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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 Jake Prairie (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 Jake Prairie. 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 Jake Prairie ...

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 Jake Prairie: Jake Pr.

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 and hospitals 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.

Jake Prairie is located in Crawford County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Crawford County: Dent, Franklin, Gasconade, Iron, Phelps & Washington.

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

  • Crawford County     (The home county of Jake Prairie)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Jake Prairie, with the one closest to Jake Prairie listed first.
    • Oak Hill
      (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Argo
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Cuba
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Leasburg
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the east)
    • Bourbon
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
    • Sankey ‑ Historic
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Sankey was located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sankey
    • Steelville
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Saint Cloud
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
      • Saint Cloud is also located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Saint Cloud
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 39 people
    • Midland
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Midland is also located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Midland
    • West Sullivan
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • West Sullivan is also located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for West Sullivan
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 112 people
    • Elaver
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Scotia
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
      • Scotia is also located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scotia
    • Wesco
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Wesco is also located in Crawford County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wesco
  • Dent County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Jake Prairie, with the one closest to Jake Prairie listed first.
    • Lake Spring
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
      • Lake Spring is located in Dent County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Spring
    • Sligo
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the south)
    • Lecoma
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Franklin County
  • Gasconade County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Jake Prairie, with the one closest to Jake Prairie listed first.
    • Redbird
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Bem
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
    • Bland
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Bland is located in Gasconade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 523 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Bland <1>
    • Owensville
      (12 miles [19.3 km] to the north)
    • Rosebud
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the north)
    • Mount Sterling
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the north)
      • Mount Sterling is located in Gasconade County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mount Sterling
  • Maries County
  • Osage County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Jake Prairie, with the one closest to Jake Prairie listed first.
    • Byron
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Koenig
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Freeburg
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Linn
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Linn is located in Osage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Linn
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,557 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Linn <1>
    • Argyle
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Argyle is located in Osage County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argyle
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 157 people
    • Koeltztown
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
  • Phelps County
  • Washington County
    • Berryman
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Berryman is located in Washington County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Berryman

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

Cemeteries Near Jake Prairie ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Jake Prairie.

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 Jake Prairie - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

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.<3>

The Rand McNally Atlas shows that in 1895, Jake Prairie had a post office and no railroad service.

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

  • Redbird
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
  • Oak Hill
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Leduc ‑ Historic
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Leduc was located in Gasconade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Leduc
  • Bem
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
  • Cleavesville
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northwest)
    • Cleavesville is located in Gasconade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cleavesville
  • High Gate
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the west)
    • High Gate is located in Maries County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for High Gate
  • Safe
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Safe is located in Maries County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Safe
  • Fanning
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the south)
    • Fanning is also located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fanning
  • Cuba
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Delhi ‑ Historic
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
    • Delhi was located in Crawford County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delhi
  • Argo
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the east)
  • Canaan
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the north)
    • Canaan is located in Gasconade County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canaan
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...

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

Newspapers Published in Jake Prairie ...

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 35 newspapers that have been published in the area around Jake Prairie.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Jake Prairie, there are papers which were published within 24 miles [38.6 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Jake Prairie.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we like to start with 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 Jake Prairie:

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>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.
<3>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 Jake Prairie, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Jake Prairie) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.