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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

Hill County, Texas

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

County Seat: Hillsboro
Year Organized: 1853
Square Miles: 962

Court House:

Corner Elm & Waco Streets
County Courthouse
Hillsboro, TX 76645-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

George Washington Hill, a secretary of war and secretary of the navy under the Republic of Texas

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Hill County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Its county seat is Hillsboro. The county is named for George Washington Hill, a secretary of war and secretary of the navy under the Republic of Texas, surgeon, and an early settler of the area.

In an effort to stimulate land speculation, army doctor Josephus Murray Steiner^qv and Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson,^qv son of Sterling C. Robertson, devised a plan to divide Navarro County. A petition was circulated on September 19, 1852, to carve a new county from Navarro County. Things moved quickly as Governor Peter Hansbrough Bell^qv called a special session of the legislature to deal with frontier problems; a bill to divide Navarro County was signed on February 7, 1853. Hill County was named for Dr. George Washington Hill,^qv who had served as President Sam Houston's^qv secretary of war and who had been elected to the state legislature from Navarro County in 1851. An election of county officials was held on May 14, 1853, in Lexington on Jack's Branch, currently Union Bluff. J. H. Dyer was elected county judge; Charley Davis, sheriff; C. N. Brooks, county and district clerk as well as the first justice of the peace; and Thomas Steiner (brother of Dr. Steiner), one of the county commissioners. A special session of the commissioners' court was called on August 23, 1853, to select the county seat. Thomas Steiner, John Caruthers, and Jonathan Newby offered to donate 260 acres as the county seat; their offer was accepted. Another special session was called on September 24 to survey the town of Hillsborough; town lots went on sale November 1. C. N. Brooks, the county clerk and justice of the peace, built the first courthouse, which was twelve feet square and consisted of elm poles around a dirt floor. A second courthouse was built in 1854, at a cost of $200. In the same year, post office rules changed, and the town's name became spelled as Hillsboro

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/hch15.html (accessed November 6, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 986 square miles (2,553 km²), of which, 962 square miles (2,492 km²) of it is land and 24 square miles (61 km²) of it (2.36%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Johnson County (north)
Ellis County (northeast)
Navarro County (east)
Limestone County (southeast)
McLennan County (south)
Bosque County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Abbott	city	Incorporated Area
- Aquilla	city	Incorporated Area
- Blum	town	Incorporated Area
- Bynum	town	Incorporated Area
- Carl's Corner	town	Incorporated Area
- Covington	city	Incorporated Area
- Hillsboro (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Hubbard	city	Incorporated Area
- Itasca	city	Incorporated Area
- Malone	town	Incorporated Area
- Mertens	town	Incorporated Area
- Mount Calm	city	Incorporated Area
- Penelope	town	Incorporated Area
- Whitney	town	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."