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Texas Counties

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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

Franklin County, Texas

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

County Seat: Mount Vernon
Year Organized: 1875
Square Miles: 286

Court House:

PO Box 750
County Courthouse
Mount Vernon, TX 75457-0750

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Probably Benjamin Cromwell Franklin, an early judge and legislator in Texas

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Although the origin of the county's name is not recorded, it is generally believed to have been named after Judge Benjamin C. Franklin. Its seat is Mount Vernon

Archeological evidence to the north in Red River County indicates that the area was occupied by Indians as early as the Late Archaic Period, around 1500 B.C. At the time of first European contact, the area was occupied by the Caddo Indians, an agricultural people with a highly developed culture. During the last decade of the eighteenth century, due to epidemics that decimated the tribe and problems with the Osages, most of the Caddos abandoned the villages they had occupied for centuries. During the early 1820s bands of Shawnee, Delaware, and Kickapoo Indians immigrated to the area. These Indians stayed for only a brief period, then generally abandoned their settlements in the mid-1830s. The time of earliest European exploration of the area has not been conclusively determined. The Moscoso expedition^qv of 1542 may have passed through or very near what is now Franklin County. It could be, however, that the first European contact with the area did not occur until after 1719, when the French founded Le Poste des Cadodaquious^qv in what is now Bowie County. Although the French occupied the post for more than fifty years, little is known about their activities. It seems probable, however, that they did explore as far to the southwest as Franklin County. White settlement began in the late 1830s along the eastern edge of what became Franklin County; most of the early settlers came from the upper southern states, predominantly Tennessee. The Cherokee Trace passed through the area, and by the late 1840s the central part of the county was also settled. By 1870 Mount Vernon had a population of 223. The county was marked off by the legislature in March 1875 and named for Judge Benjamin C. Franklin,^qv an early Red River County settler. An election was held on April 30, 1875, to select the county seat. Mount Vernon won by a large majority, and the matter was never again contested.

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/FF/hcf8.html (accessed November 5, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 295 square miles (763 km²), of which, 286 square miles (740 km²) of it is land and 9 square miles (23 km²) of it (3.09%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Red River County (north)
Titus County (east)
Camp County (southeast)
Wood County (south)
Hopkins County (west)
Delta County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Mount Vernon (County Seat)	town	Incorporated Area
- Talco	city	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."