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A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
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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 Eakin (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 Eakin. 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 and 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.

Eakin is located in Sully County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Sully County: Dewey, Hughes, Hyde, Potter & Stanley.

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

  • Sully County     (The home county of Eakin)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eakin, with the one closest to Eakin listed first.
    • Onida
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Agar
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
    • Okobojo
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
      • Okobojo is located in Sully County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Okobojo
  • Hughes County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eakin, with the one closest to Eakin listed first.
    • Blunt
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Canning
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
      • Canning is located in Hughes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canning
    • Harrold
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Alto
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Alto is located in Hughes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Alto
    • Rousseau
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
      • Rousseau is located in Hughes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rousseau
    • Pierre
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Oahe
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Oahe is located in Hughes County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oahe
      • Estimated population in 2014: 474 people
  • Hyde County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eakin, with the one closest to Eakin listed first.
    • Holabird
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
    • Highmore
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Potter County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eakin, with the one closest to Eakin listed first.
    • Gettysburg
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
    • Forest City
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
      • Forest City is located in Potter County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest City
  • Stanley County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Eakin, with the one closest to Eakin listed first.
    • Fort Pierre
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
    • Verendrye Hill
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Verendrye Hill is located in Stanley County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Verendrye Hill
      • Estimated population in 2014: 5 people

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

Cemeteries Near Eakin ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Eakin.

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

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

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

  • Pleasant Hill Cemetery
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pleasant Hill Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Pleasant Hill Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located less than 2 miles<2> to the west of Blunt.
    • The Pleasant Hill Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Blunt Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #96825 <3>
  • Canning Prairie Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canning Prairie Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Canning Prairie Cemetery is located 8 miles [12.9 km]<2> to the south of Blunt.
    • The Canning Prairie Cemetery has also been known as:
    • Canning Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #2383075 <3>
  • Pleasant Cemetery
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the east)
  • Medicine Hill Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Medicine Hill Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Medicine Hill Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the south of Harrold.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97239 <3>
  • Agar Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the north)
  • St. John Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for St. John Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the St. John Cemetery is located outside and to the southeast of Harrold.
    • The St. John Cemetery has also been known as:
    • St. John Catholic Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97543 <3>
  • Okobojo Cemetery
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the west)
  • Schreiber Cemetery
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
  • Calvary Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Mt. Calvary Cemetery
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Riverside Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverside Cemetery
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Riverside Cemetery is a large cemetery that is located outside and to the east of Pierre.
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #97458 <3>
  • Blair Cemetery
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (11 more) ...
    • Scotty Philip Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the southwest)
    • Chapelle Cemetery
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Copp Cemetery
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the northeast)

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.<4>

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

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

  • Onida
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
  • Blunt
    (7 miles [11.3 km] to the south)
  • Canning
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the south)
    • Canning is located in Hughes County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Canning
  • Okobojo
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the west)
    • Okobojo is located in Sully County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Okobojo
  • Rousseau
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Rousseau is located in Hughes County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rousseau
  • Holabird
    (22 miles [35.4 km] to the east)
  • De Grey
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • De Grey is located in Hughes County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for De Grey
  • Fort Pierre
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
  • Oahe
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Oahe is located in Hughes County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oahe
    • Estimated population in 2014: 474 people
  • Gettysburg
    (27 miles [43.5 km] to the north)
  • Highmore
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the east)
  • Forest City
    (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northwest)
    • Forest City is located in Potter County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forest City

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

Newspapers Published in Eakin ...

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 70 newspapers that have been published in the area around Eakin.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Eakin, there are papers which were published within 29 miles [46.7 km]<2>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Eakin.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin 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 Eakin:

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>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- Eakin) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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>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 Eakin, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.