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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 Pine River (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 Pine River. 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 Pine River ...

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.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Pine River: Pine Riv.

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Pine River. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Pine River.

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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the north.

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 north 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.

Pine River is located in Cass County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Cass County: Aitkin, Beltrami, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Itasca, Morrison, Todd & Wadena.

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

  • Cass County     (The home county of Pine River)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pine River, with the one closest to Pine River listed first.
    • Chickamaw Beach
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Chickamaw Beach is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chickamaw Beach
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 110 people
    • Backus
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Hackensack
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Lake Shore
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Wabedo
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Ellis
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Longville
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
    • East Gull Lake
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Outing
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Whipholt
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Ah-gwah-ching
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
      • Ah-gwah-ching is located in Cass County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ah-gwah-ching
    • Pillager
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Crow Wing County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pine River, with the one closest to Pine River listed first.
    • Jenkins
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Pequot Lakes
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Breezy Point
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Manhattan Beach
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Crosslake
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Fifty Lakes
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Nisswa
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Nisswa is located in Crow Wing County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nisswa
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,115 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Nisswa <1>
    • Lake Hubert
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Lake Hubert is located in Crow Wing County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Hubert
    • Emily
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Emily is located in Crow Wing County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emily
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 841 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Emily <1>
    • Merrifield
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Trommald
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southeast)
      • Trommald is located in Crow Wing County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Trommald
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 100 people
    • Riverton
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Riverton is located in Crow Wing County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 115 people
  • Hubbard County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Pine River, with the one closest to Pine River listed first.
    • Akeley
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Nevis
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Dorset
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Morrison County
    • Motley
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Wadena County

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

Cemeteries Near Pine River ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Pine River.

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 Pine River - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Pine Ridge Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
  • Pine River Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
  • Jenkins Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Norwood Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Anderson Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Maple Hill Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Mayo Creek Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Lunde Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Evergreen Cemetery
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
  • Pequot Lakes Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Our Saviour's Cemetery
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Grace Lutheran Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (68 more) ...
    • Ponto Lake Cemetery
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Swanburg Cemetery
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the east)
    • Moose Lake Cemetery
      (12 miles [19.3 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 in 1895, Pine River had a post office and no railroad service. In 2020, Pine River had a population of 933 people.

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

  • Hackensack
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Ellis
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Nimrod
    (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
  • Baxter
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
    • Baxter is located in Crow Wing County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Baxter
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,483 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Baxter <1>
  • Brainerd
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the south)
  • Pillager
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
  • Motley
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Deerwood
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Hubbard
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
    • Hubbard is located in Hubbard County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hubbard

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Pine River ...

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 57 newspapers that have been published in the area around Pine River.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Pine River. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Pine River and those printed in the larger area surrounding Pine River.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<3> of Pine River.

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 Pine River:

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 Pine River, 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' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Pine River) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.