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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

Brown County, Texas

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

County Seat: Brownwood
Year Organized: 1856
Square Miles: 944

Court House:

200 South Browdway
County Courthouse
Brownwood, TX 76801-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Henry Stevenson Brown, a commander at the Battle of Velasco

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Brown County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Its county seat is Brownwood. Brown is named for Henry Stevenson Brown, a commander at the Battle of Velasco.

The county was formed on the western frontier in 1856 from Comanche and Travis counties and organized in 1858, with Brownwood designated as the county seat; the town was also awarded the county's first post office that year with Wiley B. Brown as postmaster. In 1860 the United States census found 244 people living in the county, none of them slaveholders. The census also counted 2,070 cattle in the area, and ninety-one acres of land was classified as "improved." The county developed slowly between its founding and the 1870s, primarily because conditions were not secure for settlement until the late 1870s or early 1880s, as settlers were harassed by Indians and white predators for twenty years after the county was formed. The original settlers had to resist Comanches who entered the region from the north at Mercer's Gap or from the west along Pecan Bayou, near Elkins. White desperados caused problems too; in 1875 the Fort Worth-Brownwood stage was robbed five times in two months. Much of the criminal activity during the 1870s was attributed to John Wesley Hardin's^qv gang; in 1874 Brown County citizens were among those who lynched suspected gang members at Comanche, and Hardin himself was forced to flee.

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/hcb17.html (accessed November 4, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 957 square miles (2,478 km²), of which, 944 square miles (2,445 km²) of it is land and 13 square miles (34 km²) of it (1.37%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Eastland County (north)
Comanche County (northeast)
Mills County (southeast)
San Saba County (south)
McCulloch County (southwest)
Coleman County (west)
Callahan County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Bangs	city	Incorporated Area
- Blanket	town	Incorporated Area
- Brownwood (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Early	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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