Texas counties: How they were formed and named from start to finish

The Weatherford Democrate ^ | December 28, 2017 | Jim Dillard

[ConservativeDude]

I’d say the odds of having a county, town, spring, or creek in Texas named after you these days are slim or none.

Even with the population expected to continue to rise in the Lone Star State throughout the 21st century, most existing towns will just get bigger and bigger. Some large subdivisions and developments around big cities have taken on new names and evolved into incorporated cities. Our streams and rivers were given names long ago by explorers and early settlers who ventured across the Texas landscape.

The names they gave them served as important signpost to travelers who often measured distance and direction of travel based on their names and locations.

[ConservativeDude]

And you’re welcome here in Texas neighbor!

[ConservativeDude]

Well In the panhandle it is at least dry Which means come nightfall It is tolerable So perhaps reconsider 😁

[ConservativeDude]

Yah loving county is in the middle of nowhere!

[Howie66]

Thank you for your kind words, brother! I’ve been here since 1974 and absolutely LOVE it.

[faithhopecharity]

that’s interesting news, thanks very much!

[Dr. Sivana]

My old subdivision in rural Illinois is officially named after me. Even after we moved.

Four acres, two parcels. And yet, the name will outlive me.

[SES1066]

... we checked the weather reports for all 254 counties (yup! 254)..... and they are all 100+ degrees in summer. All of them.

But it is a dry heat ... (ducking!)

[Verginius Rufus]

1200 miles away from your ex-wife?

Unlike George Strait who hangs his hat in Tennessee because all his exes live in Texas.

[Verginius Rufus]

Loving County:

2016 election results:

Trump 58
Clinton 4

[Verginius Rufus]

There is a Jeff Davis County in Texas.

I wonder who that's named for.

I think there was a Jeff Davis who was Governor of Arkansas. Maybe that's it.

[MisterArtery]

My wife and a bunch of her relatives were raised in China Grove. A bunch still live there.

[faithhopecharity]

if we were only younger, dry heat would be tolerable even nice

[Howie66]

I was blessed to find my true love right here in Texas. 42 years ago. And she has put up with me, ever since! :-)

[RummyChick]

Do they realize there is a song after their city.

A lot of people thought it was about Asia

[RummyChick]

small town

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Coalinga California was coaling station A on the rail line. They built a town around the sign.

[foreverfree]

A couple of Boston Red Sox names on the TX county name list... Runnels (as in Pete) and Burleson (as in Rick).

[SES1066]

Where you see the rectangular counties in the Panhandle and down through the center, keeping just west of San Antonio / Bexar county, you are seeing the reminder of a very powerful Amerindian polity called Comancheria, land of the Comanches. Many experts consider the Comanches to be equal, as mounted warriors, to the Mongols as light cavalry.

For a century to the 1850s, they allowed almost no settlers in their lands and constantly fought with the Apaches and other surrounding tribes. Their raids went deep into Mexico and the Spanish/Mexican land grant of 1821 to the Austins, Moses & Stephen, was, at least partially, to gain an offset population to resist the Comanches.

The Comancheria or Comanchería (Comanche: Nʉmʉnʉʉ Sookobitʉ, 'Comanche land') is the region of New Mexico, west Texas and nearby areas occupied by the Comanche before the 1860s.

[foreverfree]

Make that at least three... Wise (as in Rick).

[Deaf Smith]

If you read my About Page, you just did.