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Brunswick County, North Carolina

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

—newspaper titles

—digitized titles

17historic places

—earliest paper

1764formed

136,693pop. 2020

52cemeteries

1CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 17 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1970. Most listings are in or near Southport, Winnabow, Caswell Beach.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

Newspaper directory data for North Carolina is not yet loaded on this site. Browse Brunswick titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

9 of 17 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

17 listed properties

Property	City	Type	Listed
Bald Head Creek Boathouse	Smith Island	Building	1997
Bald Head Island Lighthouse	Southport	Building	1975
Brunswick County Courthouse	Southport	Building	1979
Brunswick Town Historic District	Southport	District	1978
Cape Fear Lighthouse Complex	Kure Beach	Building	1978
Fort Caswell Historic District	Caswell Beach	District	2013
Fort Johnston	Southport	Site	1974
John N. Smith Cemetery	Southport	Site	2021
New Hope Presbyterian Church	Winnabow	Building	2011
Oak Island Life Saving Station	Caswell Beach	Building	2000
Oak Island Lighthouse	Caswell Beach	Structure	2007
Orton Plantation	Winnabow	Building	1973
Orton Plantation (Boundary Increase)	Winnabow	District	2013
Southport Historic District	Southport	District	1980
St. Philip's Church Ruins	Orton	Building	1970
T. B. McCLINTIC	Shallotte Point	Structure	1994
Winnabow	Winnabow	Building	2025

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Brunswick was formed in 1764 (1764-03-09) from Bladen, New Hanover.

BRUNSWICK created from BLADEN and NEW HANOVER.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Brunswick County population from 1790 to 2020 (Census historical series).

1790	1800	1820	1840	1860	1880	1900	1920	1940	1950	1960	1980	2000	2020
3,071	4,110	5,480	5,265	8,406	9,389	12,657	14,876	17,125	19,238	20,278	35,777	73,143	136,693

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

52 cemeteries and 1 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 52 of 52 listed

Name	Lat	Lon
Azor James Smith Cemetery	34.03573	-78.52657
Beaver Dam Cemetery at Arbor Creek	33.94852	-78.08682
Bennett Cemetery	33.98054	-78.58782
Benton Cemetery	34.23866	-78.11923
Bethel Cemetery	33.96712	-78.01971
Blanton Cemetery	33.93905	-78.61446
Brooks Cemetery	33.95068	-78.44762
Brunswick Memorial Gardens	33.95489	-78.43584
Cape Fear Memorial Park	33.95531	-78.06359
Cedar Hill Cemetery	34.28319	-78.01819
Chapel Hill Cemetery	33.98799	-78.35922
Chinnis Cemetery	34.27289	-78.13459
Coleman Cemetery	34.04183	-78.5089
Drew Cemetery	34.05101	-77.95582
Forest Lawn Cemetery	34.0969	-78.13182
Galloway Cemetery	34.02316	-78.28817
Galloway Cemetery	34.03066	-78.27242
Georgetown Cemetery	33.95552	-78.26978
Griffin Cemetery	34.03967	-78.49012
Gurganus Cemetery	33.93642	-78.38167
John N Smith Cemetery	33.92551	-78.01843
Manley Bennett Cemetery	33.93394	-78.59595
McKeithan Cemetery	34.00302	-78.57141
Mercer Cemetery	34.05578	-78.15187
Milligan Cemetery	34.03394	-78.48952
Mintz Cemetery	33.96054	-78.47326
Morse Cemetery	33.91934	-78.02326
Mulberry Cemetery	34.31377	-78.04805
Myrtle Head Cemetery	34.15718	-78.51781
Nelson Cemetery	34.24087	-78.05267
Northwood Cemetery	33.92743	-78.01457
Oak Grove Cemetery	33.96388	-78.32514
Old Smithville Burying Ground	33.92074	-78.01505
Pleasant View Cemetery	33.90934	-78.51795
Potter's Field Cemetery	33.95747	-78.02579
Price Cemetery	33.95424	-78.0259
Prospect Cemetery	34.04327	-78.32472
Randolph Cemetery	34.06859	-78.1832
Register Cemetery	33.933	-78.39981
Robinson Cemetery	34.2964	-78.05186
Saint Thomas Cemetery	34.22127	-77.99749
Silent Grove Cemetery	33.9485	-78.31055
Skipper Cemetery	34.26245	-78.1465
Skipper Cemetery	34.32329	-78.14112
Smith Cemetery	34.07414	-78.53895
Stanley Cemetery	34.03503	-78.55908
Swain Family Cemetery	33.94805	-78.04718
Sykes Cemetery	34.34684	-78.16748
Ward Cemetery	34.01822	-78.56084
Wescott Cemetery	33.95309	-78.03339
Williams Cemetery	34.26282	-78.0592
Wilson Cemetery	33.89178	-78.56199

Historical populated places — 1 of 1

Name	Lat	Lon
Jinnys Branch	33.91323	-78.39917

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.

Battlefield	Study acres	Dist.	Site ID
Wilmington	9,862	32.0 km	NC016

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 Brunswick County, North Carolina

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