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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

So far, we found very little information about East Bench. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added East Bench to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with East Bench, please Contact Us.


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 East Bench (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 East Bench. 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 East Bench ...

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 East Bench: E. Bench

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 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.

Although our information shows that the community of East Bench is historic, it would have been located within present day Beaverhead County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Beaverhead County: Clark (ID), Fremont (ID), Lemhi (ID), Deer Lodge, Madison, Ravalli & Silver Bow.

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

  • Beaverhead County     (The home county of East Bench)
    • The following are listed by their distance from East Bench, with the one closest to East Bench listed first.
    • Dillon
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Dillon is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dillon
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,333 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dillon <2>
    • Argenta
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
      • Argenta is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argenta
    • Dalys
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
      • Dalys is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dalys
    • Glen
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Grayling
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Grayling is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grayling
    • Bannack ‑ Historic
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
      • Bannack is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bannack
    • Armstead ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
      • Armstead is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Armstead
    • Red Rock
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Red Rock is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Rock
    • Elkhorn ‑ Historic
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the northwest)
      • Elkhorn is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elkhorn
    • Polaris
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
    • Glendale
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
      • Glendale is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glendale
    • Lion City ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Lion City is located in Beaverhead County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lion City
  • Madison County
    • The following are listed by their distance from East Bench, with the one closest to East Bench listed first.
    • Alder
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Laurin ‑ Historic
      (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
      • Laurin is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurin
    • Sheridan
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Twin Bridges
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Central City ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
      • Central City is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Central City
    • Nevada City ‑ Historic
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
    • Virginia City
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Virginia City is located in Madison County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia City
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 225 people
      • Former names for Virginia City:
      • Varina
      • Verina
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Virginia City <2>
  • Silver Bow County

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

Cemeteries Near East Bench ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of East Bench.

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 East Bench - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Mountain View Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Poindexter Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the south)
  • Point of Rocks Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the northeast)
  • Argenta Cemetery
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
  • Haining Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
  • Reichle Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • Bird Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Upper Ruby Cemetery
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the east)
  • Bannack Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the west)
  • Sheridan Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
  • Laurin Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
  • Twin Bridges Cemetery
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (8 more) ...
    • Taylor Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Masonic Cemetery
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Rochester Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)

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.

While we didn't find East Bench in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of East Bench.

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

  • Dillon
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Dillon is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dillon
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 4,333 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dillon <2>
  • Barretts
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
    • Barretts is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barretts
  • Apex
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Apex is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apex
  • Argenta
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the west)
    • Argenta is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Argenta
  • Dalys
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Dalys is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dalys
  • Glen
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
  • Grayling
    (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
    • Grayling is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grayling
  • Bannack ‑ Historic
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the west)
    • Bannack is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bannack
  • Laurin ‑ Historic
    (23 miles [37 km] to the east)
    • Laurin is located in Madison County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Laurin
  • Sheridan
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Twin Bridges
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
  • Red Rock
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Red Rock is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Red Rock
  • Melrose
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Glendale
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the north)
    • Glendale is located in Beaverhead County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Glendale

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

Newspapers Published in East Bench ...

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 46 newspapers that have been published in the area around East Bench.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of East Bench, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for East Bench.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we first visit the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These helpful 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 East Bench:

Footnotes ...

<1>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 East Bench, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- East Bench) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.