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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

Lavaca County, Texas

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

County Seat: Hallettsville
Year Organized: 1846
Square Miles: 970

Court House:

PO Box 283
County Courthouse
Hallettsville, TX 77964-0243

Etymology - Origin of County Name

the Lavaca River; la vaca is Spanish for the cow

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Lavaca County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Its county seat is Hallettsville. The county is named for the Lavaca River.

Indian raids, particularly by the Comanches and Tonkawas, were common in the late 1830s, but several defeats forced the Indians to withdraw to the west, and after 1841 the attacks ceased. In 1842 the Republic of Texas^qv Congress established a judicial county from portions of Fayette, Colorado, Jackson, Victoria, and Gonzales counties and named it La Baca County. In 1846 the area was renamed Lavaca County, and it became a regularly constituted county with 140 taxpayers. Petersburg and Hallettsville vied to be county seat, and after two hotly contested elections Hallettsville won the contest in 1852; only by force of arms, however, were the men of Hallettsville able to liberate the county records from Petersburg.

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/LL/hcl5.html (accessed November 7, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 970 square miles (2,513 km²), of which, 969 square miles (2,512 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (1 km²) of it (0.05%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Fayette County (north)
Colorado County (northeast)
Jackson County (southeast)
Victoria County (south)
DeWitt County (southwest)
Gonzales County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Hallettsville (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Moulton	town	Incorporated Area
- Shiner	city	Incorporated Area
- Yoakum	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."