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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

Lamar County, Texas

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

County Seat: Paris
Year Organized: 1840
Square Miles: 917

Court House:

119 North Main Street
County Courthouse
Paris, TX 75460-4280

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, the third president of the Republic of Texas

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Lamar County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Its county seat is Paris. The county is named for Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, the second president of the Republic of Texas.

Settlement began in the Red River valley well before the Texas Revolution.^qv The first Americans are believed to have settled there about 1815. More families arrived in 1816, and there are reports of an Indian massacre of settlers at New Settlement, on Pine Creek near the Red River, in 1820. Although George W. Wright^qv is often considered the first permanent settler in the area, his family settled downriver at Pecan Point in 1816 and did not actually move to the future Lamar County until 1839. The area of present Lamar County was within the boundaries of Red River County at the time of the Republic of Texas.^qv By 1840 population growth necessitated a new county, and legislation was introduced by representatives from Red River County. Wright, who had served in the Third Congress as a representative from Red River County, was a major promoter of the founding of Lamar County, which was established by act of the Fifth Congress of the republic on December 17, 1840, and organized by election on February 1, 1841. At the time, the county included much of what is now Delta County. In 1870 Delta County was formed, and Lamar County was reduced to its present size. The county was named for Mirabeau B. Lamar,^qv the fourth president of the Republic of Texas. The original county seat was Lafayette, a small settlement located several miles northwest of the site of present-day Paris. On June 22, 1841, forty acres of land was donated by John Watson for building a proper county seat, but though the town was platted, no lots were ever sold. The county court continued to meet at Lafayette, however, until the Texas Congress passed a law in 1842 requiring that each county seat be located within five miles of the geographic center of the county. Mount Vernon was made Lamar county seat in 1843, but again no courthouse was built. In 1844 Wright, who had purchased 1,000 acres near the settlement of Pinhook, offered to donate fifty acres to the county for a townsite if the county commissioners would make it the county seat. The offer was accepted, and the new town was named Paris. The first term of the county court was held there on April 29, 1844. Paris is still the county seat

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/LL/hcl1.html (accessed November 7, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 932 square miles (2,415 km²), of which, 917 square miles (2,375 km²) of it is land and 15 square miles (40 km²) of it (1.68%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Choctaw County, Oklahoma (north)
Red River County (east)
Delta County (south)
Fannin County (west)
Bryan County, Oklahoma (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Blossom	city	Incorporated Area
- Deport	city	Incorporated Area
- Paris (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Reno	city	Incorporated Area
- Roxton	city	Incorporated Area
- Sun Valley	city	Incorporated Area
- Toco	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."