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Texas Counties

Texas is divided into 254 counties, more than any other U.S. state Texas was originally divided into municipalities, a unit of local government under Spanish and Mexican rule. When the Republic of Texas gained its independence in 1836, there were 23 municipalities, which became the original Texas counties. Many of these would later be divided into new counties. The most recent county to be created was Kenedy County in 1921. The most recent county to be organized was Loving County in 1931

Brazos County, Texas

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

County Seat: Bryan
Year Organized: 1841
Square Miles: 586

Court House:

300 E. 26th Street
County Courthouse
Bryan, TX 77803-5359

Etymology - Origin of County Name

the Brazos River (along with Brazoria County)

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Brazos County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas in the Central Texas region. The county seat is Bryan. Brazos is named for the Brazos River, along with Brazoria County.

Navasoto County, established in 1841, was renamed Brazos County in 1842.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel, comp., Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 (10 vols., Austin: Gammel, 1898).

The territory that is now Brazos County was included in Stephen F. Austin's^qv second colony and became part of Washington Municipality under the Mexican government. Colonists who sought plantation sites on the Brazos between 1821 and 1831 included Elliot McNeil Millican, Richard Carter,^qqv James H. Evetts, Melvan Lanham, Lee C. Smith, and Mordecai Boon. In 1837 most of the area of present-day Brazos County was included in Washington County. The Brazos River, which bisected the latter, proved a serious obstacle to county government, and a new county, Navasota, was formed in January 1841. The first court, with Judge R. E. B. Baylor^qv presiding, was held later that year in the home of Joseph Ferguson, fourteen miles west of the site of present Bryan. The county seat, named Boonville for Mordecai Boon, was located on John Austin's^qv league and was surveyed by Hiram Hanover^qv in 1841. In January of the following year Navasota County was renamed Brazos County. The 1850 census showed 466 whites and 148 black slaves in the county. Of the approximately 176,000 acres in farms at that time, less than 2,000 acres was cleared for crops. Farmers concentrated on growing corn and a bit of cotton. The county remained overwhelmingly rural in the 1850s; only two families lived in the county seat in 1852, and only two post offices, Boonville and Millican, operated in the county in 1856.
More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/hcb13.html (accessed November 4, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 590 square miles (1,529 km²), of which, 586 square miles (1,517 km²) is land and 5 square miles (12 km²) (0.76%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Burleson County (southwest)
Grimes County (east)
Madison County (northeast)
Robertson County (northwest)
Washington County (south)

Cities and Towns:

- Bryan (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- College Station	city	Incorporated Area
- Kurten	town	Incorporated Area
- Millican	town	Incorporated Area
- Navasota	city	Incorporated Area
- Wixon Valley	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

Online High Schools

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

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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