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Madison County, North Carolina

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

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
19historic places
—earliest paper
1851formed
21,193pop. 2020
110cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 19 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1975. Most listings are in or near Marshall, Mars Hill, Hot Springs.

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 Madison titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

10 of 19 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

19 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Bank of French BroadMarshallBuilding2004
California Creek Missionary Baptist ChurchMars HillBuilding1984
Capitola Manufacturing Company Cotton Yarn MillMarshallBuilding2012
Dorland Memorial Presbyterian ChurchHot SpringsBuilding1986
Ellerson, William R. HouseHot SpringsBuilding2018
Hot Springs Historic DistrictHot SpringsDistrict2009
Madison County CourthouseMarshallBuilding1979
Mars Hill College Historic DistrictMars HillDistrict2006
Mars Hill Commercial Historic DistrictMars HillDistrict2015
Mars Hill High SchoolMars HillBuilding2005
Mars Hill SchoolMars HillBuilding2018
Marshall High School (Additional Documentation)MarshallBuilding2008
Marshall High School (Boundary Increase)MarshallBuilding2025
Marshall Main Street Historic DistrictMarshallDistrict2007
Murray, Thomas J., HouseMars HillBuilding2005
Ottinger, Henry, HouseHot SpringsBuilding1986
SunnybankHot SpringsBuilding1980
White, James H., HouseMarshallBuilding1989
White, Jeff, HouseMarshallBuilding1975

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Madison was formed in 1851 (1851-01-27) from Buncombe, Yancey.

MADISON created from BUNCOMBE and YANCEY.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

Madison County population from 1860 to 2020 (Census historical series).

23k14k5,9081860188019201940196020002020
1860188019001920194019501960198020002020
5,90812,81020,64420,08322,52220,52217,21716,82719,63521,193

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

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

Cemeteries — 80 of 110 listed
NameLatLon
Anderson Cemetery35.8276-82.82291
Anderson Cemetery35.87176-82.78097
Angel Cemetery35.82733-82.47707
Arrington Cemetery35.89343-82.59874
Baldwin Cemetery35.86871-82.70069
Ball Cemetery35.76393-82.69937
Belva Cemetery35.98843-82.65875
Big Pine Cemetery35.78342-82.81322
Briggs Cemetery35.85621-82.48152
Brooks Cemetery35.86232-82.84597
Brown Cemetery35.83482-82.84903
Brown Cemetery35.8601-82.45152
Bryan Cemetery35.81756-82.64164
Bryant Cemetery35.82506-82.6573
Buckner Cemetery35.81843-82.58124
Buckner Cemetery35.7535-82.78109
Buckner Cemetery35.90205-82.54013
Bullman Cemetery35.88704-82.7218
Capps Cemetery35.84043-82.65666
Carter Cemetery35.83149-82.50318
Chambers Cemetery35.82177-82.4429
Click Cemetery35.92232-82.86403
Coates Cemetery35.88343-82.62236
Cook Cemetery35.92676-82.73375
Crooked Ridge Cemetery35.82074-82.78877
Davis Cemetery35.77093-82.91292
Dill Cemetery35.84788-82.59735
Dockery Cemetery35.86815-82.78347
Dry Pond Cemetery35.77871-82.72541
Ebenezer Cemetery35.80371-82.59374
Edwards Cemetery35.81399-82.50846
Edwards Cemetery35.82677-82.59402
Engle Cemetery35.93094-82.50846
Fortner Cemetery35.84325-82.77931
Franklin Cemetery35.99315-82.68625
Franklin Cemetery35.92232-82.71625
Freeman Cemetery35.81675-82.75539
Freeman Gap Cemetery35.7496-82.70629
Gahagan Cemetery35.87176-82.73375
Gardner Cemetery35.82927-82.47402
Gentry Cemetery35.79021-82.81954
George Cemetery35.8326-82.53013
Gibbs Cemetery35.80844-82.52318
Goforth Cemetery35.84787-82.81986
Gosnell Cemetery35.86538-82.61735
Gosnell Cemetery35.90454-82.7268
Grapevine Cemetery35.86594-82.62282
Hagen Cemetery35.8051-82.75013
Heck Creek Cemetery35.87066-82.65097
Henderson Cemetery35.81843-82.70541
Hunter Cemetery35.79078-82.62417
Jerry Ramsey Cemetery35.78387-82.69663
Lewis Cemetery35.91871-82.64736
Lunceford Cemetery35.76322-82.76378
Maney Cemetery35.82205-82.45679
Marshall Cemetery35.8126-82.67652
Marshbanks Cemetery35.8676-82.45735
Massey Cemetery35.78715-82.78825
Mc Elroy Cemetery35.81816-82.53707
McDevitt Cemetery35.85649-82.73486
Merrill Cemetery35.83843-82.58458
Metcalf Cemetery35.84149-82.44429
Murray Gap Cemetery35.90371-82.51319
Odd Fellows Cemetery35.88371-82.83514
Old Station Cemetery35.83139-82.70794
Payne Cemetery35.76877-82.74187
Payne Cemetery35.78361-82.76085
Peek Cemetery35.83927-82.58652
Radford Cemetery35.82372-82.44874
Ramsey Cemetery35.83316-82.51263
Ramsey Cemetery35.84927-82.55235
Ramsey Cemetery35.8651-82.58013
Ramsey Cemetery35.82581-82.67477
Ray Cemetery35.81677-82.57569
Ray Cemetery35.84371-82.61402
Rector Cemetery35.77722-82.66118
Rector Cemetery35.7887-82.74305
Reed Cemetery35.91427-82.53569
Reynolds Cemetery35.82343-82.88542
Rice Cemetery35.85177-82.61263
Historical populated places — 1 of 1
NameLatLon
Lynch35.81732-82.89153

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 Madison County, North Carolina

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