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Pennsylvania Counties

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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.

Bucks County, Pennsylvania

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

County Seat: Doylestown
Year Organized: 1682
Square Miles: 608

Court House:

55 East Court Street
County Courthouse
Doylestown, PA 18901-4327

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Bucks is named for Buckinghamshire in England, a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury and the largest town in ceremonial Buckinghamshire is Milton Keynes. This is where the Penns had lived for generations.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

One of the three original counties created by William Penn in November 1682. Bucks is named for Buckinghamshire in England, where the Penns had lived for generations. Doylestown replaced Newtown as the county seat in 1812 and was incorporated as a borough on April 16, 1838. It was named for William Doyle, an innkeeper.

Most original settlers were Quakers, and William Penn's estate was at Pennsbury Manor. During the religious Great Awakening the log college at Neshaminy educated clergymen. In 1776–1777, Washington used Newtown and Keiths as bases for his Trenton and Princeton campaigns, crossing the Delaware on Christmas at McConkey's Ferry and in 1778 his army camped at Doylestown. Bristol was the first county seat, succeeded by Newton and then Doylestown. Fries' Rebellion occurred in 1798 in opposition to a federal tax on windows. Bucks has a long tradition of high quality farming, including selling seeds that are used all across the nation. Dairying became strong toward the end of the nineteenth century. Wealthy estates have acquired much of the farming area; 22 percent of the land is currently farmland. Textiles, pottery, and decorative tile making flourished. The U. S. Steel Company built a plant after World War II, and then the population increased sharply. Many found homes in the new housing complex of Levittown. Explorer Zebulon Pike, writer Pearl Buck, and War of 1812 general Jacob Brown were all from Bucks. There were Underground Railroad stations in four towns.

Geography

Bucks County lies in the southeastern edge of the state along the Delaware River. Most of the land is typical of the piedmont region, with hills becoming more distinct further north. Unlike in the Southern Piedmont, soil in the Pennsylvania Piedmont has historically been fertile, giving Bucks County large areas of valuable farmland. With the decline of the farming industry, debate has arisen over how much of this open space should be preserved, and how much should be allotted for commercial and residential development.

The southern third of the county between Philadelphia and Trenton, New Jersey, often called Lower Bucks, resides in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, and is flat and near sea level, and the county's most populated and industrialized area.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 622 square miles (1,611 km²).607 square miles (1,573 km²) of it is land and 15 square miles (38 km²) of it (2.37%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Lehigh County (northwest)
Northampton County (north)
Warren County, New Jersey (northeast)
Hunterdon County, New Jersey (northeast)
Mercer County, New Jersey (east)
Burlington County, New Jersey (southeast)
Philadelphia County (south)
Montgomery County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Bedminster	township
- Bensalem	township
- Bristol	borough	Incorporated Area
- Buckingham	township
- Chalfont	borough	Incorporated Area
- Doylestown (County Seat)	borough	Incorporated Area
- Dublin	borough	Incorporated Area
- Durham	township
- East Rockhill	township
- Falls	township
- Ferndale	borough	Incorporated Area
- Haycock	township
- Hilltown	township
- Hulmeville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Ivyland	borough	Incorporated Area
- Langhorne	borough	Incorporated Area
- Langhorne Manor	borough	Incorporated Area
- Lower Makefield	township
- Lower Southampton	township
- Mechanicsville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Middletown	borough	Incorporated Area
- Morrisville	borough	Incorporated Area
- New Britain	borough	Incorporated Area
- New Hope	borough	Incorporated Area
- Newtown	borough	Incorporated Area
- Nockamixon	township
- Penndel	borough	Incorporated Area
- Perkasie	borough	Incorporated Area
- Philadelphia	city	Incorporated Area
- Plumstead	township
- Quakertown	borough	Incorporated Area
- Richlandtown	borough	Incorporated Area
- Riegelsville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Sellersville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Silverdale	borough	Incorporated Area
- Solebury	township
- Southampton	township
- Trumbauersville	borough	Incorporated Area
- Tullytown	borough	Incorporated Area
- Upper Makefield	township
- Upper Southampton	township
- Warminster	township
- Warrington	township
- Warwick	township
- West Rockhill	township
- Wrightstown	township
- Yardley	borough	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."