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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

Mills County, Texas

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

County Seat: Goldthwaite
Year Organized: 1887
Square Miles: 748

Court House:

P.O. Box 483
County Courthouse
Goldthwaite, TX 76844-0483

Etymology - Origin of County Name

John T. Mills, an early judge in Texas

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Mills County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Mills County is named for John T. Mills, a justice of the Texas Supreme Court. The seat of the county is Goldthwaite

During the Civil War and for decades thereafter whites caused settlers more trouble than Indians, as cattle rustlers, horse thieves, murderers, army deserters, and other rogues infested the area. Vigilante committees were formed to deal with criminals, but then these groups degenerated into warring mobs committing criminal acts themselves. A reign of terror followed conflicts between vigilante groups, which broke out in Williams Ranch in 1869. Vigilantes drove out some bad characters, but killed other innocent men; lynchings and assassinations became commonplace. The turbulence lasted until 1897, when the Texas Rangers finally broke up a group of vigilantes who frequently gathered at Buzzard Roost. The first post office in what is now Mills County was established in Williams Ranch in 1877, and the place became a center for the area; between 1881 and 1884 250 people lived there. In 1885 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway built tracks into the region, stimulating settlement and demands for organization. In 1887 the Texas state legislature carved Mills County from lands formerly assigned to Brown, Comanche, Hamilton, and Lampasas counties. Goldthwaite became the county seat. In 1890 5,493 people lived in Mills County. By that time, the area's agricultural economy was already fairly well-established. The county had 680 farms and ranches, encompassing 142,299 acres, that year. Ranching was an important part of county life; almost 25,000 cattle and 23,000 sheep were reported. Crop farming was also well-established in the county by this time. Cotton had first been planted in the area in 1864; by 1890 7,000 acres in Mills County were planted in the fiber, 7,200 acres in corn, 3,500 acres in oats, and 2,800 acres in wheat. After 1890 cotton became increasingly important and soon supplanted cattle as the county's leading industry. Almost 22,000 acres were planted in cotton in 1900 and almost 46,000 in 1910. By that time there were 1,484 farms in Mills County, and the population had increased to 9,694.

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/MM/hcm14.html (accessed November 7, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 750 square miles (1,942 km²), of which, 748 square miles (1,938 km²) of it is land and 2 square miles (5 km²) of it (0.24%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Comanche County (north)
Hamilton County (northeast)
Lampasas County (southeast)
San Saba County (southwest)
Brown County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Goldthwaite (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Mullin	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."