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Rhea County, Tennessee

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

—newspaper titles
—digitized titles
6historic places
—earliest paper
1807formed
32,870pop. 2020
104cemeteries
—CW battlefields

At a glance

Summary

The National Register of Historic Places includes 6 listed properties in the county, first listed in 1972; 1 is also National Historic Landmark. Most listings are in or near Dayton, Spring City.

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 Rhea titles at the Library of Congress.

National Register of Historic Places

NPS NRHP

3 of 6 listings mapped; some locations are restricted by NPS to protect sensitive sites.

6 listed properties
PropertyCityTypeListed
Broyles-Darwin HouseDaytonBuilding1997
First Avenue Methodist Episcopal ChurchDaytonBuilding2020
Hiwassee Garrison SiteDaytonSite1978
Rhea County Courthouse NHLDaytonBuilding1972
Thomison, Dr. Walter, HouseDaytonBuilding1997
Watts Barr Hydroelectric ProjectSpring CityDistrict2017

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

County formation

Newberry AHCB

Rhea was formed in 1807 (1807-11-30) from Roane.

RHEA created from ROANE.

Source: Newberry Library, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

Population by decade

Census

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

33k18k2,5041810184018801920196020002020
1810182018401860188019001920194019501960198020002020
2,5044,2153,9854,9917,07314,31813,81216,35316,04115,86324,23528,40032,870

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

104 cemeteries and 3 historical populated places (ghost towns / former settlements) recorded in USGS GNIS for this county.

Cemeteries — 80 of 104 listed
NameLatLon
Abel Cemetery35.47506-85.03495
Bean Cemetery35.7937-84.755
Bell Cemetery35.47395-84.97773
Brewer Cemetery35.80094-84.81549
Brown Cemetery35.53647-84.94661
Buttram Cemetery35.5184-84.99606
Campbell Cemetery35.53356-84.90443
Cash-Foust Cemetery35.70395-84.80883
Clifton Cemetery35.7997-84.76792
Cooke Cemetery35.59065-84.82152
Corvin Cemetery35.44867-85.02467
Cranmore Cemetery35.50451-85.04523
Craven Cemetery35.48923-84.9605
Cummings Cemetery35.75673-84.82633
DeVaney Cemetery35.64117-84.90022
Dyers Cemetery35.50479-84.98189
Early Cemetery35.45118-84.93106
Evens Cemetery35.55895-84.958
Ewing Cemetery35.61498-84.80369
Fairview Cemetery35.44228-85.07578
French Cemetery35.50173-85.01773
Garrison Cemetery35.44312-84.98884
Garrison Cemetery35.77729-84.7516
Gillespie Cemetery35.70312-84.73327
Gillespie Cemetery35.72757-84.73744
Gilliam Cemetery35.72895-84.79188
Godbehere Cemetery35.64395-84.8655
Hazelwood Cemetery35.52372-84.88105
Henderson Cemetery35.6159-85.04828
Hickey Cemetery35.6482-84.80283
Hickory Grove Cemetery35.62673-84.96828
Hood Cemetery35.46034-84.91994
Horst Cemetery35.73173-84.75938
Howerton Cemetery35.57568-84.94199
Hurst Cemetery35.57101-84.91067
Ingle Cemetery35.71868-84.79494
Johnson Stand Cemetery35.7634-84.883
Jolley Cemetery35.64423-84.84383
Kiuka Cemetery35.53534-85.04967
Laurel Brook Cemetery35.50284-85.11606
Leuty Cemetery35.60462-84.78294
Leuty Cemetery35.67645-84.84244
Locke Cemetery35.53284-84.89661
Lone Mountain Cemetery35.45117-85.06801
Long Cemetery35.7234-84.80855
Lucknow Cemetery35.69645-84.76994
Marsh Cemetery35.65923-84.84744
Marsh Cemetery35.69534-84.8505
Marsh Cemetery35.7134-84.81661
McCabe Cemetery35.66312-84.84105
McCaleb Cemetery35.72118-84.72271
McClendon Cemetery35.66034-84.85689
Memory Garden35.45701-85.04662
Miller Cemetery35.65423-84.89272
Montgomery Cemetery35.55303-84.88857
Morgan Cemetery35.55919-85.09625
Mount Sulphur Cemetery35.77062-84.82244
Mynatt Cemetery35.53144-84.90942
Newby Cemetery35.60229-84.96939
Norman Cemetery35.54562-84.99245
Old Hope Cemetery35.74257-84.7216
Old Ogden Cemetery35.51617-85.09745
Paine Cemetery35.55867-84.97523
Parham Cemetery35.74562-84.80911
Parker Cemetery35.74312-84.74966
Petersburg Cemetery35.69923-84.84383
Pierce Cemetery35.58863-84.94324
Porter - Ward Cemetery35.61062-84.82966
Porter Cemetery35.52784-84.96495
Porter Cemetery35.61068-84.84344
Pritchett Cemetery35.59868-84.88217
Pyott Cemetery35.69062-84.82633
Ray Cemetery35.77118-84.81327
Rhea Springs Cemetery35.67923-84.82689
Robinson Cemetery35.72729-84.82522
Roddy Cemetery35.77368-84.77049
Roddy Cemetery35.76506-84.78383
Ross Cemetery35.76923-84.77077
Shaver Cemetery35.4809-84.978
Shaver Cemetery35.49534-84.98078
Historical populated places — 3 of 3
NameLatLon
Bonneville35.65007-84.91856
Iron Hill35.70841-84.73883
Rhea Springs35.6759-84.82856

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 Rhea County, Tennessee

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