1880Texas grew by 94% during the decade and 69 new counties were created. 54 of the new counties filled the Panhandle and South Plains with empty boxes - there were only about 2500 people counted here. 12 new counties were created in eastern Texas, these additions completed the modern map in this area except for minor boundary changes. With the growth came large-scale shifts, as only 61 of 92 districts remained intact, and 28 representatives shifted between districts.
92 districts had been apportioned 150 representatives in 1860.
Of these, 24 had insufficient population to maintain the same number of representatives (voting weight per-representative less than
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3. The number of representatives for these districts was reduced to the maximum possible. Eleven of these districts no longer had enough population for a representative. With the reduction in representatives, there were now 125 representatives apportioned.
17 districts had increased in population share such that they required additional representatives to keep their voting weight per representative below
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3. The number of representatives for these districts was increased to the minimum possible. Ten of the districts were multi-county districts which were slated for division. With the increase in representation, there were 147 representatives apportioned.
The population of the new counties and the districts that could no longer supported a representative amounted to the equivalent of 12.6 representatives, that will have to be accommodated by new or adjusted districts.
Four counties which had a voting weight of less than
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3, had no neighbors with a voting weight less than one. So while the smaller counties could not support a representative, their neighbors would ordinarily be entitled to be a single-county district. This conflict was resolved by attaching the smaller county to their smallest neighbor, and treated for apportionment and electoral purposes as a single unit, sometimes sharing more than one representative. This has come to be known as the Rockwall Rule, after Rockwall County.
The Rockwall Rule districts were:
Rockwall attached to Kaufman (2 representative)
Delta attached to Hopkins (2 representatives)
Rains attached to Wood (2 representatives)
Madison attached to Walker (2 representatives)
In the first three instances, the smaller county had been created, at least in part from the county it was attached to.
In the eastern part of the state, 12 new districts were created, eight as the result of mergers of districts that no longer could support a representative; three new districts for new counties: Gregg, Lee, and Waller; and one for Hood which was detached from Parker plus the new county of Somervell.
In dividing districts in the west, one additional district was created beyond the additional estimate.
These changes resulted in an apportionment of 161 representatives, eleven more than the target.
Six single-county districts were identified which could lose a representative, yet maintain an voting weight less than
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3 per representative. These six districts lost a representative, giving us a total of 155 representatives, five more than the 155 permitted.
Thus after mandatory or possible reductions, required increases, straightforward mergers and division, and accommodating all the new counties, there were five too many representatives. More radical change was necessary.
In the southeast and along the coast above the Coastal Bend, districts were rearranged to eliminate two representatives. These areas had lost population share, and thus the districts were a bit on the low side in population.
In the southwest, a representative was saved by converting two 2:1 splits, into a single new district formed from parts of the 1870 districts. The 1870 districts had only modestly qualified to be divided, so it was fairly easy to convert into a 3:2 split. A similar situation existed in the Hill Country.
The final representative necessary to reduce the total to 150 was in the area west of Fort Worth, where three single-member districts had been divided into 12 districts electing 14 representatives. This area was treated as it it were entirely new, with the 3 existing districts ignored. A reduction to 11 districts electing 13 representatives achieved our goal of 150 representatives.
With all these changes, there are now 100 districts, an increase of eight with a net shift of 27 representatives. 67 of the districts were single-county districts with 113 representatives. In addition there were four Rockwall Rule districts with 8 representatives.
Of the 29 multi-county single-representative districts, 13 are in West Texas, six in South Texas, three above the Coastal Bend, five in the southeast, and two in East Texas, largely due to the creation of three small counties from Titus and Upshur.
Growth was concentrated in the northwest, particular from Dallas west. Texas had a different most populous county for the 4th census in a row: 1850 Harrison; 1860 Rusk; 1870 Washington; and 1880 Grayson.
Districts with no change in composition or number of representatives are in tan. For, these 39 districts with 66 representatives, the only change was in the voting weights. To maintain population share, a county needed to grow by 94%, so these counties are not low growth or no growth areas.
Districts that lost representatives are in red. They are generally in the east, or closer to the coast. These sixteen districts lost 17 representatives, and were left with 24 representatives. Some of the losses can be attributed to creation of new counties.
Six districts in deep pink, in the southeast and northeast represent mergers of district. Five districts in ligher pink expanded in area, and thus are larger, but still have one representative.
Districts in green gained representation. They were concentrated in the Dallas Area. This did not represent development of the Metroplex, but the opening of this area to farming which would later contribute to development of trading centers. Faced with a requirement to gain faster than 94% to gain representation, there were only six gainers. They had a total of 14 representatives, an increase of six.
17 districts were new, in a lighter green, including two new single-county districts, Cooke and Wise, with two representatives each. They were concentrated in the northwest, where an area with 3 representatives in 1870 now had 13 representatives. Three were new counties in the eastern part of state, where their creation contributed to the loss of representatives to the counties they had been created from.
Six districts in light green shed part of their area. Rather than being divided, they shed part of their area to remain a single-representative district (Parker shed Hood and gained a representative).
Four districts in blue are Rockwall Rule districts, where a smaller county has been attached to a larger county that would otherwise been a single-county district. The change in representative is relative to the area at the previous census.
53 districts have a single representative. 44 districts have two representatives, and only three have three representatives. 97 of the 150 representatives are elected from multi-member districts. The multi-representative area continued to shift westward.
Outline maps and population data courtesy of:
Minnesota Population Center. National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 2.0. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota 2011.
NHGIS web site
