Sabine County, Texas

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

Etymology - Origin of County Name

the Sabine River, which forms its eastern border (Sabine is Spanish for cypress)

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Sabine County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. It was organized on December 14, 1837 and named for the Sabine River, which forms its eastern border. Its seat is Hemphill

With the aid of Gaines Ferry, communities began to develop in the area. In 1825 Haden Edwards^qv received a land grant to settle 800 families there, but due to his involvement in the Fredonian Rebellion,^qv he was forced to leave Texas. In 1828 the town of Milam was established in the northern part of what is now Sabine County. Lorenzo de Zavala^qv was given a settlement land grant, but because a section of his grant was in an area forbidden to foreign settlers, they did not receive title to their land until 1835. At that time a census listed the population of the Municipality of Sabine as 1,240. Shortly before the outbreak of the Texas Revolution,^qv Benjamin Holt, Jesse Parker,^qv and Absalom Hier served as delegates from the Sabine District to the Convention of 1832^qv in San Felipe de Austin. Mathew Caldwell and William Clark, Jr.,^qv served as delegates to the Convention of 1836^qv and were signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence.^qv During the Runaway Scrape^qv Texans fled to Louisiana across Gaines Ferry. Benjamin F. Bryant,^qv in response to Sam Houston's^qv call for troops, organized the volunteer Sabine Company, which served at the battle of San Jacinto^qv in 1836. After the victory at San Jacinto, the government of the Republic of Texas^qv began to organize. On December 14, 1837, Sabine County was organized and its boundaries defined. John Boyd^qv represented the county at the First and Second congresses of the Republic of Texas, and Matthew Parker^qv was appointed the first chief justice. The county boundaries have remained unchanged since its establishment; however, when the area was known as the Municipality of Sabine, it encompassed parts of present-day San Augustine, Jasper, and Newton counties. Milam was the original county seat, but as early as 1850 settlers began to petition the government for a more centrally located county seat on the grounds that Milam was more than five miles from the geographic center of the county. In August 1858 an election was held, and 160 out of 260 votes were cast in favor of relocation. However, the election was invalidated because there was not an official survey proving Milam was outside the five-mile limit. On November 11, 1858, after a survey found Milam to be six and three-quarter miles from the center of the county, another election was held, and a majority again voted for relocation. J. A. Whittelsey, Alex Harris, John H. Smith, George L. Clapp, and C. K. Blanchard, acting as the Sabine County Court, used a survey by E. P. Beddoe^qv and ordered that the county seat be located at the center of the county. The new town was named Hemphill, in honor of John Hemphill,^qv a former Texas Supreme Court justice, who at the time was serving as a United States senator

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/hcs1.html (accessed November 9, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 577 square miles (1,493 km²), of which, 490 square miles (1,270 km²) of it is land and 86 square miles (224 km²) of it (14.97%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

• Shelby County (north)
• Sabine Parish, Louisiana (east)
• Newton County (south)
• Jasper County (southwest)
• San Augustine County (west)

Cities and Towns:

County Resources:

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