Kaufman County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in the northeast area of the U.S. state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. As of the 2020 census, its population was 145,310. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US ...

Kaufman Kaufman or Kauffman may refer to: People *Kaufmann (surname) ''Includes Kaufman, Kauffman, Kauffmann'' Places * Kaufman, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Madison Count * Kaufman, Texas, a city in Kaufman County * Kaufman County, Texas, ...

. Both the county, established in 1848, and the city were named for

David S. Kaufman David Spangler Kaufman (December 18, 1813 – January 31, 1851) was an attorney, politician, and diplomat, serving as U.S. Representative from Texas. When the Republic of Texas was independent, he served in both houses of its legislature, and as ...

, a U.S. Representative and

diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or interna ...

from Texas. Kaufman County is part of the

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

Fort Worth Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

- Arlington

metropolitan statistical area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally incorporated as a city or tow ...

. Western artist Frank Reaugh moved from

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

to Kaufman County in 1876. There he was directly inspired for such paintings as ''The Approaching Herd'' (1902).

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (3.3%) are covered by water. Located in the northeast portion of Texas, it is bounded on the southwest by the Trinity River, and drained by the east fork of that stream.

Major highways

Interstate 20 Interstate 20 (I‑20) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the Southern United States. I-20 runs beginning at an interchange with I-10 in Scroggins Draw, Texas, and ending at an interchange with I-95 in Florence, South Carolina. Betwe ...

U.S. Highway 80 U.S. Route 80 or U.S. Highway 80 (US 80) is a major east–west United States Numbered Highway in the Southern United States, much of which was once part of the early auto trail known as the Dixie Overland Highway. As the "0" in the rou ...

* U.S. Highway 175 * State Highway 34 * State Highway 205 * State Highway 243 * State Highway 274 * Spur 557

Adjacent counties

Hunt County Hunt County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 99,956. Its county seat is Greenville. The county is named for Memucan Hunt, Jr., the first Republic of Texas Minister to the United States from ...

(north) *

Van Zandt County Van Zandt County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas, in the northeastern part of the state. As of the 2020 census, its population was 59,541. Its county seat is Canton. The county is named for Isaac Van Zandt (1813–1847), a me ...

(east) * Henderson County (south) * Ellis County (southwest) * Dallas County (west) *

Rockwall County Rockwall County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. At 149 square miles, Rockwall County has the smallest area of any Texas county. Per the 2020 Census, its population was 107,819. Its county seat is Rockwall. The county and city are name ...

(northwest)

Communities

Cities (multiple counties)

* Combine (partly in Dallas County) *

(mostly in Dallas County with small parts in Collin, Denton, Rockwall and Kaufman counties) * Heath (mostly in

) * Mesquite (mostly in Dallas County) *

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meani ...

(partly in

) * Seagoville (mostly in Dallas County) * Seven Points (mostly in Henderson County)

Cities

* Cottonwood * Crandall * Forney *

(county seat) *

Kemp Kemp may refer to: Places * Kemp, Illinois * Kemp, Ohio * Kemp, Oklahoma * Kemp, Texas * Kemp Land and Kemp Coast, Antarctica * Kemp Town, a 19th-century estate in East Sussex, England * Kemps Corner, place in India People * Kemp (surname) * Ke ...

* Terrell

Towns

* Mabank (partly in Henderson County) * Oak Grove * Oak Ridge * Post Oak Bend City * Scurry * Talty

Villages

* Grays Prairie * Rosser

Census-designated places

* Elmo *

Heartland Heartland or Heartlands may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Heartland Bank, a New Zealand-based financial institution * Heartland Inn, a chain of hotels based in Iowa, United States * Heartland Alliance, an anti-poverty organization ...

* Travis Ranch

Unincorporated communities

* Ables Springs *

Abner In the Hebrew Bible, Abner ( he, אַבְנֵר ) was the cousin of King Saul and the commander-in-chief of his army. His name also appears as "Abiner son of Ner", where the longer form Abiner means "my father is Ner". Biblical narrative ...

* Becker * Cobb * College Mound * Colquitt *

Frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

* Gastonia * Hiram * Lawrence * Lively * Lone Star * Markout * McCoy *

Ola Ola may refer to: Places Panama * Olá, a subdistrict in Coclé Province * Olá District Russia *Ola, Russia, an urban settlement in Magadan Oblast *Ola District, an administrative division in Magadan Oblast *Ola (river), a river in Magadan Ob ...

* Prairieville * Rand * Tolosa * Union Valley *

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

Wilson Wilson may refer to: People *Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson R ...

Ghost towns

* Cedar Grove * Cedarvale * Jiba * Peeltown * Stubbs *

Styx In Greek mythology, Styx (; grc, Στύξ ) is a river that forms the boundary between Earth (Gaia) and the Underworld. The rivers Acheron, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx all converge at the centre of the underworld on a great marsh, ...

Demographics

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.'' According to the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...

of 2000, 71,313 people, 24,367 households, and 19,225 families were residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...

was 91/sq mi (35/km²). Its 26,133 housing units averaged 33/sq mi (13/km²). In 2020, the population was 145,310. According to the 2000 census, the racial and ethnic makeup of the county was 81.10% White, 10.53% African American, 0.61% Native American, 0.47% Asian, 5.68% from other races, and 1.61% from two or more races. About 11.11% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. By the 2020 census, its racial and ethnic makeup was 54.11% non-Hispanic white, 14.82% African American, 0.43% Native American, 1.45% Asian American, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.30% some other race, 3.95% multiracial, and 24.89% Hispanic or Latino American of any race.

Media

Kaufman County is part of the Dallas/Fort Worth DMA. Local media outlets include KDFW-TV,

KXAS-TV KXAS-TV (channel 5) is a television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States, broadcasting NBC programming to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongs ...

, WFAA-TV, KTVT-TV, KERA-TV,

KTXA-TV KTXA (channel 21) is an independent television station in Fort Worth, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside Fort Worth–based CBS station KTVT (channel 11). Bo ...

KDFI-TV KDFI (channel 27), branded on-air as Fox 4 More or More 27, is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, broadcasting MyNetworkTV to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is owned and operated by Fox Television Stations along ...

KDAF-TV KDAF (channel 33) is a television station licensed to Dallas, Texas, United States, serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex with programming from The CW. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group (based in nearb ...

KFWD-TV KFWD, virtual channel 52 (VHF digital channel 9), is a ShopHQ- affiliated television station licensed to Fort Worth, Texas, United States and serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. The station is owned by Rye Brook, New York-based WRNN-T ...

, and KDTX-TV. Other nearby stations that provide coverage for Kaufman County come from the Tyler/ Longview/ Jacksonville market and they include KLTV, KYTX-TV, KFXK-TV, and KETK-TV. Kaufman County is served by three newspapers, the ''Terrell Tribune'', the ''Kaufman Herald'', and the ''Forney Messenger''.

Forney, Texas Forney is a city in Kaufman County, Texas, United States, and has been named by the Texas Legislature as the "Antique Capital of Texas". It is part of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its population was 14,661 at the 2010 census, up from 5,58 ...

, is also served by online news media outlet inForney.com, which covers breaking news for the county. A quarterly magazine called ''Kaufman County Life'' is produced by the ''Terrell Tribune''. The Kemp and Mabank areas are included in coverage by ''The Monitor'' and ''

Athens Daily Review The ''Athens Daily Review'' is a three-time weekly newspaper in Athens, Texas, published mornings on Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday, and distributed throughout Henderson County. It is owned by Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., which acquired the p ...

'' newspapers.

Law enforcement

The Kaufman County Sheriff's Office is Kaufman County's main police force. Smaller cities depend on the sheriff's office, along with the

Texas Highway Patrol The Texas Highway Patrol is a division of the Texas Department of Public Safety and is the largest state-level law enforcement agency in the U.S. state of Texas. The patrol's primary duties are enforcement of state traffic laws and commercial veh ...

, for law-enforcement duties.

Kaufman County murders

In December 2012, Texas officials issued a statewide bulletin warning that the Aryan Brotherhood was "actively planning retaliation against law enforcement officials" who worked to prosecute the gang's leadership. In January 2013, Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse of Kaufman County was assassinated by gunshot outside the Kaufman County courthouse. On March 30, 2013,

District Attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a ...

Mike McLelland, along with his wife, were found shot and killed in their home. On April 13, 2013, ex-

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or '' puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the s ...

Eric Williams was arrested for making terrorist threats to county officials by email. Hasse and McLelland had aggressively prosecuted Williams in a theft case. Williams was convicted, and lost his position and his law license as a result. On April 17, 2013, his wife Kim Williams was arrested on

capital murder Capital murder was a statutory offence of aggravated murder in Great Britain, and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, which was later adopted as a legal provision to define certain forms of aggravated murder in the United States. In so ...

charges in all three deaths. Officials did not link these arrests or events to the Aryan Brotherhood. Eric Williams was convicted at trial and sentenced to death on December 16, 2014. Kim Williams pleaded guilty on December 30, 2014, and received a 40-year sentence.

Politics

Prior to 1952, Kaufman County was a Democratic Party stronghold in presidential elections. From 1952 to 1980, it was still primarily Democratic, though the party's margin of victories were far lower than before. Republican

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

won the county handily in 1972 as part of his national landslide. Starting with the 1984 election, it has become a Republican stronghold, though neither of

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

's two Republican opponents managed a majority despite winning the county due to

Ross Perot Henry Ross Perot (; June 27, 1930 – July 9, 2019) was an American business magnate, billionaire, politician and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive officer of Electronic Data Systems and Perot Systems. He ran an indepe ...

's strong third-party candidacy.

Education

School districts in the county include: * Crandall Independent School District *

Forney Independent School District The Forney Independent School District is a school district based in Forney, Texas, United States. The district serves the city of Forney, the city of Talty, the small Kaufman County portion of Mesquite (no residents), and other unincorporated ...

* Kaufman Independent School District * Kemp Independent School District *

Mabank Independent School District Introduction to Mabank ISD Mabank Independent School District is a public school district based in Mabank, Texas ( USA). In addition to Mabank, the district serves southeast Kaufman, southwest Van Zandt, and northwest Henderson counties, ...

* Quinlan Independent School District * Rockwall Independent School District * Scurry-Rosser Independent School District *

Terrell Independent School District Terrell Independent School District is a public school district based in Terrell, Texas, United States. In 2009, the school district was rated "academically acceptable" by the Texas Education Agency. School uniforms All TISD students are requir ...

* Wills Point Independent School District It is in the service area for Trinity Valley Community College.Texas Education Code, Sec. 130.205. TRINITY VALLEY COMMUNITY COLLEGE DISTRICT SERVICE AREA.
/ref>

References

External links

Kaufman County government's website

Kaufman County
at the ''

Handbook of Texas The ''Handbook of Texas'' is a comprehensive encyclopedia of Texas geography, history, and historical persons published by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). History The original ''Handbook'' was the brainchild of TSHA President W ...

Online'' {{authority control Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex 1848 establishments in Texas Populated places established in 1848