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Florida Counties

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Florida Counties

In 1821, there were only two Counties in Florida: Escambia to the west and St. Johns to the east. From these two Counties were formed 67 today.In 1968, the electors of Florida granted local voters the power to adopt charters to govern their counties. Charters are formal written documents that confer powers, duties, or privileges on the county. To date, there are 19 charter Counties in Florida. Collectively these Counties are home to more than 75 percent of Florida's residents.

Gadsden County, Florida

Gadsden County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Quincy
Year Organized: 1823
Square Miles: 516

Court House:

P.O. Box 1799
County Courthouse
Quincy, FL 32351-1799

Etymology - Origin of County Name

James Gadsden of South Carolina, aide-de-camp of Jackson in Florida campaign of 1818.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Gadsden County was created in 1823. It was named for James Gadsden of South Carolina, who served as Andrew Jackson's aide-de-camp in Florida in 1818.

When Florida became a territory in 1821, Andrew Jackson was appointed Governor and among his first duties, he subdivided the state into two counties East Florida and West Florida. After several other divisions had taken place, on June 24, 1823, a fifth county generally spoken of as Middle Florida was established. Boundaries for the new county were the Suwannee on the east and the Apalachicola River on the west and it was named Gadsden in honor of James Gadsden, aide-de-camp to General Andrew Jackson in the Florida Campaign of 1818.

Pensacola was the scene for the first Legislative Council and Jacksonville, the site for the second. These two sessions, two years and miles apart in hardship and distance, convinced the Council of the need for a central location. Two commissioners, Dr. William Hayne Simmons and John Lee Williams were selected to explore a possible site in Middle Florida. By March 4, 1824, these two commissioners reported they had chosen an area in Gadsden County, "about a mile southwest from the deserted fields of Tallahassee Indians Village about a mile south of the Oke-lock-o-ny and Tallahassee trails".

Gadsden County citizens played important roles in the capital city building project. The temporary capital was erected in April 1824 by Jonathan Robinson and Sherod McCall. Their building was actually one of three log buildings constructed to accommodate the Legislative Council which met November 8 of that year. The capital remained in Gadsden County until December 29, 1824 when one of the first legislative acts that year was to create a new county (Leon) by annexing all the lands of East Gadsden between the Ocklochonee and Suwannee Rivers which, without moving the structures, moved the capital to Leon County.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 528 square miles (1,369 km²), of which, 516 square miles (1,337 km²) of it is land and 12 square miles (32 km²) of it (2.34%) is water.

Gadsden County is located in the northwestern part of Florida. Quincy, the county seat, is on U.S. Highway 90 about midway between Pensacola and Jacksonville. Much smaller in land mass than when it was created, the county is approximately 32 miles long and 22 miles wide. The land area of 508 square miles is bounded on the east by the Ochlocknee River, on the west by the Apalachicola River, on the southeast by Lake Talquin and on the north by the State of Georgia. A humid temperature climate prevails, and rainfall is abundant and generally well distributed. The county is one of the foremost agricultural counties in northwest Florida.

Four major geological formations, all sedimentary, occur in Gadsden County at or near the surface of the ground. From the oldest to youngest, these formations are Tampa limestone, the Hawthorn formation, Duplin marl, and the Citronelle formation. Elevations range from about 50 feet above mean sea level to more than 300 feet above mean seal level. Gadsden County has hills!

Neighboring Counties:

North: Decatur County, Ga.
Northeast: Grady County, Ga.
Southeast: Leon County
Southwest: Liberty County; Calhoun County
Northwest: Jackson County; Seminole County, Ga.

Cities and Towns:

- Chattahoochee	city	Incorporated Area
- Greensboro	town	Incorporated Area
- Gretna	city	Incorporated Area
- Havana	town	Incorporated Area
- Midway	city	Incorporated Area
- Quincy (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."