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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

Sutton County, Texas

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

County Seat: Sonora
Year Organized: 1887
Square Miles: 1,454

Court House:

300 East Oak, Suite 3
County Courthouse
Sonora, TX 76950-0000

Etymology - Origin of County Name

John Schuyler Sutton, a Texas Ranger and soldier in the Texas Revolution and Mexican-American War as well as a Confederate officer in the Civil War

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Sutton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas.Its county seat is Sonora. Sutton County is named for John S. Sutton, an officer in the Confederate Army.

Anglo-Americans began moving into the area in the early 1870s. Initially attracted by the availability of water in various places along the Devils River, ranchers were soon drawn by the rich, unoccupied pastureland of the western Edwards Plateau. So successful were the herds that grazed in Sutton County, then a part of Crockett County, that by 1878 the region was known as Cattleman's Paradise, a nickname that was soon changed to Stockman's Paradise, since both sheep and cattle ranching were important. With the tremendous growth of the cattle industry in the late 1870s and early 1880s, the available rangeland across Texas was occupied quickly and in time fenced off into ranches. This trend was reflected in Sutton County but was slowed by the lack of accessible water. In 1882 a traveler reported that the Birtrong Ranch, which depended on Wall's Well, a seep discovered by Tom Birtrong and Ed Wall in 1881, was the area's only ranch. By 1885 there were eleven, all but one located near the region's few sources of groundwater. That one exception was the ranch of A. J. Winkler, who in 1884 had drilled a well, successfully tapping the water table. Henceforth, ranching on the Edwards Plateau was closely tied to well water, its extraction made easier by the development of the wind-powered water pump and the horse-powered drill. Increasing numbers of ranchers moved to the area and, in order to protect their water supplies as well as their range grass from roaming herds, began to fence off their holdings. By 1898, scarcely ten years after the erection of the first fence, almost all of the area's 120 ranches were fenced. The discovery of a reliable water supply also stimulated settlement. The area around Winkler's Well became a small frontier town, which by 1887 had twenty families and a number of buildings, including a Masonic lodge that doubled as a schoolhouse. At about the same time Charles G. Adams, a merchant and sometime rancher from Fort McKavett, moved to the area and settled two miles north of Winkler's Well. Adams seems to have moved into the area with the intention of founding a town and perhaps profiting from land sales. Initially, his plan seemed doomed to failure, since the site, which he named Sonora, had an insufficient water supply to attract many settlers. In 1887 the Texas legislature established Sutton County, which was carved out of eastern Crockett County and named after Confederate officer John S. Sutton.^qv The establishment of Sutton County set off a new round of competition between the interests at Winkler's Well, now called Wentworth, and Sonora, over the location of the county seat. Initially Wentworth had the advantage, but in 1889 Charles Adams was successful in drilling a well on the Sonora courthouse property. With its water supply assured, Sonora proceeded to entice settlers with land grants. This program proved decisive, for by the time of the 1890 election Sonora had a large enough population to assure that it, not Wentworth, would be the county seat. By 1900 Wentworth had ceased to exist.

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/SS/hcs17.html (accessed November 9, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,454 square miles (3,767 km²), of which, 1,453 square miles (3,765 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (2 km²) of it (0.04%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Schleicher County (north)
Kimble County (east)
Edwards County (south)
Val Verde County (southwest)
Crockett County (west)

Cities and Towns:

- Sonora (County Seat)

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."