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Texas Counties
 Click Image to Enlarge Texas CountiesTexas 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 |
Gaines County, TexasGaines County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
Etymology - Origin of County NameJames Gaines, merchant and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence Demographics:County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts County HistoryGaines County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Gaines County is named for James Gaines, a merchant who signed the Texas Declaration of Independence. The seat of the county is Seminole. The area was Comanche country until the United States Army campaigns of 1875 and 1876. An Indian burial mound has
been excavated near Cedar Lake. It is believed that Quanah Parker,qv the last
great Comanche chief, was born in the vicinity. Cedar Lake was also the site of a skirmish between Indians and
United States cavalrymen in October 1875. Buffalo hunters moved into the region in the 1870s, and some of them began
ranches and remained in the area after their game had disappeared; the land was plush with grama grasses but limited
in surface water. In 1876 the Texas legislature formed Gaines County from Bexar County. Gaines County was attached
to Bexar County for administrative purposes in 1876, then to Shackelford County in 1877 and to Martin County in
1885. As early as 1879 ranchman C. C. Slaughterqv ran herds on much of eastern
Gaines County from his headquarters at Rattlesnake Canyon. C. C. Meddin, who moved his family and herd to Gaines
County in 1880, was the first permanent settler; the United States census reported only eight people in the county
in 1880. In the 1880s and 1890s other ranchers moved into the area, including C. M. Breckon, the Brunson brothers,
Bill Anderson, Dave Ernest, Robinson and Winfield Scott of the Hat Ranch, C. Bill Higgins of the Wishbone Ranch, J.
E. Millhollon of the MH Ranch, and the several owners of the Triangle H Triangle north of Seminole. Until the early
twentieth century cattle raising was the only industry in the county. The population was sixty-eight in 1890 and
fifty-five in 1900, when six ranches More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. ","
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/GG/hcg1.html (accessed November 5, 2008). GeographyAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,503 square miles (3,892 kmē), of which,
1,502 square miles (3,891 kmē) of it is land and 1 square miles (1 kmē) of it (0.03%) is water. Neighboring Counties:
Cities and Towns:
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." |
