County Past
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DeKalb County, Tennessee

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

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
5historic places
—earliest paper
1838formed
20,080pop. 2020
310cemeteries
1CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 5 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1984. Most listings are in or near Alexandria, Smithville, Liberty.

Summary generated automatically from the source data on this page.

Newspapers

Library of Congress

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

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

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

5 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Alexandria Cemeteries Historic District (Additional Documentation)AlexandriaDistrict2002
Dekalb County FairgroundsAlexandriaBuilding1995
Evans BlockSmithvilleBuilding1984
Foster, Susie, Log HouseSmithvilleBuilding2007
Liberty Historic DistrictLibertyDistrict1987

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Dekalb was formed in 1838 (1838-01-13) from Cannon, Warren, White.

DEKALB created from CANNON, WARREN, and WHITE.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

DeKalb County population from 1840 to 2020 (Census historical series).

20k13k5,8681840188019201930196020002020
18401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
5,86810,57314,81316,46015,37014,58811,68010,77413,58917,42320,080

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

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

Cemeteries — 80 of 310 listed
NameLatLon
Adamson Cemetery35.94555-85.9575
Adcock Cemetery35.9245-85.67609
Adcock Cemetery35.94867-85.75609
Alexandria Eastview Colored Cemetery36.07496-86.02914
Allen Cemetery35.85895-85.79859
Allen Cemetery36.03104-86.01413
Allen Cemetery36.01714-85.8378
Allen Cemetery35.88584-85.64348
Allen Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Allison Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Anderson Cemetery35.99728-85.6672
Anderson Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Austin Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Avant Cemetery36.08974-85.90236
Bain Cemetery35.87311-85.67442
Baker Cemetery35.98756-85.77165
Banks Cemetery35.85538-85.88121
Barnes Cemetery35.97615-85.91792
Bates Cemetery36.09641-85.88845
Bennett Cemetery35.97659-85.901
Bethel Cemetery36.09561-85.9097
Billings Cemetery35.96422-85.67859
Blair Cemetery35.88813-85.90396
Blue Cemetery36.06255-85.98526
Bluhm Cemetery35.90681-85.88156
Boatwright Cemetery35.95923-85.91131
Bomar Cemetery36.08061-85.99544
Bonham Cemetery35.98415-85.81459
Bowers Cemetery36.06484-86.03939
Brassel Cemetery35.95867-85.77415
Braswell Cemetery35.94839-85.88387
Braswell Cemetery36.10232-85.84134
Braswell Cemetery35.95547-85.91084
Bratcher Cemetery35.87469-85.84579
Bright Hill CemeteryNoneNone
Brown CemeteryNoneNone
Brown Family CemeteryNoneNone
Burton Cemetery35.99783-85.76165
Burton Cemetery36.0911-85.79613
Burton Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Cannady Cemetery35.96811-85.81692
Cantrell Cemetery35.91061-85.79331
Cantrell Cemetery35.86076-85.75502
Cantrell Cemetery35.8403-85.64829
Cantrell Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Carr Cemetery36.102-85.80942
Carr/Jones/Merritt Cemetery36.08724-85.77581
Carter CemeteryNoneNone
Carter Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Cathcart Cemetery35.96017-85.91849
Chisam Cemetery35.83741-85.70183
Christian Cemetery36.08747-85.91284
Christian Cemetery36.09805-85.95211
Civil War Cemetery36.00462-85.92298
Coggin Cemetery36.10787-85.83663
Coggin Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Coleman CemeteryNoneNone
Coleman Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Conger Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Cope CemeteryNoneNone
Corinth CemeteryNoneNone
Corley Cemetery36.07561-85.91915
Corley Cemetery (historical)NoneNone
Cripps Cemetery36.08207-85.87776
Cripps Cemetery35.93339-85.95181
Crowley Cemetery35.96123-85.80185
Curtis CemeteryNoneNone
Dale Ridge Cemetery36.04244-85.88163
Davis Cemetery35.97641-85.90622
DeKalb County Memorial Gardens35.92253-85.8217
Dedman Cemetery36.0951-85.94166
Dekalb Cemetery35.91869-85.82069
Delong Cemetery35.89427-85.67684
Denny Cemetery36.0429-85.72396
Dismal Cemetery36.03669-85.95527
Dow Braswell CemeteryNoneNone
Dowelltown Cemetery36.01673-85.94834
Driver Cemetery36.098-85.93124
Driver Cemetery36.04793-85.95818
Dunham CemeteryNoneNone
Historical populated places — 6 of 6
NameLatLon
Bear Branch35.85701-85.79804
Haleville35.97534-85.98443
Mount Sterling35.88812-85.80165
Pinhook35.90201-85.69443
Sligo35.96673-85.71193
Youngblood35.95645-85.91276

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
Vaught'S Hill1,56932.0 kmTN014

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 DeKalb County, Tennessee

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