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Delaware State...
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Delaware Counties
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Delaware Counties
Delaware has three counties: New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, the fewest counties of any U.S.
state. The origin of the county boundaries go back to former court districts. The powers of the counties'
legislative bodies are limited to issues such as zoning and development. |
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Delaware Counties
Delaware's history is a long and proud one. Early explorations of our coastline were made by the Spaniards and
Portuguese in the sixteenth century, by Henry Hudson in 1609 under the auspices of the Dutch, by Samuel Argall in 1610,
by Cornelius May in 1613, and by Cornelius Hendricksen in 1614.
During a storm, Argall was blown off course and sailed into a strange bay which he named in honor of his governor. It is
doubtful that Lord De La Warr ever saw, or explored, the bay, river, and state which today bears his name. In 1631, 11
years after the landing of the English pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts, the first white settlement was made on
Delaware soil.
A group of Dutchmen formed a trading company headed by Captain David Pietersen de Vries for the purpose of enriching
themselves from the New World. The expedition of about 30 individuals sailed from the town of Hoorn under the leadership
of Captain Peter Heyes in the ship De Walvis (The Whale). Their settlement, called Zwaanendael, meaning valley of swans,
was located near the present town of Lewes on the west bank of the Lewes Creek, today the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal.
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic
features of our country!"
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally,
act locally." |
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