|
Pennsylvania State...
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Pennsylvania Counties
|
|
Click Image to Enlarge
Pennsylvania Counties
There are sixty-seven counties of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States of
America. The city of Philadelphia is coterminous with Philadelphia County, and governmental functions have been
consolidated since 1854. |
|
| |
|
|
Pennsylvania Counties
Pennsylvania's 67 counties were formed between 1682 when William Penn divided
the lands granted to him by King Charles II of England into the three original
counties of Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester and 1878 when Lackawanna County, the
youngest county, was created. The other 63 counties were formed by special or
local acts. These acts were passed by the Provincial Assembly while Pennsylvania
was a colony and by the General Assembly from 1775, when Pennsylvania became a
Commonwealth, until 1874. Since the State Constitution of 1874 prohibited the
passage of special or local legislation, Lackawanna County, the only remaining
county to be created, was formed by decree of court under the authority of a
general law (P. L. 17 of 1878.
County
|
2000
Population
|
Square
Miles
|
County Seat
|
Created
|
|
|
County Resource Guide
|
|
|
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." |
|
|
| |
|
