County Past
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Whitley County, Kentucky

Historic newspapers, landmarks, and county history layers for genealogists and local historians.

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
12historic places
—earliest paper
1818formed
36,712pop. 2020
46cemeteries
1CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 12 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1977. Most listings are in or near Corbin, Williamsburg, Lot.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for Kentucky is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Whitley titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

7 of 12 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

12 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Bowman Site (15WH14)LotSite1985
Carnegie LibraryCorbinBuilding1986
Corbin Bank BuildingCorbinBuilding1986
First Christian ChurchCorbinBuilding1986
Gatliff, Dr. Ancil, HouseWilliamsburgBuilding1980
Gatliff, J. B., HouseWilliamsburgBuilding1977
Gordon Hill Road Historic DistrictCorbinDistrict1986
Lane TheaterWilliamsburgBuilding2004
Louisville and Nashville Railroad DepotCorbinBuilding1978
Mershon BuildingCorbinBuilding1986
Williamsburg ArmoryWilliamsburgBuilding2002
Williamsburg Historic DistrictWilliamsburgDistrict2019

Source: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Property links open NRHP nomination files at the National Archives.

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Whitley was formed in 1818 (1818-04-01) from Knox.

WHITLEY created from KNOX.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Whitley County population from 1820 to 2020 (Census historical series).

37k20k2,3401820184018801920196020002020
182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
2,3404,6737,76212,00025,01527,74933,18631,94025,81533,39635,86536,712

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau historical county population (Forstall 1790–1990) and public-domain / CC0 county population series through 2020.

Cemeteries & historical places

USGS GNIS

46 cemeteries and 6 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 46 of 46 listed
NameLatLon
Bays Cemetery36.83147-84.07409
Bennett Cemetery36.70369-83.94603
Bingham Cemetery36.92758-84.11937
Brown Cemetery36.79647-84.00187
Chestnut Grove Cemetery36.92491-84.17879
Corinth Cemetery36.90348-84.15444
Croley Cemetery36.71841-83.94464
Davis Cemetery36.82925-84.10576
Doolin Cemetery36.59341-84.14548
Floyd Cemetery36.79036-83.98798
Goins Cemetery36.6973-83.93159
Hart Cemetery36.83727-84.05182
Hart Cemetery36.92175-84.09187
Highland Cemetery36.74809-84.16926
Jones Cemetery36.68285-83.89853
King Cemetery36.59452-83.97048
King Cemetery36.83286-84.08882
Lawson Cemetery36.6398-83.98242
Lawson Cemetery36.68341-83.95048
McFarland Cemetery36.86536-84.07215
McFarland Cemetery36.89879-84.10881
McFarland Cemetery36.95463-84.12828
McKiddy Cemetery36.69258-83.96548
McNeil Cemetery36.86205-84.11116
Owens Cemetery36.78063-83.9852
Partin Cemetery36.66813-83.92659
Perkins Cemetery36.77813-84.11521
Powers Jones Cemetery36.69932-84.054
Rains Cemetery36.72932-84.10824
Ridener Cemetery36.87424-84.30327
Ryan Cemetery36.82506-84.18092
Sharp Cemetery36.78452-83.99604
Sharpe Cemetery36.87984-84.07602
Siler Cemetery36.69174-83.98326
Smith Cemetery36.76313-84.00937
Stanfield Cemetery36.8248-84.0477
Stanfill - Oaklawn Cemetery36.68316-84.12278
Steely Cemetery36.76508-84.23076
Sutton Cemetery36.81758-84.20132
Thomas Cemetery36.62813-84.19465
Tuggle Cemetery36.80091-84.14687
Walters Cemetery36.84258-84.04826
Wells Cemetery36.74786-83.9702
Whitley County Cemetery36.71956-84.1743
Whitley Memorial Gardens36.77437-84.16067
Youngs Cemetery36.85258-84.24465
Historical populated places — 6 of 6
NameLatLon
Chestnut Grove36.92516-84.18099
Louden Coal Camp36.75056-84.0288
Red Ash Coal Camp36.59923-84.16954
Shelly Knob Camp36.67086-84.22203
Suttons Mill36.74286-84.10179
Watts Creek Jellico Coal Company36.79436-84.12479

Source: USGS Geographic Names Information System (public domain). Cemeteries from the 2021 NationalFile archive; historical places from GNIS HistoricalFeatures topical extract.

Civil War battlefields nearby

ABPP

American Battlefield Protection Program (ABPP) Civil War study areas near this county.

BattlefieldStudy acresDist.Site ID
Barbourville23726.1 kmKY001

Source: NPS American Battlefield Protection Program Civil War Study Areas (public ArcGIS feature service).

Historical markers

HMdb link

Marker text and photos from the Historical Marker Database (HMdb) are not embedded here. HMdb allows non-commercial reuse with attribution, but commercial/compensated use needs written permission; this is a commercial site, so we only link out.

Search HMdb for Whitley County, Kentucky

Terms: hmdb.org/copyright.asp. Linking is encouraged by HMdb.