What's up with townships on the east coast, anyway?

[notfred]

Didn't like "cities" like rest of the country has, so you decided to use "township" instead? (yes, I know those townships existed before most of the rest of the country was even settled).

But Seriously, why are townships used so heavily in that one area of the country (NY, NJ, PA, etc...) and nowhere else?


edit: Ok, that was a lot of typos...

 

[FrozenYak]

can you please take a lil more time spelling that all next time?

 

[Chaotic42]

We have them in Indiana. One commissioner comes from each township group. They vote on County issues at the County meetings.

 

[Cyberian]

We still have cities towns villages, hamlets and counties. Townships are just geographic divisions smaller than counties. I think some Southern state use 'parishes' in much the same way that the Northeast uses townships.
I think it is basically a carryover from England, where many of the original settlers came from.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Cyberian
We still have cities towns villages, hamlets and counties. Townships are just geographic divisions smaller than counties. I think some Southern state use 'parishes' in much the same way that the Northeast uses townships.
I think it is basically a carryover from England, where many of the original settlers came from.

No, parishes are Louisiana's version of counties.

 

[Pepsei]

That's more of Northeast like the original 13 states...that's how it got started.

 

[dabuddha]

how bout the commonwealth of virginia? where'd that term come from?

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: Cyberian
We still have cities towns villages, hamlets and counties. Townships are just geographic divisions smaller than counties. I think some Southern state use 'parishes' in much the same way that the Northeast uses townships.
I think it is basically a carryover from England, where many of the original settlers came from.

No, parishes are Louisiana's version of counties.

Ooooops! - Sorry.

 

[Squisher]

Townships, cities, villages, etc. also have different governmental setups.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: dabuddha
how bout the commonwealth of virginia? where'd that term come from?

commonwealth was used in the first colonies from england. i think. i'm pretty sure virginia and mass. are the only states that are commonwealths.

 

[BlackOmen]

Originally posted by: PsychoAndy

Originally posted by: dabuddha
how bout the commonwealth of virginia? where'd that term come from?

commonwealth was used in the first colonies from england. i think. i'm pretty sure virginia and mass. are the only states that are commonwealths.

PA and KY are commonwealths as well. There are 4 commonwealths: PA, KY, VA, MA.

 

[KokomoGST]

In Jersey we call our towns weird things... but not too many towns are actually know by their full official name... ie the Borough of Emerson, the Village of Whatnot, Paramus whatever etc. It's fairly the same in other parts of the country too. You don't call your town by it's full name... the City of Newark is just Newark.

We only have counties in our area as subdivisions of the state mostly. I don't see too much use other than for gov't reasons... esp since so many counties have multiple area codes now and they charge you for "calling across the street" sometimes.

 

[MrDingleDangle]

we called them towns in NY, not townships...i thought that was just a jersey thing

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: MrDingleDangle
we called them towns in NY, not townships...i thought that was just a jersey thing

There are still Townships in NY State, although they are usually not referenced.
It's probably not as common for someone in NY to describe where they live as their township. I'm on LI and I almost never hear someone say that they are from a particular township.
With the exception of North Hempstead, all of the townships in Nassau/Suffolk have a town that the township is named for.

 

[bozo1]

We have townships in Minnesota. That's the name they use for small towns that are unincorporated but have a post office and need a name.