RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Texas >> Angelina County >> Shawnee Prairie >> Genealogy HelperIndex...










Learn About
The Commemorative
Quarter for
Texas

The Commemorative Quarter for Texas





Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

Although we found mention of Shawnee Prairie during our research, we have little information about it.<1> Given the context of how Shawnee Prairie was mentioned, we believe that it was a community rather than a locale or some type of landmark. We have done a cursory search and if it was a community, we haven't been able to find any evidence that it still exists..

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 Shawnee 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 Shawnee 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 Shawnee 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.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might have occurred.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Shawnee Prairie: Shawnee 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 northwest corner of their home county. During their lives, most hospitals were in the next county to the west. 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 west 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.

Shawnee Prairie is located in Angelina County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Angelina County: Cherokee, Houston, Jasper, Nacogdoches, Polk, San Augustine, Trinity & Tyler.

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

  • Angelina County     (The home county of Shawnee Prairie)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawnee Prairie, with the one closest to Shawnee Prairie listed first.
    • Manning ‑ Historic
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Manning have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Manning
      • Manning is located in Angelina County
    • Shawnee
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Shawnee have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Shawnee
      • Shawnee is located in Angelina County
    • Oak Flat
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Oak Flat have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Flat
      • Oak Flat is located in Angelina County
    • Zavalla
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the east)
    • Huntington
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Huntington have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Huntington
      • Huntington is located in Angelina County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,079 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Huntington <3>
    • Bald Hill
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Bald Hill have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bald Hill
      • Bald Hill is located in Angelina County
    • Beulah
      (7 miles [11.3 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Beulah have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beulah
      • Beulah is located in Angelina County
    • Nancy
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the southeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nancy
      • Nancy is located in Angelina County
    • Ora
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ora have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ora
      • Ora is located in Angelina County
    • Homer
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Homer have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homer
      • Homer is located in Angelina County
    • Dolan
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dolan have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dolan
      • Dolan is located in Angelina County
    • Prairie Grove
      (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Prairie Grove have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Prairie Grove
      • Prairie Grove is located in Angelina County
  • Jasper County
    • Harveytown
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harveytown
      • Harveytown is located in Jasper County
  • Nacogdoches County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawnee Prairie, with the one closest to Shawnee Prairie listed first.
    • Etoile
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
    • Woden
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)
    • Chireno
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the northeast)
    • Attoyac
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the north)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Attoyac
      • Attoyac is located in Nacogdoches County
    • Nacogdoches
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
    • Swift
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the north)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Swift have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Swift
      • Swift is located in Nacogdoches County
  • Polk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawnee Prairie, with the one closest to Shawnee Prairie listed first.
    • Skinner Town
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Skinner Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Skinner Town
      • Skinner Town is located in Polk County
    • Corrigan
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Camden
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Camden have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Camden
      • Camden is located in Polk County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Camden <3>
    • Lily Island
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lily Island
      • Lily Island is located in Polk County
    • Moscow
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Moscow have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Moscow
      • Moscow is located in Polk County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Moscow <3>
    • Seven Oaks
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Seven Oaks have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seven Oaks
      • Seven Oaks is located in Polk County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 131 people
  • San Augustine County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawnee Prairie, with the one closest to Shawnee Prairie listed first.
    • Zana ‑ Historic
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
      • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Zana. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zana
      • Zana is located in San Augustine County
    • Broaddus
      (18 miles [29 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Broaddus have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Broaddus
      • Broaddus is located in San Augustine County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 201 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Broaddus <3>
    • White City
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the east)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for White City have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for White City
      • White City is located in San Augustine County
    • Powell
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Powell
      • Powell is located in San Augustine County
    • Denning
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Denning
      • Denning is located in San Augustine County
    • Maxey Town
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Maxey Town have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Maxey Town
      • Maxey Town is located in San Augustine County
  • Trinity County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawnee Prairie, with the one closest to Shawnee Prairie listed first.
    • Apple Springs
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Apple Springs have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Apple Springs
      • Apple Springs is located in Trinity County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Apple Springs <3>
    • Helmic
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Helmic
      • Helmic is located in Trinity County
    • Centralia
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the west)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Centralia have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Centralia
      • Centralia is located in Trinity County
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Centralia <3>
    • Woodlake
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the west)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodlake
      • Woodlake is located in Trinity County
  • Tyler County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Shawnee Prairie, with the one closest to Shawnee Prairie listed first.
    • Peach Tree Village
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Peach Tree Village have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peach Tree Village
      • Peach Tree Village is located in Tyler County
    • Chester
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
    • Colmesneil
      (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
    • Doucette
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Woodville
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the south)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Woodville have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodville
      • Woodville is located in Tyler County
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,442 people
      • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Woodville <3>

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

Newspapers Published in Shawnee 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 51 newspapers that have been published in the area around Shawnee Prairie.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Shawnee Prairie, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<5>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Shawnee 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 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 Shawnee Prairie:

Cemeteries Near Shawnee Prairie ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Shawnee 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.

If you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our selection of Genealogy Websites (see below).

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

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

  • Shawnee Creek Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
  • Renfro Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • To give a relative sense of its location, the Renfro Cemetery is located between<7> the communities of Diboll and Zavalla.  The cemetery lies 9 miles [14.5 km]<5> to the east of Diboll.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Renfro Cemetery
    • Jump to Find-A-Grave: FG ID #6312 <6>
  • Crain Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
  • Carrell Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Treadwell Cemetery
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
  • Page Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
  • Poland Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
  • Polano Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Polano Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Polano Cemetery
  • Ozias Cemetery
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
  • Jonesville Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the north)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the Jonesville Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the Jonesville Cemetery
  • Tom Havard Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Barge Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Continue List   (182 more) ...
    • Zavalla Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • McNeil Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
    • McNiel Cemetery
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for the McNiel Cemetery have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for the McNiel Cemetery

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.<8>

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

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

  • Ora
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Ora have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ora
    • Ora is located in Angelina County
  • Homer
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Homer have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homer
    • Homer is located in Angelina County
  • Burke
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Burke
    • Burke is located in Angelina County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 727 people
  • Rockland
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Rockland have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rockland
    • Rockland is located in Tyler County
  • Etoile
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • Lufkin
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lufkin
    • Lufkin is located in Angelina County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 34,955 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Lufkin <3>
  • Barnum
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Barnum have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barnum
    • Barnum is located in Polk County
  • Chester
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the south)
  • Zana ‑ Historic
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the east)
    • Note: We haven't been able to verify our GPS coordinates for Zana. Although the coordinates have been estimated, they should be in the vicinity.<4>
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Zana
    • Zana is located in San Augustine County
  • Keltys
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Keltys have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keltys
    • Keltys is located in Angelina County
  • Corrigan
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Colmesneil
    (20 miles [32.2 km] to the south)
  • Continue List   (15 more) ...
    • Clawson
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Clawson have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clawson
      • Clawson is located in Angelina County
    • Asia
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Asia have been provided by the GNIS.<2> The coordinates still need to be verified.
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Asia
      • Asia is located in Polk County
    • Woden
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the north)

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

The official website for Angelina County: www.angelinacounty.net/

The official website for State of Texas: https://texas.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer. For example, we might find a sentence like "He went south past Shawnee Prairie and then turned west". While Shawnee Prairie could be some kind of landmark, we think that it's more likely to be a community. We've added Shawnee Prairie as a placeholder with the hope that we'll be able to add more information in the future.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Shawnee Prairie could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.

Since confusion between counties is common, we searched and weren't able to find another Texas community named Shawnee Prairie.
<2>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<3>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<4>An 'estimated' location is one where we have been given GPS coordinates, but are unable to verify the accuracy of those coordinates. That said, we have some confidence that we have placed the marker near the actual location. A typical reason for being unable to verify a location is that it might be on private property or maybe historic and gone without an obvious trace.
<5>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- Shawnee Prairie) to Point B.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Shawnee Prairie. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 31.1796, Longitude: -94.5438       In this case, the coordinates for Shawnee Prairie have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>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.
<7>To help visualize the location of the cemetery, we've drawn a straight line between the communities of Diboll and Zavalla. The cemetery can be found near that line and roughly halfway between the two communities. Remember that this is just an approximate location.
<8>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 Shawnee Prairie, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.




 

Copyright 2024
All Rights Reserved

Thank you for visiting our website.

In closing, please keep in mind that we can not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of the information on this website, so use with care. We encourage you to double-check the information that is critical to you.

If you've found an error or have additional information that you would like to share, please don't hesitate to write: Click here to contact us.

This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024