History of the Texas Counties

Before Texas had counties it had municipalities — the Spanish and Mexican units of local government centered on towns such as San Antonio de Béxar, Nacogdoches and La Bahía (Goliad). Each municipality governed a large surrounding territory through an ayuntamiento, or town council. When Texas declared independence in 1836, the new Republic converted its 23 existing municipalities into counties, and the Republic's Congress continued creating new ones as settlement spread.

After annexation to the United States in 1845, the legislature created counties at a rapid pace. Settlers wanted a courthouse within a day's ride, and new counties brought local control, land records and courts closer to home. Large original counties were repeatedly divided — Bexar County, for example, once stretched across much of West Texas, and dozens of later counties were carved from its territory. This is why so many county pages on this site list a "parent" county.

In 1876 the legislature divided the vast, still largely unsettled lands of the Panhandle and West Texas into dozens of new counties in a single act, laid out as large rectangles on the survey grid. Most existed only on paper at first; they were attached to organized counties for judicial purposes until enough residents arrived — the law required at least 150 qualified voters — to petition for organization. Organization continued county by county over the following decades as railroads, ranches and farms moved west.

By the early twentieth century the map was essentially complete. Kenedy County was created in 1921, and Loving County, first created in 1887, was finally organized in 1931 — the last Texas county to be organized. The 1876 Texas Constitution, still in effect, also set a minimum size for new counties of 900 square miles, with few exceptions, which made further subdivision difficult. Texas has kept 254 counties ever since, the most of any U.S. state.

Texas county names read like a roll call of the state's history. Many honor heroes of the Texas Revolution and the Alamo — Travis, Bowie, Crockett, Fannin and Houston among them. Others are named for signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence, Republic-era officials, Confederate figures, early empresarios such as Stephen F. Austin, and Spanish missions and rivers. A smaller number commemorate local landmarks or natural features. Each county page on this site includes its namesake.

Under the Texas Constitution, every county is governed by a commissioners court made up of a county judge, elected countywide, and four commissioners, each elected from a precinct. Despite the name, the commissioners court is primarily an administrative body that sets the budget and tax rate and oversees roads and county facilities. Other elected officials include the sheriff, county and district clerks, the tax assessor-collector, the county attorney or district attorney, constables and justices of the peace. Texas counties have limited ordinance-making power compared with cities, so much of their authority comes directly from state law.