County Past
Home › North Carolina › Johnston County

Johnston County, North Carolina

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

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
36historic places
—earliest paper
1746formed
215,999pop. 2020
85cemeteries
1CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 36 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1970; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near Smithfield, Clayton, Selma.

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 Johnston titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

20 of 36 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

36 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Atkinson-Smith HouseSmithfieldBuilding1975
Benson Historic DistrictBensonDistrict1985
Bentonville Battleground State Historic Site NHLPrincetonSite1970
Boyette Slave HouseKenlyBuilding1979
Brooklyn Historic DistrictSmithfieldDistrict2000
Clayton Banking Company BuildingClaytonBuilding1996
Clayton Graded School and Clayton Grammar School-Municipal AuditoriumClaytonBuilding2001
Clayton Historic DistrictClaytonDistrict2010
Cleveland SchoolClaytonBuilding2005
Downtown Selma Historic DistrictSelmaDistrict2010
Downtown Smithfield Historic DistrictSmithfieldDistrict1993
Edgerton, Noah Edward, HouseSelmaBuilding1982
Ellington-Ellis FarmClaytonBuilding1983
Four Oaks Commercial Historic DistrictFour OaksDistrict2006
Hannah's Creek Primitive Baptist ChurchBensonBuilding1991
Harper HouseHarperBuilding1970
Harrison, Richard B., SchoolSelmaBuilding2012
Hastings-McKinnie HousePrincetonBuilding1983
Hood Brothers BuildingSmithfieldBuilding1986
Hood-Strickland HouseSmithfieldBuilding1990
Johnston County CourthouseSmithfieldBuilding1979
Moore, Walter R. and Eliza Smith, HouseClaytonBuilding2005
North Smithfield Historic DistrictSmithfieldDistrict2000
Nowell-Mayerburg-Oliver HouseSelmaBuilding1982
Princeton Graded SchoolPrincetonBuilding2005
Sanders-Hairr HouseClaytonBuilding1971
Shiloh Primitive Baptist ChurchBrogdenBuilding2008
Smith, William E., HouseSelmaBuilding1982
Smithfield Masonic LodgeSmithfieldBuilding2007
Stallings-Carpenter HouseClaytonBuilding1983
Stevens, Everitt P., HouseSelmaBuilding1982
US Post Office, FormerSmithfieldBuilding1993
Union StationSelmaBuilding1982
Watson-Sanders HouseSmithfieldBuilding2001
West Selma Historic DistrictSelmaDistrict2011
Wood-Rains Cotton GinPrincetonBuilding2023

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Johnston was formed in 1746 (1746-06-28) from Craven.

JOHNSTON created from CRAVEN; western boundary limit was indefinite.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

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

216k111k5,634179018001840188019101920196020002020
17901800182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
5,6346,3019,60710,59915,65623,46132,25048,99863,79865,90662,93670,599121,965215,999

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 0 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 80 of 85 listed
NameLatLon
Barefoot Cemetery35.28583-78.43417
Barham Cemetery35.5296-78.39278
Batten Cemetery35.59876-78.25722
Batten Cemetery35.65393-78.25158
Batten Cemetery35.65459-78.32027
Benson Cemetery35.50507-78.60833
Bizzell Grove Memorial Gardens35.49516-78.20139
Broadwell Cemetery35.60182-78.28527
Brown Cemetery35.59904-78.2575
Brown Cemetery35.62433-78.25565
Cattail Cemetery35.67368-78.27627
Coats Cemetery35.51802-78.55319
Coats Cemetery35.54933-78.5739
Crocker Cemetery35.5187-78.25317
Davis Cemetery35.62685-78.39898
Eason Cemetery35.54932-78.30972
Eason Cemetery35.62802-78.28761
Eason Cemetery35.64459-78.27861
Eason Cemetery35.68872-78.28656
Ennis Cemetery35.52739-78.57664
Fairview Cemetery35.64176-78.25154
Flowers Cemetery35.50953-78.52337
Gay Cemetery35.6756-78.41967
Grant Cemetery35.60376-78.29111
Greswell Cemetery35.68675-78.29539
Henry Family Cemetery35.60088-78.31381
Hills of Neuse Memorial Gardens35.48012-78.37367
Hinton Cemetery35.68243-78.39603
Hocutt Cemetery35.73523-78.30037
Honeycutt Cemetery35.51574-78.60202
Horne Cemetery35.65809-78.45964
Jeffrey Cemetery35.68781-78.31599
Jones Cemetery35.54126-78.35333
Jones Cemetery35.6064-78.35698
Keen Cemetery35.44336-78.42039
King Cemetery35.55214-78.60068
Knollwood Cemetery35.57178-78.39573
Langdon Cemetery35.50726-78.4978
Lassiter Cemetery35.57359-78.36618
Leech Cemetery35.58098-78.60792
Maplewood Cemetery35.64281-78.46018
McCullers Cemetery35.66186-78.46751
McGee Cemetery35.50461-78.59859
McGee Cemetery35.52355-78.56897
Murphy Cemetery35.66971-78.32431
Nimrod Stephenson Memorial Cemetery35.53959-78.55564
O'Neal Cemetery35.66831-78.31875
Oakey Grove Cemetery35.54626-78.395
Oakland Heights Cemetery35.51536-78.33934
Overby Cemetery35.4608-78.25368
Parrish Cemetery35.53294-78.58862
Piney Grove Cemetery35.58818-78.48568
Poole Cemetery35.60932-78.47584
Price Cemetery35.60776-78.35884
Price Cemetery35.67866-78.30119
Richardson Cemetery35.59442-78.35627
Riverside Cemetery35.51015-78.35084
Saint Marys Grove Cemetery35.50212-78.53761
Sasser Cemetery35.66159-78.39922
Selma Memorial Cemetery35.52952-78.29994
Selma Memorial Gardens35.52706-78.29961
Shoeheel Cemetery35.62747-78.21001
Smith Cemetery35.53821-78.61112
Smith Cemetery35.73148-78.2978
Stephenson Cemetery35.62848-78.47816
Stevenson Cemetery35.50437-78.61737
Stevenson Cemetery35.51238-78.62362
Stevenson Cemetery35.53488-78.56667
Strickland Cemetery35.45386-78.44346
Sullivan Cemetery35.60061-78.31097
Thompson Cemetery35.46823-78.24248
Vause Cemetery35.59126-78.30166
Vinson Cemetery35.59331-78.36046
Vinson Cemetery35.59999-78.34392
Wale Cemetery35.70543-78.38583
Wall Cemetery35.68931-78.3975
Wall Cemetery35.69043-78.37639
Walls Cemetery35.51682-78.29277
Walton Cemetery35.55144-78.61215
Wheeler Cemetery35.67846-78.29433

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
Bentonville28,41724.3 kmNC020

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 Johnston County, North Carolina

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