  • Timken
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
  • Liebenthal
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the north)
    • Liebenthal is located in Rush County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Liebenthal
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 91 people
  • Alexander
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Otis
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the east)
  • Pfeifer
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Pfeifer is located in Ellis County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pfeifer
  • McCracken
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
  • Ash Valley
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
  • Albert
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
  • Continue List   (14 more) ...
    • Munjor
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the north)
      • Munjor is located in Ellis County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Munjor
    • Olmitz
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
    • Galatia
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Galatia is located in Barton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Galatia
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 36 people

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of La Crosse ...

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 44 newspapers that have been published in the area around La Crosse.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of La Crosse. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of La Crosse and those printed in the larger area surrounding La Crosse.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 28 miles [45.1 km]<3> of La Crosse.

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 La Crosse:

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>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 La Crosse, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- La Crosse) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.