nd size, but in some of the Western
States they have a regular form. The average area of counties in the
United States is eight hundred and thirty square miles; the average
area of those east of the Mississippi River is only three hundred and
eighty square miles.

COUNTY SEAT.--The county government resides at the county seat, county
town, or shire town, as it is variously called. The court-house, the
jail, the public offices, and sometimes other county buildings are
located at the county seat. Here are kept the records of the courts;
also, usually copies of the deeds, wills, mortgages, and other
important papers of the people.

COUNTY GOVERNMENT.

The county, like the United States, the State, and the township, has a
republican form of government; that is, it is governed by
representatives elected by the people. In nearly all States the county
government has three departments, legislative, executive, and judicial;
but the functions of making, of executing, and of explaining the laws,
are not always kept separate and distinct. In a few States the county
does not have a judicial department.

OFFICERS.--County officers and township officers have duties similar in
kind, but the former have charge of the larger interests. The usual
officers of the county are the commissioners or supervisors, the county
attorney or prosecuting attorney, the county superintendent of schools
or school commissioner, the sheriff, the treasurer, the auditor, the
county clerk or common pleas clerk, the surveyor, the coroner, and the
county judge and surrogate, or probate judge. In the counties of many
States one or more of these officers are lacking, and others have
different names from those here given. In the Western and the Southern
States county officers are elected by the direct vote of the people; in
most of the New England States some of them are chosen in other ways.
The terms of county officers vary in different parts of the Union,
being usually two, three, or four years; but in some States certain
officers are elected for a longer term.

LEGISLATIVE DEPARTMENT: COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, OR BOARD OF
SUPERVISORS.--In most States the public interests of the county are
intrusted to a board of officers, three or five in number, called
county commissioners. In some States the board consists of one or more
supervisors from each township, and is called the board of supervisors.
In a few States the board consists of all the justice