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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

Hardeman County, Texas

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

County Seat: Quanah
Year Organized: 1858
Square Miles: 695

Court House:

P. O. Box 30
County Courthouse
Quanah, TX 79252-0030

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Bailey Hardeman and Thomas Jones Hardeman, two early Texas politicians and legislators

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Hardeman County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Hardeman County is named for Bailey Hardeman and Thomas Jones Hardeman, two early Texas politicians and legislators. The seat of the county is Quanah, where most of the county population resides.

Lipan Apaches dominated the region in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Later the semisedentary Wichita Indians settled along the Red River. After 1700 the Comanches and Kiowas also migrated from the north to hunt buffalo and other game. The county was formed in 1858 from Fannin County and named for early Matagorda legislators Bailey and Thomas Jones Hardeman.q^qv Because of its isolation and the continued threat of Indian attack, however, the area remained unsettled during the Civil War and Reconstruction.q^qv After the Civil War a few buffalo hunters and ranchers moved to the region, but it was still only very sparsely settled when the county was organized in 1884. In the 1870s and 1880s rustling was among the principal industries, as thieves headed for Indian Territory crossed Hardeman County to reach the Red River. From 1881 to 1884 Wilbarger County administered Hardeman County's legal affairs, though its handful of settlers had few administrative needs. The 1880 population of Hardeman and Foard counties together totaled only fifty, but population increases in Hardeman County and adjacent regions justified organization in 1884 and a change in county lines some years later. Margaret, first called Argurita, was the original county seat. In 1885 the Fort Worth and Denver Railway made a survey through the area, and the site of Quanah was laid out. Since Margaret was across the Pease River from other settlements and from the railroad, an election held in 1890 made Quanah the county seat. As it was decided that a voter could establish residence by having his laundry done in a town for six weeks, all the railroad crews are said to have become citizens in time to vote for Quanah. In 1891 Foard County was formed from Hardeman, Cottle, King, and Knox counties, a division that left Margaret in Foard County.

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/hch5.html (accessed November 6, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 697 square miles (1,805 km²), of which, 695 square miles (1,801 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (4 km²) of it (0.23%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Harmon County, Oklahoma (north)
Jackson County, Oklahoma (northeast)
Wilbarger County (east)
Foard County (south)
Cottle County (southwest)
Childress County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Chillicothe	city	Incorporated Area
- Quanah (County Seat)	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."