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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

Burnet County, Texas

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

County Seat: Burnet
Year Organized: 1852
Square Miles: 995

Court House:

200 South Pierce Street
County Courthouse
Burnet, TX 78611-3113

Etymology - Origin of County Name

David Gouverneur Burnet, the first president of the Republic of Texas

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Burnet County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Its county seat is Burnet. Burnet is named for David Gouverneur Burnet, the first (provisional) president of the Republic of Texas.

The presence of troops had encouraged settlers to make their homes in Burnet County. Among these were such county notables as Noah Smithwick, Logan Vandeveer, and Peter Kerr.^qqv A group of Mormons^qv led by Lyman Wight^qv established a colony at the falls of Hamilton Creek in 1851. By December 1851 the population of the region was large enough to warrant petitioning for the foundation of a new county. Burnet County was formed by the Fourth Texas Legislature on February 5, 1852, from parts of Travis, Williamson, and Bell counties. It was named for David G. Burnet,^qv president of the provisional government^qv of the Republic of Texas.^qv The first county officials were elected later that year.

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/hcb19.html (accessed November 4, 2008).

Judicial Burnet County

Burnet County was established by the Fifth Congress as a judicial county on January 30, 1841. It lay between the Neches and Trinity rivers south of Nacogdoches County and north of Houston County. Fort Houston, the earliest settlement in the area and the temporary seat of justice, had a Sunday school and a temperance society organized in 1840. Peter Fullenwider held Presbyterian services. Magnolia, a projected town on the Trinity River, was intended as a riverport. The Telegraph and Texas Registerqv of September 15, 1841, described the terrain and possibilities of the county and estimated that its population had increased from 250 to 500 between 1839 and 1841. An act of December 6, 1841, provided for a better definition of county boundaries, made Fort Houston the permanent seat of justice, and authorized the county to raise a company of volunteers for protection of the frontier. The county ceased to exist, probably when judicial counties were declared unconstitutional in the case of Stockton v. Montgomery in 1842.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. L. Batts, "Defunct Counties of Texas," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 1 (October 1897). James Wilmer Dallam, A Digest of the Laws of Texas (Baltimore: Toy, 1845). Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel, comp., Laws of Texas, 1822-1897 (10 vols., Austin: Gammel, 1898).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,021 square miles (2,644 km²), of which, 996 square miles (2,580 km²) of it is land and 25 square miles (65 km²) of it (2.44%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Lampasas County (north)
Bell County (northeast)
Williamson County (east)
Travis County (southeast)
Blanco County (south)
Llano County (west)
San Saba County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Bertram	city	Incorporated Area
- Burnet (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Cottonwood Shores	city	Incorporated Area
- Granite Shoals	city	Incorporated Area
- Highland Haven	city	Incorporated Area
- Marble Falls	city	Incorporated Area
- Meadowlakes	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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