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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

San Patricio County, Texas

San Patricio County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Sinton
Year Organized: 1836
Square Miles: 692

Court House:

P.O. Box 578
County Courthouse
Sinton, TX 78387-0578

Etymology - Origin of County Name

the Mexican Municipality of San Patricio

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

San Patricio County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Its county seat is Sinton

In 1828 empresarios John McMullen and James McGloin^qv contracted with the government of Mexico to settle 200 Irish Catholic families on eighty leagues of land in the area. The first groups of families, recruited from the Irish population of New York, landed at El Cópano and Matagorda in late 1829; two other groups soon followed. After a brief stopover at the old Refugio mission, the colonists proceeded to the north side of the Nueces River and established the town of San Patricio de Hibernia, named after the patron saint of Ireland. In 1834 the colony was legally established as the Municipality of San Patricio in the Mexican state of Coahuila and Texas.^qv By 1836 eighty-four land grants had been made in the colony, and about 500 people were living there. The area was engulfed in fighting during the early stages of the Texas Revolution.^qv Fort Lipantitlán, built in 1833 across the Nueces near the colony, surrendered to a company of the colony's settlers in 1835. In February 1836 a detachment of Texans commanded by Francis W. Johnson^qv encountered a Mexican force in the town of San Patricio. All but four of the Texans were killed or captured. Most of the colonists subsequently moved to Victoria and other havens. San Patricio County was established in 1836 by the Congress of the new Republic of Texas.^qv Far larger than the current county, the original San Patricio County included territory later incorporated into other counties. Its original residents were slow to move back into the area, however, for fear of the periodic Mexican incursions; a Mexican force under Gen. Ráfael Vásquez^qv raided the San Patricio area as late as 1842. The county was officially designated a "depopulated area" by the government during most of this time, though traders, soldiers, and various adventurers traveled through. By 1841 San Patricio County once again had a small number of more or less permanent residents. The area was not really stabilized, however, until Gen. Zachary Taylor^qv moved his army into the region after Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845. Taylor's army briefly camped near the site of present Rockport, and after the Mexican War^qv began, reinforcements and supplies for the American army flowed through the county. In 1845 Corpus Christi was designated the county's seat of government and remained so until 1846, when San Patricio County lost all of its territory south of the Nueces River to the newly established Nueces County. That year the town of San Patricio became San Patricio County's seat. In 1848 more new counties were formed, and the county was further reduced in size

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/hcs4.html (accessed November 9, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 707 square miles (1,831 km²), of which, 692 square miles (1,791 km²) of it is land and 15 square miles (40 km²) of it (2.18%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Bee County (north)
Refugio County (north)
Aransas County (northeast)
Nueces County (south)
Jim Wells County (southwest)
Live Oak County (northwest)
The Gulf of Mexico is situated to the east of the county.

Cities and Towns:

- Aransas Pass	city	Incorporated Area
- Gregory	city	Incorporated Area
- Ingleside	city	Incorporated Area
- Ingleside on the Bay	city	Incorporated Area
- Lake City	town	Incorporated Area
- Mathis	city	Incorporated Area
- Odem	city	Incorporated Area
- Portland	city	Incorporated Area
- San Patricio	city	Incorporated Area
- Sinton (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Taft	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."