Browsing the Texas Almanac

Tumbleweed Smith of Big Spring is a newspaper columnist and producer of The Sound of Texas radio series.

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I’m a big fan of the Texas Almanac and get a copy every time a new edition comes out.  I interviewed the editor of the publication years ago and was amazed at some of the things I learned, especially about a few Texas legends.

 I was talking to a man in Henderson the other day, and we talked about Henderson being in Rusk County.  The city of Rusk is in Cherokee county, and there is a Henderson county with Athens as the county seat.  I got to wondering about similar situations in Texas.  I found a bunch.

Houston is in Harris County.  There is a Houston county with Crockett as the county seat.  Crockett County has Ozona as its county seat.  Austin is in Travis County and the city of Travis is in Falls County (county seat Marlin).  Austin County has Bellville as the county seat. 

Bowie is not in Bowie County.  It’s in Montague County.  Bowie County has New Boston as the county seat.  Cameron is not in Cameron County where the county seat is Brownsville.  Dimmitt is not in Dimmitt County where Carrizo Springs is the county seat.  Hemphill is not in Hemphill County (county seat Canadian).

The city of Jefferson is not in Jefferson County (county seat Beaumont).  Medina is not in Medina County where the county seat is Hondo.  Pecos is not in Pecos County (county seat Fort Stockton).  Tyler is not in Tyler County where the county seat is Woodville.  Taylor is not in Taylor County (county seat Abilene).  Terrell is not in Terrell County (county seat Sanderson). 

Yoakum is not in Yoakum County.  The city straddles the line between Lavaca and DeWitt Counties.  Yoakum County is on the south Plans where the county seat is Plains. 

Then there are cities in counties where both have the same name: the city of Bandera is in Bandera County.  Bastrop is in Bastrop County.  Blanco is in Blanco County.

Others like this are Brazoria, Burnet, Childress, Coleman, Comanche, Crane, Dallas, Denton, Dickens, Eastland, El Paso, Galveston, Goliad, Gonzales, Hamilton, and Haskell.

Still others are Jasper, Kaufman, Lampasas, Liberty, Lipscomb, Llano, Lubbock, Mason, Menard, Midland, Montague, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Palo Pinto, Presidio, Refugio, Rockwall, San Augustine, San Saba, Throckmorton, Trinity, Uvalde, Victoria, Washington, Wharton, Wheeler and Zapata.

I think it strange that in some of the above instances the name of the city that is the same as the county is not the county seat.  Texas is such an interesting place and has so many towns with intriguing names.  I’m amazed and amused at some of them.  Aren’t you glad you live here!