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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 Chattanooga (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 Chattanooga. 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 northeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most 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.

Chattanooga is primarily located in Comanche County. A portion of Chattanooga extends into Tillman County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Comanche County: Caddo, Cotton, Grady, Kiowa, Stephens & Tillman.

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

  • Comanche County     (The home county of Chattanooga)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chattanooga, with the one closest to Chattanooga listed first.
    • Faxon
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Cache
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)
      • Cache is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cache
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,824 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Cache <1>
    • Indiahoma
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Geronimo
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the east)
    • Lawton
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northeast)
      • Lawton is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lawton
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 93,164 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lawton <1>
    • Artillery Village
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Artillery Village is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Artillery Village
    • Fort Sill
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
    • The Holy City
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
      • The Holy City is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for The Holy City
    • Medicine Park
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Meers
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the north)
    • Pumpkin Center ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Pumpkin Center is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pumpkin Center
    • Richards Spur ‑ Historic
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Richards Spur is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richards Spur
    • Bethel
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Bethel is located in Comanche County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bethel
  • Cotton County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chattanooga, with the one closest to Chattanooga listed first.
    • Cookietown
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
      • Cookietown is located in Cotton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cookietown
    • Devol
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Walters
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Walters is located in Cotton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Walters
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,357 people
      • Former name for Walters:
      • Walter
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Walters <1>
    • Randlett
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Hulen
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the east)
      • Hulen is located in Cotton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hulen
    • Taylor
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Taylor is located in Cotton County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Taylor
    • Temple
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southeast)
  • Jackson County
    • Headrick
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Kiowa County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chattanooga, with the one closest to Chattanooga listed first.
    • Snyder
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northwest)
    • Mountain Park
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northwest)
  • Tillman County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chattanooga, with the one closest to Chattanooga listed first.
    • Loveland
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Grandfield
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
    • Hollister
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Manitou
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the west)
    • Frederick
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the west)
    • Davidson
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Tipton
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the west)
  • Clay County (TX)
    • Thornberry
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Thornberry is located in Clay County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thornberry
  • Wichita County (TX)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Chattanooga, with the one closest to Chattanooga listed first.
    • Burkburnett
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Clara
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Clara is located in Wichita County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clara
    • Cashion Community
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Cashion Community is located in Wichita County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cashion Community
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 360 people
    • Electra
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Electra is located in Wichita County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Electra
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,737 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Electra <1>
  • Wilbarger County (TX)
    • Elliott
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Elliott is located in Wilbarger County (TX)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Elliott

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

Cemeteries Near Chattanooga ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Chattanooga.

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 Chattanooga - one of the links might be able to help.

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

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

  • Chattanooga Cemetery
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
  • Faxon Cemetery
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Isadore Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Pecan Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Amyx Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Loveland Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Schofield Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Dickerson Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Grandfield Memorial Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Eschiti Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the south)
  • Indiahoma IOOF Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northwest)
  • Deyo Cemetery
    (12 miles [19.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Continue List   (57 more) ...
    • Cache Indian Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the north)
    • Hollister Cemetery
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the southwest)
    • Post Oak Cemetery
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the northwest)

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>

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

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

  • Fort Sill
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northeast)
  • Thornberry
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Thornberry is located in Clay County (TX)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Thornberry
  • Charlie
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Charlie is located in Clay County (TX)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Charlie

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Chattanooga ...

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 128 newspapers that have been published in the area around Chattanooga.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Chattanooga. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Chattanooga and those printed in the larger area surrounding Chattanooga.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<4> of Chattanooga.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we start with 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 Chattanooga:

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 Chattanooga, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<4>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Chattanooga) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.