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Columbus County, North Carolina

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

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
7historic places
—earliest paper
1808formed
50,623pop. 2020
85cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 7 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1978. Most listings are in or near Whiteville, Riegelwood, Lake Waccamaw.

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 Columbus titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

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

7 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Black Rock Plantation HouseRiegelwoodBuilding2014
Columbus County CourthouseWhitevilleBuilding1979
Culbreth, Dr. Neil and Nancy Elizabeth, HouseWhitevilleBuilding2016
Lake Waccamaw DepotLake WaccamawBuilding1983
Powell HouseFair BluffBuilding1978
Tabor City Commercial Historic DistrictTabor CityDistrict2015
Westside High SchoolChadbournBuilding2022

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Columbus was formed in 1808 (1808-12-15) from Bladen, Brunswick.

COLUMBUS created from BLADEN and BRUNSWICK.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Columbus County population from 1810 to 2020 (Census historical series).

58k31k3,0221810184018801920196020002020
1810182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
3,0223,9123,9418,59714,43921,27430,12445,66350,62148,97351,03754,74950,623

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

85 cemeteries and 2 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 80 of 85 listed
NameLatLon
Atkinson Cemetery34.25572-78.24222
Batten Cemetery34.37461-78.57362
Belvue Cemetery34.31238-78.80835
Benevolent Cemetery34.44074-78.75579
Bethel Cemetery34.09439-78.71626
Blackmon Cemetery34.17559-78.59637
Brandh Cemetery34.44889-78.85142
Browns Cemetery34.45313-78.84429
Bullard Cemetery34.36486-78.87996
Callihan Cemetery34.44676-78.77513
Cartrette Cemetery34.07739-78.79169
Chadbourn Cemetery34.32627-78.80919
Cherry Grove Cemetery34.30311-78.71083
Clewis Cemetery34.18714-78.55984
Coleman Cemetery34.24119-78.97217
Coleman Cemetery34.16635-78.6725
Columbus Country Memorial Park34.31211-78.70779
Cox Cemetery34.0681-78.75549
Cribb Cemetery34.19752-78.79286
Cribb Cemetery34.221-78.80659
Duncan Cemetery34.1532-78.59811
Edwards Cemetery34.2629-78.9852
Ellis Cemetery34.45061-78.78551
Etheridge Cemetery34.18682-78.56055
Faison Cemetery34.29191-78.63742
Field Cemetery34.24321-78.95166
Flynn Cemetery34.34155-78.63473
Formyduval Cemetery34.14046-78.59516
Fowler Cemetery34.13433-78.86697
Gapway Cemetery34.2076-78.95405
Godwin Cemetery34.241-78.96278
Gore Cemetery34.12054-78.77083
Gowans Cemetery34.30581-78.90225
Griffin Cemetery34.32517-79.01559
Hardee Cemetery34.11203-78.81771
Hinson Cemetery34.17264-78.865
Hinson Cemetery34.23309-78.77255
Jones Cemetery34.45409-78.89056
Lennon Cemetery34.26462-78.26208
Lovett Cemetery34.24477-78.99919
Malpass Cemetery34.28454-78.31758
McEwen Cemetery34.37896-78.45864
McKeithan Cemetery34.16985-78.69719
McPherson Cemetery34.23122-78.79491
Meadow Cemetery34.46158-78.77627
Meares Cemetery34.18761-78.77481
Meares Cemetery34.32017-79.02142
Milligan Cemetery34.0783-78.78489
Mitchellfield Cemetery34.42568-78.58994
Monroe Stanley Cemetery34.17426-78.74805
Mount Hebron Memorial Park34.3131-78.59903
Mount Moriah Cemetery34.33854-78.915
Mount Pleasant Cemetery34.35755-78.26999
Myrtle Green Cemetery34.16314-78.86996
Norris Cemetery34.08261-78.76419
Norris Cemetery34.17444-78.87366
Owens Cemetery34.4435-78.80224
Pierce Cemetery34.30613-78.60773
Pierce Cemetery34.28238-78.57807
Porters Cemetery34.44167-78.8505
Powell Cemetery34.30711-79.0467
Prince Cemetery34.11353-78.79522
Prince Cemetery34.206-78.75918
Regar Cemetery34.33761-78.90349
Rogers Cemetery34.30302-78.24879
Ross Cemetery34.13183-78.58828
Saint Stevens Cemetery34.07664-78.64609
Scull Cemetery34.33637-78.18548
Sibbitt Cemetery34.27471-78.61627
Simmons Cemetery34.1935-78.62696
Smith Cemetery34.10574-78.79891
Smith Cemetery34.32462-78.64806
Soles Cemetery34.1194-78.78277
Soles Cemetery34.16461-78.86836
Spivey Cemetery34.13529-78.81787
Stack Cemetery34.07985-78.62854
Thompson Cemetery34.45858-78.78205
Todd Cemetery34.20582-78.82348
Ward Cemetery34.27588-78.62943
Watts Cemetery34.14461-78.67439
Historical populated places — 2 of 2
NameLatLon
Poley Bridge Crossing34.15878-78.68196
Williams Cross Roads34.45322-78.82558

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

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 Columbus County, North Carolina

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