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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 Spooner (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 Spooner. 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.

Spooner is located in Washburn County.

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

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Washburn County: Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Rusk & Sawyer.

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

  • Washburn County     (The home county of Spooner)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spooner, with the one closest to Spooner listed first.
    • Shell Lake
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
    • Earl
      (8 miles [12.9 km] to the northeast)
    • Madge
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Nobleton
      (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
    • Minong
      (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
      • Minong is located in Washburn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minong
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 506 people
    • Birchwood
      (19 miles [30.6 km] to the southeast)
      • Birchwood is located in Washburn County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Birchwood
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 426 people
  • Barron County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spooner, with the one closest to Spooner listed first.
    • Haugen
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
      • Haugen is located in Barron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haugen
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 270 people
    • Cumberland
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
      • Cumberland is located in Barron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cumberland
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,097 people
    • Rice Lake
      (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
      • Rice Lake is located in Barron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rice Lake
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,498 people
    • Almena
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Almena is located in Barron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Almena
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 638 people
    • Barron
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Poskin
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
    • Cameron
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the south)
      • Cameron is located in Barron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cameron
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,798 people
  • Burnett County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spooner, with the one closest to Spooner listed first.
    • Bashaw
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
    • Hertel
      (13 miles [20.9 km] to the west)
    • Webb Lake
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Siren
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
    • Webster
      (23 miles [37 km] to the west)
      • Webster is located in Burnett County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Webster
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 620 people
  • Polk County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spooner, with the one closest to Spooner listed first.
    • Clam Falls
      (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Frederic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the southwest)
      • Frederic is located in Polk County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Frederic
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 1,080 people
  • Sawyer County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Spooner, with the one closest to Spooner listed first.
    • Stone Lake
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the east)
    • Hayward
      (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
      • Hayward is located in Sawyer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayward
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,352 people
    • Reserve
      (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
    • Little Round Lake
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the east)
      • Little Round Lake is located in Sawyer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Little Round Lake
    • Chief Lake
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the east)
      • Chief Lake is located in Sawyer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chief Lake
    • Phipps
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Couderay
      (28 miles [45.1 km] to the east)
      • Couderay is located in Sawyer County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Couderay
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 86 people

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

Cemeteries Near Spooner ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Spooner.

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

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

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Spooner, with the one closest to Spooner 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, Spooner had a post office and railroad service. In 2020, Spooner had a population of 2,553 people.

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

  • Shell Lake
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the south)
  • Bashaw
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the southwest)
  • Barronett
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the south)
    • Barronett is located in Barron County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barronett
  • Nobleton
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the southeast)
  • Haugen
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the south)
    • Haugen is located in Barron County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Haugen
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 270 people
  • Minong
    (18 miles [29 km] to the north)
    • Minong is located in Washburn County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Minong
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 506 people
  • Clam Falls
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the southwest)
  • Cumberland
    (21 miles [33.8 km] to the south)
    • Cumberland is located in Barron County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cumberland
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,097 people
  • Rice Lake
    (23 miles [37 km] to the south)
    • Rice Lake is located in Barron County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rice Lake
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 8,498 people
  • Hayward
    (23 miles [37 km] to the northeast)
    • Hayward is located in Sawyer County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayward
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 2,352 people
  • Reserve
    (24 miles [38.6 km] to the east)
  • Comstock
    (25 miles [40.2 km] to the south)
    • Comstock is located in Barron County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Comstock
  • Continue List   (5 more) ...
    • Phipps
      (27 miles [43.5 km] to the northeast)
    • Almena
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)
      • Almena is located in Barron County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Almena
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 638 people
    • Barron
      (29 miles [46.7 km] to the south)

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

Newspapers Published in the Vicinity of Spooner ...

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 59 newspapers that have been published in the area around Spooner.

We have organized these newspapers into two lists:

  • A Local Newspaper List - focusing on the papers published in the immediate area of Spooner. There are actually two parts to this list - papers printed in the immediate area of Spooner and those printed in the larger area surrounding Spooner.
  • An Extended Newspaper List - a longer list, sorted by paper name and containing those papers published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<2> of Spooner.

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 Spooner:

Footnotes ...

<1>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.
<2>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 drawn from Point A (ie- Spooner) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Spooner, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.