Joy, Thanks so much for your helpful post. This helped me to poke around in the "USGS Geographic Names Information System, United States and Territories" whose url is: http://www-nmd.usgs.gov/www/gnis/gnisform.html I was not seeing some vital information before, but now the results seem conclusive. Please bear with me while I describe how to get the answer for those who have never used this very valuable website. 1. Go to their url: http://www-nmd.usgs.gov/www/gnis/gnisform.html 2. Make the following entries and selections: a. Enter "cedar" in the "Feature Name" note:You may select either the "Yes" or the "No" button in the "Query Variant Name Also?" In this example, your results would be the same; however, you often get more and/or better results with "Yes". b. Select "Tennessee" in the "State or Territory Name" c. Enter "wilson" in the "County Name" d. Select "Stream" in the "Feature Type" 3. Click on "Send Query" 4. You will see a page with 3 results: a. Cedar Branch - USGS 7.5' x 7.5' Map: Vine b. Cedar Creek - USGS 7.5' x 7.5' Map: Hendersonville c. Cedar Creek - USGS 7.5' x 7.5' Map: Bellwood 5. Select a result to view more details. a. Click "Show Feature Details and Location" for the Hendersonville result. You will see information including the following: ** "Variant Name(s) Cedar Lick Creek" You will also see that this feature falls on two other USGS quad maps besides Hendersonville - namely, Hermitage and Martha. b. Click "Show Feature Details and Location" for the Bellwood result. You will see information including the following: ** "Variant Name(s) Spruce Creek" 6. When you are looking at the page with the details for a feature, you have several options. These include "Show Feature Lo cation using maps produced from the U.S. Census Bureau's Tiger Map Server." If you click on this one, you will get a simple graphic map showing the feature's location. If you do this for the Hendersonville result and look closely, you will see 3 small red dots that mark the location - in this case the course of the stream. The bottom line is that the Cedar Creek in western Wilson County appears to have been the Cedar Lick Creek named in these historical writings. I hope this hasn't been too tedious. The USGS website can be quite helpful. Thanks to Edwin Deadrick for the original question and to Joy Mask for the helpful reply. Respectfully yours, Bill Troutt Katy, TX mask wrote: > > "The History of Wilson County, Tennessee," edited by Frank Burns in 1987, page > 128, speaks of Cedar Lick Creek in talking about Mt. Olivet Baptist Church: > "Mt. Olivet Baptist Church at Leeville was the first Baptist church in > Wilson County, constituted April 25, 1801. It was first called Cedar Lick after > the creek nearby. When an arm of this church was extended to another point and > named Little Cedar Lick, it became known as Big Cedar Lick until 1843 when the > name became Mt. Olivet. About 1848, a commodious stone church house was built. > It still stands..." > Leeville is just north of present I-40, just west of Hwy 109. The > "Tennessee Atlas and Gazeteer", page 54, shows the name of the creek near > Leeville now simply as Cedar Creek. I've found this current atlas and gazeteer, > by DeLorme Mapping quite helpful, although I often have to locate the old names > in other works such as the Wilson County history. > Hope this helps. > Joy Mask, Amarillo, TX