
Georgia: Why so many counties? - mkr-hn
http://jimcofer.com/personal/2011/05/18/georgia-why-so-many-counties/
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dghf
> Finally, the Normans invaded England in 1066, and they subdivided the land
> into counties, from which we get the title of “Count”.

Other way round: "county" comes from "count", which is an anglicisation of a
gallicisation of the Latin "comes", literally "companion" but forming part of
a number of Late Roman military titles, such as _comes brittaniarum,_
commander of the British field army in the 4th century.

~~~
abrowne
Although the shires became counties after the Norman conquest, the rulers
remained earls, probably because 'count' was too similar to a rude word.

~~~
dghf
> probably because 'count' was too similar to a rude word.

Now that's a theory I've not heard before: you could well be right.

However, the Wikipedia article on the word in question says that it's not
attested in English before 1230 (though it has cognates in Old Norse -- which
contributed a lot of vocabulary to English, via the Danelaw settlers -- and in
other early Germanic languages), and that as late as Chaucer it was not
considered obscene (though by Shakespeare's time it was).

But I suppose it wouldn't have to be obscene to cause problems: puerile humour
appears to be part of the human condition, and we can imagine the sniggering
today if a conquering foreign power tried to impose a governing class with
titles that sounded like "buttock" or "scrotum".

[Edits: improve phrasing; fix spelling & random capitals.]

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glibgil
You're talking about 'cunt', right?

~~~
abrowne
Yes, and they would have sounded more similar before the great vowel shift.

~~~
lotsofmangos
Chaucer has it written as 'queynte', so the words may have actually sounded
more different.

~~~
abrowne
The OED's earliest attestations is 'cunte' (first in 'Gropecuntelane').

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learc83
>which is also why, until recently, Georgia voters would waste time voting for
such low-ranking officials as coroners and dog catchers.

We still vote for coroners. The corner has powers similar to the sheriff (to
execute arrest warrants, serve process etc..). In some places coroners even
have the power to arrest the sheriff if needed.

~~~
67726e
We actually had a problem in Berkeley County, South Carolina at Christmas
where the sherrif engaged in a drunken hit and run and then a high speed
chase. He was charged and released for the reason that only the coroner has
the power to arrest the sherrif.

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waterlesscloud
Thanks for this. I grew up in Georgia and knew some of this, but a lot of it
was new to me.

It prompted me to read more about the Trans-Oconee Republic, and I found an
old 20 page academic publication about it on the Open Library. The OCR is
screwed up in places, so I've been making my own corrected copy the last hour
or so. Open Library doesn't seem to allow for corrected versions. Looking in
their email list archives, they just don't have the tech to support that,
which is a shame. Maybe I'll upload the corrected version to Gutenberg or
something.

[https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6659849M/Elijah_Clarke's_for...](https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6659849M/Elijah_Clarke's_foreign_intrigues_and_the_Trans-
Oconee_republic)

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viggity
Very interesting article. I'm from Iowa and I always knew we had a lot of
counties (99), but didn't realize there were states with so many more. IIRC,
the rationale for making all of our counties roughly the same size is that the
state founders wanted everyone to be within a one day horse ride to the county
seat so that it was easy to vote.

~~~
maxerickson
A lot of counties fell out of the Public Land Survey System:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System)

(it looks like many Iowa counties are roughly the size of a Quadrangle)

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davidw
Quite a contrast with someplace like this, in Oregon:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harney_County,_Oregon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harney_County,_Oregon)

Which would still qualify for the old census bureau definition of frontier,
having fewer than 2 people per square mile.

~~~
wglb
May I recommend "Miles from Nowhere"
[http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Miles-from-
Nowhere,...](http://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/product/Miles-from-
Nowhere,672233.aspx). Turns out that a county in Texas has fewer folks per
square mile.

~~~
davidw
Looks good - added to my wishlist. Offhand, it seems a bit like:
[http://www.amazon.com/Last-Empty-Places-Present-
American/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Last-Empty-Places-Present-
American/dp/0345495373/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1428217366&sr=8-4&keywords=peter+stark&tag=dedasys-20)
which is, unfortunately, also unavailable on the Kindle.

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earless1
Thanks for the read. I moved to Atlanta metro area from Miami about 9 years
ago and always wondered this. I currently drive across 5 counties on my way to
work.

~~~
dhagz
Yeah...it's fun living here in GA.

~~~
jftuga
Except with the Pollen Count is insanely high...

[http://atlantaallergy.com/pollen_counts](http://atlantaallergy.com/pollen_counts)

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watersb
Great post! I was born in Clarke county but didn't know much of this history.

(When Oglethorpe was 4 years old, a baby named Joe Waters was born in
Virginia. He eventually migrated south, with descendants in Georgia and
Alabama. Lots of people there look like me, which is really too bad. But the
overwhelming crush of people coming into the area over the past 30 years has
mixed it up quite a bit. Probably an improvement.)

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maxerickson
At the other end of the scale Connecticut and Rhode Island have discarded
counties as a unit of government. And Delaware has consolidated most former
county functions at the state level.

The pox in many states ends up being townships, which mostly duplicate
functions of the county (Especially now that we have an extensive road system
and telephones).

~~~
blahedo
New England states (incl RI, CT) are a bit of a funny example, though, because
of the way they use "towns" in a way that that I (from the midwest) associate
more with counties. Across RI, CT, and MA (and maybe the northern states too),
every bit of land is allocated to a "town", even if they are well outside the
central population concentration of that town, and indeed even if there are
multiple, differently-named, population concentrations. (These latter are
often called "villages", and may cross town boundaries and in a couple cases
even state boundaries. They don't really have any formal legal existence other
than having a name people use to refer to them.)

Anyway, so the idea that RI and CT have discarded counties as governmental
units has mostly to do with the fact that they have replaced them with
something else.

~~~
maxerickson
I lived in CT briefly. I only hinted at it with the comment about townships,
but I'm impressed that they recognized the redundancy and did something about
it.

(If I understand correctly, they moved most of the regional functions up to
the state and most of the more local stuff down to the towns, so the towns do
more than a town might in other states, but not quite the same things as a
county)

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possibilistic
Speaking of Georgia, does anyone here live in the Atlanta area? I would love
to get to know other HNers living nearby.

~~~
mkr-hn
I'm all the way out in Winder, which is technically within Metro Atlanta.
Probably too far.

~~~
possibilistic
A little bit far, but at least I can say I know of another HN user in Georgia.
:)

Send me an email if you're ever out this way, and I'll do likewise.

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selimthegrim
Thanks immensely for this as well. My great-grandmother was a white woman
adopted by a black couple in the 1920s in Screven County (along the SC line
two counties NW of Chatham). I always wondered how that county could have such
a small population.

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raldi
By what metric is Georgia "the largest state east of the Mississippi River"?
Certainly not by area or population.

~~~
tanzam75
Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi by land area.

Michigan is larger if you include part of the Great Lakes.

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erynvorn
I like this type of long read on a nice Saturday afternoon. And the comments
are quite instructive.

