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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

Dawson County, Texas

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

County Seat: Lamesa
Year Organized: 1858
Square Miles: 902

Court House:

P.O. Box 1268
County Courthouse
Lamesa, TX 79331-1268

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Nicholas Mosby Dawson, a soldier of the Texas Revolution

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Dawson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It is named for Nicholas Mosby Dawson, a soldier of the Texas Revolution. The seat of the county is Lamesa.

The first decade of the twentieth century was a time of dramatic growth for Dawson County, as the population jumped from thirty-seven people in 1900 to 2,320 in 1910, and the number of ranches and farms increased from four to 330. Between 1902 and 1905, as the grazing leases expired, Dawson County lands were filed on for settlement. Prospective settlers waited in line in Big Spring for as long as six weeks when choice pieces of land were released. In 1907 the first railroad land was sold at from three to five dollars an acre. One large ranch was not opened for settlers until 1946, when it sold for sixty-five dollars an acre. The first school in Dawson County began in one room of the Mullins ranchhouse in 1902. The first church was organized by the Baptists in Chicago in 1904, but the Methodists built the first church building in Lamesa in 1907; it was used alternately by four communions on successive Sundays. The first post office was north of Lamesa at the Bartow ranch headquarters, where residents produced a wagonload of mail to prove to postal authorities that a post office was needed. They were so impressed by the amount of their own handiwork that they humorously named their post office Chicago. That same year, the Dawson County News was begun by J. E. Garrison and the Dawson County Bank was organized. Dawson County, named for Nicholas Mosby Dawson,^qv had been formed on August 21, 1876, but was attached to Howard County for judicial purposes until February 13, 1905, when separate organization was authorized. Dawson County's first election to choose officials and select the county seat was held on March 20, 1905. The contesting towns, Lamesa and Chicago, were only two miles apart. Lamesa won by five votes, but a movement was already afoot to consolidate the towns and all businesses and residences in Chicago were moved into Lamesa. After six years of effort to secure a railroad, the Santa Fe was built into Lamesa in 1911.

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/DD/hcd3.html (accessed November 5, 2008).

Defunct Dawson County

DAWSON COUNTY. Another Dawson County, established by the Texas Legislature on February 1, 1858, was named for Nicholas Dawson^qv and included the eastern portion of what is now Kinney County and the western portion of Uvalde County. The act was never expressly repealed, but the territory was obliterated by acts dated September 29 and October 5, 1866. The area included no part of present Dawson County, established in 1876.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. L. Batts, "Defunct Counties of Texas," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 1 (October 1897). 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 902 square miles (2,336 km²), virtually all of which is land.

Neighboring Counties:

Lynn County (north)
Borden County (east)
Martin County (south)
Gaines County (west)
Terry County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Ackerly	city	Incorporated Area
- Lamesa (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Los Ybanez	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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