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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

Waller County, Texas

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

County Seat: Hempstead
Year Organized: 1873
Square Miles: 514

Court House:

836 Austin Street, Room 316
County Courthouse
Hempstead, TX 77445-4667

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Edwin Waller, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the first mayor of Austin, Texas

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Waller County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. Its county seat is Hempstead. The county was named for Virginia native Edwin Waller, the first mayor of Austin and signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

During the Civil War^qv Confederate camps Carter, Groce, and Hebert were established near Hempstead; the town became a Confederate supply and manufacturing center, and a Confederate military hospital was established there. Camp Groce was one of two locations holding Union prisoners of war. Support was strong for the Confederacy in the area. Dr. Richard R. Peebles,^qv a prominent local citizen who helped to found Hempstead, was imprisoned and exiled by Confederate authorities for speaking and writing against the war. Union soldiers marched into Hempstead in the summer of 1865, and about 4,000 troops commanded by George Armstrong Custer^qv camped near Hempstead from August to October. An agency of the Freedmen's Bureau^qv was established at Hempstead in 1866, and in 1867 two companies of federal troops were assigned there. The emancipation of the area's slaves disrupted the local economy and led to the breakup of many of the large plantations; cotton production plunged, and as late as 1870 remained significantly below prewar levels. (The Liendo Plantation was purchased by Edmund Montgomery and his wife, sculptor Elisabet Ney,^qqv in 1873). Though according to some reports the white citizens of Hempstead established a good relationship with the occupying soldiers, the city's peace was disturbed by a race riot in 1868. The area's majority black population became active in local politics during Reconstruction,^qv and a number of blacks were elected to county and state offices. After Waller County was established in 1873, a majority of the county's voters supported the Republican candidates in every presidential election from 1872 to 1896.

More at Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. "," http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/WW/hcw2.html (accessed November 9, 2008).

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 518 square miles (1,343 km²), of which, 514 square miles (1,330 km²) of it is land and 4 square miles (13 km²) of it (0.94%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

Grimes County (north)
Montgomery County (northeast)
Harris County (east)
Fort Bend County (south)
Austin County (west)
Washington County (northwest)

Cities and Towns:

- Brookshire	city	Incorporated Area
- Hempstead (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Pattison	city	Incorporated Area
- Pine Island	town	Incorporated Area
- Prairie View	city	Incorporated Area
- Waller	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."