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Cities in CitiesDatabank™,
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U.S. Cities in the News:
Hurricane Katrina Devastates New Orleans & Mississippi Cities Hurricane Charley Hits Florida Cities CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE: Introduction - Why City Birth Charts? Accurate Dates from Original Sources Why Not Use A "Founding" or "Establishment" Date for a City's Birth? When is a Municipality Born? Why Use the Earliest Incorporation Date? Time of Day of Incorporations When Are Incorporations Effective? Other Self-Governing Dates U.S. Census Bureau Definitions Independent, Consolidated and Merged Cities Town Companies and Proprietorships Townships Dates Prior to the Calendar Change Incorporation History in Each State What's in the City Birth Charts Rodden Mundane Ratings Charts of Significant Events Acknowledgments
The outstanding application of CitiesDatabank™ is in locational
or relocation astrology. By comparing a city birth chart with
the chart of yourself, your clients or your friends, a detailed and
specific locational astrology analysis is possible. Although
tools like astrolocation maps (Astro*Carto*Graphy™ maps being an
example), relocation charts, local space charts or other locational
astrology tools are very useful in relocation work, a number of
cities can fall on the same astrolocation or local space line and
a number of cities can yield virtually the same relocation chart.
The following are considerations in comparing a person's birth
chart with the birth chart of a municipality and can be applied to
anyone for relocation or travel purposes.
The CitiesDatabank™ collection of U.S. city birth charts began
in 1992 for two major reasons: (1) Gary realized that a source
of city dates he had been using in his locational astrology work
with clients contained some errors and (2) he had a number of
requests from clients for comparisons with the birth charts of
cities that were not in that source. As a result, he began his
own collection and, because he lived in Tallahassee, Florida at that
time, the State Library of Florida was an ideal location for
conducting research on the birth dates of Florida cities.
Although the CitiesDatabank™ collection of U.S. city
birth charts is not
all encompassing, it is unprecedented in its scope. Using
U.S. Census Bureau population estimates (as of July 1999) and the
Census Bureau's criteria for incorporated places, there were
approximately 2,640 incorporated municipalities with a population
of at least 10,000 in this country at that time. The current
version of CitiesDatabank™ (2007) contains 1,580 municipalities
and New England towns with a population of at least 10,000 so it
is substantially larger than other collections of its kind.
Future versions will contain birth dates for additional
municipalities because research is ongoing. Each city birth
chart in the collection has a
Rodden rating for mundane
data, developed by Lois Rodden and Gary Brand. A wonderful
feature of this collection of city birth dates is that it is
already in astrological chart format, ready to be accessed by your
astrology software program! No need to laboriously create
birth charts for each city in your software program!
Unlike other collections, it contains birth charts for many of the suburbs and bedroom communities surrounding the country's largest cities. As most of the older, large cities with populations numbering over 100,000 located east of the Mississippi River have declined since 1990, the trend in population growth is often in the suburbs of these cities and smaller, outlying municipalities. Exceptions to this pattern include most cities with a population over 100,000 in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Illinois (and a few large cities in the other eastern states) whose populations are increasing. With a few exceptions, cities with over 100,000 people that are located west of the Mississippi River are growing. The complexity and scope of this collection lend themselves to the possibility of errors. However, every effort has been made to ensure as much accuracy as possible. Any errors that are accompanied by legal source citations will be corrected or added in future releases. For city birth dates, a source citation is the legal citation of a law, court order, county commission order, or city charter or the standard library citation for an original published source, or a legally designated source or repository. A "city library," "museum," or "chamber of commerce" is not a source because they are merely quoting some source. Published sources of city birth dates, such as books, newspapers or magazine articles about a city that do not cite their sources, are secondary sources, not original sources. When original sources are not cited in a secondary source, the reader has no means of evaluating the accuracy or validity of the dates it contains. One potential type of error in the collection is the case of a municipal incorporation law passed by the legislature that was subject to approval by voters in a special election but that was not approved. The only means of determining whether such laws were ultimately approved by the electorate is by researching the history of each municipality or by obtaining this information from a reliable reference. Because of the size and complexity of this body of city birth charts, it is also possible that the birth date for some municipalities is not the earliest date of self-government. Gary invites the user to contribute to the accuracy of this collection by contacting him with the legal source citation for any self-governing (birth) date found that precedes the date used for a municipality.
Great effort has been expended to obtain city birth dates from
original or legal sources and over 98% of the birth dates in the
collection are from such sources but all city birth dates contained
therein are accompanied by legal or standard library citations or
they are from a legally authoritative source (i.e. a city clerk,
a court clerk, a state repository, or the U.S. Census Bureau).
The primary sources of city birth dates in the collection
are the laws of each state, beginning with the inception of each
state as a territory or colony. In many states, legislative
sessions began in November or December and continued into the
first few months of the following year. Therefore, laws
approved early in the following year of such sessions have citations
beginning with the previous year. An example is Los Angeles,
California which was incorporated April 4, 1850, but the
legislative session began in December 1849, so the citation for
this city's incorporation is: 1849 California Laws, Chapter 60.
Source document research is important because the date that a city was established by the legislature (when commissioners were appointed to lay out the town) or some other founding date is sometimes mistaken for the earliest incorporation or self-governing (birth) date. An example is a date obtained from a library in a city with a population over 50,000 in North Carolina (not a small town library). A book consulted by a reference librarian in this library claimed that the earliest incorporation (birth date) of that city was in 1741. When the colonial legislation was researched, however, the records revealed that an act for laying out the town was approved that year but the town did not exist at that time. Therefore, an event relating to the founding of that city did occur in 1741 but it was not incorporated then as claimed by the reference consulted. Another example is the date that Charlottesville, Virginia was established by law in 1762. This law appointed commissioners to survey the town and sell lots, nothing more, and the town did not exist at that time. Yet, John Moore described this law as an "act of incorporation" and anyone consulting this source could be mislead by it (John Hammond Moore, Albemarle, Jefferson's County, 1727-1976 p. 29 (1976)). Although the year on the city seal is 1762, Charlottesville was not incorporated or self-governing (and therefore born) until January 19, 1801 (1800 Virginia Acts, Chapter 46).
For the purposes of this commentary, an appropriate definition of
the word "community" is from the current Arizona statutes:
"a locality in which a body of people resides in more or less
proximity having common interests in such services as public
health, public protection, fire protection and water which bind
together the people of the area, and where the people are
acquainted and mingle in business, social, educational and
recreational activities" (Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. Section 9-101,
p. 4 (West 2001)). What marks the beginning of a community?
Texts that chronicle municipal histories often use the term
"founding date" as an early or initial date in the European
settlement of the area now occupied by a municipality.
Webster's New World Dictionary defines the verb "to found"
as "to begin to build or organize; ...establish; set up (to found
a college)" (Webster's New World Dictionary p. 551, Simon and
Schuster (1980)).
Unfortunately, there is no agreement on the actual application of the term "founding date" by historians, librarians, or even city governments recounting their history. Some authors claim it is the date that the first settlers arrived at the site but in some cases the day of the month or even the year is uncertain. Other historians claim that it is the date that the deed for the land was granted or when the land for the town site was sold. Other significant dates often included in historical accounts are the date the town site was surveyed and the date of the first sale of lots. The date the town plat was filed at the county seat could likewise be considered an official founding date. The beginning of construction or the completion of the first house or building, often the courthouse if the municipality is or was a county seat, is another historically significant pair of dates. However, such dates, especially the day of the month, are often lost to antiquity. Early in their histories, the legislature of a number of states and territories east of the Mississippi River (e.g. Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, the Mississippi Territory, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin) established towns by individual laws (like Charlottesville, Virginia in the above example). In some of these states (e.g. Illinois and Wisconsin), such legislation merely named the town as the county seat. In other states (e.g. Georgia, Maryland and Virginia), these laws appointed and empowered trustees to provide for the survey and laying out of lots and streets and to sell the lots. Chester Bain points out that such laws did not bestow "... any of the governmental powers usually vested in a governing body of a municipality" (Chester Bain, A Body Incorporate p. 10 (1967)). Bain further notes, "while these areas were referred to as 'towns' and were created by the General Assembly, they were not, as such, governmental units" (Id.). They were "towns" in name only because they were not in any way legally or functionally similar to a municipality, and they contained very few, if any, dwellings at the time they were established. What all of the above events have in common is that they occurred prior to the presence of a community. Though they represent historical milestones in the earliest development of a community, they do not qualify as the beginning or birth of a functioning, thriving, self-governing community or municipality. By analogy, a "founding date" corresponds to the fertilization of a human ovum or to the beginning of pregnancy rather than to the birth of a child or, in this instance, a municipality. For these reasons, CitiesDatabank™ contains very few of the "founding dates" described above.
Webster's New World Dictionary defines a municipality as "a city,
town, etc. having its own incorporated government [italics
added] for local affairs" and the definition of municipal is
"having self-government locally" (Webster's New World Dictionary
p. 936, Simon and Schuster (1980)). It stands to reason that
a municipality is born when it becomes a functioning community that
is sanctioned by the state to govern itself instead of being
governed by a larger political unit, usually the surrounding county
or township. The word corporate is derived from the
Latin verb corporare, meaning "to make into a body" (Id. at
p. 318). This definition explains why most municipal
incorporation legislation designates the residents or the governing
officials as "a body corporate and politic." The concept of
a community of people being consolidated into a single "body
corporate" is analogous to all the cells of a human embryo growing
together until they reach a level of maturation to survive on their
own at birth. The definition of corporation applicable to
municipalities is, "a group of people, as the mayor and aldermen of
an incorporated town [italics added], legally authorized
to act as an individual" (Id.). Incorporation is usually,
though not always (see
"Self-Governing Dates other
than Incorporation" below), the best definition of
self-governance because it represents legal, territorial and
regulatory independence and separate identity.
American Jurisprudence defines municipal corporation:
It is only when the community is granted the privilege of self-government from the state, and is created as a separate entity with power to act as such, and to hold property as its own, to levy taxes and expend them, and to select its own officers, and is not merely a geographical name, a territorial subdivision of the state, and the sphere of the authority of a particular public officer, that it is entitled to be called a 'municipal corporation.' The power of local government is said to be the distinctive purpose and the distinguishing feature of municipal corporations proper (56 Am. Jur., 2d, Municipal Corporations, Sect. 8 (2000)).In this country, self-governing communities are titled or "styled" villages, boroughs, towns, townships, and cities. Webster's New World Dictionary defines a village as "a group of houses in the country, larger than a hamlet and smaller than a city or town; such a community incorporated as a municipality" (Webster's New World Dictionary p. 1584, Simon and Schuster (1980)). The definition of a town is "a more or less concentrated group of houses and private and public buildings, larger than a village but smaller than a city; in parts of the U.S., same as TOWNSHIP - in New England and some other States, a unit of local government having its sovereignty vested in a town meeting; in England, a village that holds a market periodically" (Id. at p. 1504). The definition of borough is "in certain States of the U.S., a self-governing, incorporated town; in England, a town with a municipal corporation and rights to self-government granted by royal charter" (Id. at p. 164). Use of the style of "borough" is limited to some of the oldest eastern states (e.g. Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) and was the style used for the earliest incorporations of a few of the oldest municipalities in states (e.g. Ohio and Wisconsin) of the Northwest Territory, established in 1787. Webster's New World Dictionary defines a city as "a center of population larger or more important than a town or village; in the U.S., an incorporated municipality [italics added] whose boundaries and powers of self-government are defined by a charter from the State in which it is located" (Id. at p. 260). American Jurisprudence states that "the term - city - ordinarily indicates a municipal corporation of the largest and highest class... having broad powers of local self-government under a charter.... A city is unquestionably a municipal corporation, and is the most highly developed type of corporation created for municipal purposes, because it is a miniature government, having legislative, executive, and judicial powers" (56 Am. Jur., 2d, Municipal Corporations, Sect. 3 (2000)). In distinguishing between county and city governments, the courts have ruled that "A city is a voluntary organization, whereas a county is merely an arm of state government" (Transamerica Title Co. v. Cochise County, 26 Ariz. App. at 327, 548 P.2d at 420). This same principle could be equally applied to other municipal corporations. Cities are grouped by the 50 states in three basic categories: special law cities, general law cities, and charter cities. Special law cities received their incorporation charter by an individual law passed by the legislature and most of the incorporation dates (city birth dates) in this collection fall in this category. The powers of general law cities are enumerated and specified by general incorporation laws or state statutes. Charter cities, called "home rule" cities in some states, are formed by citizens adopting a charter which establishes the basic law of the city. Of the three classifications, charter cities have the greatest autonomy. What all of the above definitions have in common is that they are based upon incorporation or self-government, which distinguishes them from communities that are unincorporated or that have no local form of government. Although many municipalities take pride in their early roots and equate their beginnings with a founding date, it was usually their incorporation that literally put them on the map. Few unincorporated communities are widely recognized and few are included on standard maps (some New England townships that are referred to as towns are an exception). It stands to reason that, if our legal system defines incorporation as the beginning of a city, that we astrologers should use the initial incorporation of a city as its birth date. In most states, individual laws incorporating municipalities were lengthy since they contained detailed governing specifications. Incorporation legislation is fairly uniform from state to state in its basic content and meets specific legal definitions. One reason for this general uniformity is that, as the country grew westward, the newer territories and states borrowed incorporation legislation from the older adjacent territories or states. Incorporation laws almost universally specify:
Most municipalities have been incorporated several times since their
inception (birth) as municipal governments. When incorporations
were enacted by the legislature, those subsequent to the earliest
often do not refer to any previous law nor do they state that they
are actually a reincorporation. Although subsequent
incorporations in some states refer to the initial charter, in most
states the only way to determine whether a particular incorporation
is the earliest is by examining the laws of each legislative session
of each territory, colony and state, a very time-consuming, but
worthwhile and ongoing process. Incorporation dates subsequent
to the earliest are provided in the collection only when the style
changed (i.e. from a village, town or borough to a city) or when an
incorporation was by a different political unit (i.e. colonial or
territorial vs. state) or when the political nature changed (i.e.
when a city and county were consolidated). All of the cities
in a few states (e.g. Nevada and Wyoming) and some cities in many
states were never incorporated as villages, towns or boroughs so
their earliest incorporation was as a city. Use of the term
"earliest incorporation" date is often deduced from the wording
in the law. For example, incorporation laws in Florida often
use the term "creation" and these laws sometimes specifically state
that the incorporation is of a new municipality.
The earliest incorporation as a village, borough, town, or city is usually the most significant because it established the beginning of self-government and political autonomy. When an incorporation is not the earliest, it is still of some historical significance because it further defined or enlarged the powers of the municipality to govern itself. Incorporations under colonial law were often limited by the terms of the royal charter of the colony or, in some cases (e.g. the earliest charters of New York city), they did not grant elections, though they did allow some measure of self-rule. Some cities were initially chartered by the British or Dutch crowns, by the royal governor of the colony, or by the colonial legislature. Such charter dates are included but later incorporations by state legislatures are also provided because some colonial charters granted only limited self-government. For cities that were self-governing prior to the American Revolution, the earliest incorporation or charter may not be the only appropriate initial date of self-determination for a city. Some cities were self-governing long before they were incorporated. An example is Boston, which has been self-governing since 1630 but was not incorporated until 1822, almost two centuries later! However, this is a rare exception to the rule. The earliest incorporations of many municipalities in states west of the Mississippi River were by a territorial legislature. In some instances, the earliest incorporation was granted by a territory that preceded the territory with the same name as the state. For example, Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming were initially incorporated by the Territory of Dakota, which included present-day Wyoming and preceded the Territory of Wyoming. Other such instances are included in the commentaries for each state and in the citations for pertinent municipal incorporation dates. There are several examples of incorporations by blanket legal fiat. In some instances (e.g. Florida and Oklahoma), laws were passed that declared all municipalities previously incorporated under general laws to be legally incorporated; these laws were passed because some incorporations were in question or were "irregular" in nature. Similarly, in Massachusetts a law passed late in the 18th century incorporated all towns in existence at the time.
Astrologers place much emphasis on time of birth for individuals and
this is as it should be. The more accurate the time is, the more accurate
the interpretation of the chart. For mundane astrologers, a timed chart
for a city is important. Most municipal incorporations became legally
effective when they were signed by the governor and, though no record
was made of the time of day that this occurred, we can surmise that it
was during the workday. Since only 4.2% of the charts in the collection
are for timed events or are for a legally effective time (00:00 am), the
vast majority of charts in the collection are calculated for 12:00 pm (noon)
because this time is most likely within six hours of the actual time that the
law took effect (usually when it was signed by the governor). The use
of noon for these charts is a convenient convention for municipal charts
with an unknown time since the Sun is usually near the Mid-heaven, an
appropriate symbol of government. The lack of a time of day does not
make the collection less useful, especially if the user is comparing
the charts of cities with the chart of a person. Much can be gleaned
from such comparisons and, since most people do not have an impact on
the city in which they reside, the houses of the city's chart are less
significant than or even irrelevant to the person's chart unless the person
has a key role in shaping the destiny, development, or government of the
city. Where the planets in a city's chart fall in the houses of the chart
of a person living in, working in or visiting the city is of much greater
significance for the person.
Most laws that incorporated municipalities individually or in groups were
legally effective and in force from and after their passage or approval
by the Governor. In a few instances, such laws became legally effective
without the signature of the Governor when they were filed in the office
of the Secretary of State or the effective date is set forth after the
text of the law. Other legal effective dates of incorporation laws fall
into several categories: the date of a court order, the date of an order
by the county board of supervisors or commissioners, the date of filing
in the office of the Secretary of State or county recorder, the date
the law was published in one or two local newspapers, the date the
incorporation was approved by a majority vote in a referendum, the date
of election of the first municipal officials, or the date of the first
meeting of elected officials.
In Iowa and Indiana, the individual laws incorporating some towns were legally effective when published in one or two local newspapers. An example is the law incorporating Des Moines, Iowa as a city. It was approved by the legislature on January 28, 1857 but the last section of this law states, "This act shall take effect from and after its publication in the Iowa Citizen and Iowa City Republican...." After the approval date is the statement, "I certify that the foregoing act was published in the Iowa City Republican February 12, 1857, and Iowa Citizen February 16, 1857," followed by the Secretary of State's name (1856 Iowa Acts, Chapter 185, pp. 281-296). Another example is the law incorporating Fort Wayne, Indiana as a city that was approved on February 22, 1840 and was effective on publication in the Fort Wayne Sentinel (1839 Indiana Laws, Chapter 5, pp. 16-31). Unfortunately, the Fort Wayne library is unable to ascertain the date of publication so the approval date of the incorporation law is used as a proxy birth date for this city.
It is a judgment call regarding which date to use as a birth date for
some cities when the choice is between a self-governing date and a later
incorporation date but the general rule used by the compiler is the
earliest date of self-determination or self-government. In Kentucky,
the legislature passed laws to establish towns on an individual basis
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Under these laws, town trustees
were given the power and authority to make such rules and regulations
for the government of the town as was deemed necessary. Therefore, towns
so established were self-governing from their inception and the date
they were established by law is given as the earliest date of self-government
for such towns in this state. Laws incorporating these towns in later
years are included in the collection as well.
Early in the history of North Carolina, self-governing laws were passed for some towns that appointed resident commissioners to regulate them. In the late 1700s, the Maryland Legislature enacted self-governing laws that authorized elections and empowering trustees to make bylaws and regulations for some towns (e.g. Cambridge, Easton and Havre de Grace). Also late in the 18th century, the Tennessee legislature passed similar laws for some towns (e.g. Clarksville, Greeneville and Knoxville). Because such laws granted self-government, they were tantamount to incorporation laws and are, therefore, included in the collection as the earliest date of self-government, but the laws incorporating these towns enacted in later years are also included. For a few towns (e.g. Belleville and Edwardsville, Illinois), the incorporation of a college is the de facto earliest incorporation of the town because the college trustees were also designated trustees for the town.
The U.S. Census Bureau is a Congressionally mandated repository for incorporation
dates that are used for Congressional redistricting and allocation of
tax revenues based on population estimates or census enumerations of
incorporated places. However, the Census Bureau only maintains a list
of municipalities in each state that were initially incorporated or
that changed style and status (i.e. from an incorporated town to a city)
since the last census.
The Census Bureau defines "incorporated places" as cities, boroughs, towns and villages incorporated under the laws of their state except the towns in the New England states, New York and Wisconsin and the boroughs of Alaska and New York, which the Census Bureau classify as Minor Civil Divisions (see "Townships"). The Census Bureau defines Minor Civil Division (MCD) as a "type of governmental unit that is the primary legal subdivision of a county in 28 states and created to govern or administer an area rather than a specific population. The several types of MCDs are identified by a variety of terms, such as town, township, and district, and include both functioning and non-functioning governmental units" (U.S. Census Bureau Glossary of Terms at http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro-city/subcodoc.txt, visited April 9, 2001). The Census Bureau defines a "Central City" as "one or more of the largest population and employment centers of a metropolitan area" (Id.). Almost all central cities are incorporated; exceptions are Honolulu, Hawaii; Arlington, Virginia; Yarmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts; and Dover, New Jersey (Id.). These exceptions are termed Census Designated Places (CDPs) and are defined by the Census Bureau as "densely settled concentrations of population that are identifiable by name, but are not legally incorporated places" (Id.). They "have no legal status, nor do these places have officials elected to serve traditional municipal functions" (Id.). Hawaii is the only state with no incorporated places recognized by the Census Bureau so all places in this state are CDPs. Census Bureau population enumerations for the April 1, 2000 census are given for each city in the collection.
All but a few cities are part of a county, both geographically and politically,
and the county has jurisdiction over some issues and provides services
that affect the municipalities it contains. Virginia cities are exceptions
because they are completely independent of any surrounding county. Baltimore,
Philadelphia, St. Louis, and San Francisco are other exceptions because
they were long ago separated from or consolidated with the surrounding
county of the same name. The U.S. Census Bureau applies the designation
"independent city" to the above cities.
Other, more recent examples of city and county consolidations include Jacksonville, Florida; Athens, Georgia; and Nashville, Tennessee. In some cases (e.g. Hampton and Virginia Beach, Virginia), new cities were formed by the merger of one or more towns or cities with the surrounding county. There are also examples of adjacent towns being consolidated: Denver, Minneapolis, the five boroughs of New York City, Scranton, and Winston-Salem. Mergers (e.g. Denver, Minneapolis, Scranton, and Winston-Salem) are not termed "consolidated cities" by the U.S. Census Bureau. This designation is only applied to cities that are consolidated with the surrounding county (except that Baltimore, Philadelphia, and San Francisco are labeled "independent cities" by the Census Bureau as noted above). The Census Bureau defines a "consolidated city" as: ...a unit of local government for which the functions of an incorporated place and its county or minor civil division (MCD) have merged. The legal aspects of this action may result in both the primary incorporated place and the county or MCD continuing to exist as legal entities, even though the county or MCD performs few or no governmental functions and has few or no elected officials. Where this occurs, and where one or more other incorporated places in the county or MCD continue to function as separate governments, even though they have been included in the consolidated government, the primary incorporated place is referred to as a 'consolidated city.' (U.S. Census Bureau Glossary of Terms at http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro-city/subcodoc.txt, visited April 9, 2001).Dates of such mergers and consolidations are important milestones in the self-governing history of such cities because they represent significant, fundamental changes in local government and administration and they change the character of the political unit enough to warrant including them as separate charts in the collection. Therefore, Athens (Georgia), Jacksonville (Florida), New York City, some Virginia cities and a few other cities have two separate records in CitiesDatabank™. One chart is calculated for the date these municipalities were first incorporated as a town or borough and this chart has the label "(town)" or "(borough)" following the name. The other chart uses the date these cities were consolidated with the surrounding county and this chart has the label "(merger)" or "(consol)" after the name. Annexations are not included unless they are significant for some other reason.
Incorporation of "Town Companies" and "City Companies"
is a phenomenon that occurred in some states (e.g. Alabama, Colorado, Kansas,
Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas). Town or City Companies (this style
followed the name of the town or city) were incorporated bodies with the same
basic powers as town governments but the company's stockholders were
the electorate and owners of municipal property, including town lots
and streets. The directors of these companies were typically appointed,
in perpetuity, by the law that incorporated the company that did not
authorize elections. Town/city companies were often publicly owned but
some towns (e.g. Henderson, Kentucky) were originally established by
a private company.
Many towns and villages in this country were initially owned by one or several proprietors. The proprietor(s) typically had a piece of their land surveyed and recorded the plat in the office of the county recorder. They then had the town laid off into lots and streets according to the plat and sold the lots. Often, the land for a town/village was deeded or donated by the proprietor. In the case of some mining towns, the mining company retained ownership of all the real estate in the town.
Webster's New World Dictionary defines a township as "orig., in England,
a parish or division of a parish, as a unit of territory and administration;
in parts of the U.S., a division of a county, constituting a unit of
local government with administrative control of local schools, roads,
etc." (Webster's New World Dictionary p. 1504, Simon and Schuster
(1980)). Under the definition for town, the dictionary says, "in
parts of the U.S., same as TOWNSHIP; in New England and some other states,
a unit of local government having its sovereignty vested in a town meeting"
(Id.). The traditional distinction between a town and a city in the
New England states is that a town is "governed directly by qualified
inhabitants" whereas a city is "governed indirectly by inhabitants
through representatives" (Del Duca v. Town Administrator of Methuen
(1975) 329 N.E. 2d 748, 368 Mass. 1). In some states (e.g. New Jersey),
townships with the same name as the village (or city) they contain were
incorporated before the village. In such instances, the date of incorporation
of the township is included in the collection. In other states, townships
are not formally organized governing bodies but were and are merely
geographic subdivisions of counties.
The U.S. Census Bureau classifies townships (including towns in the New England states, New York, and Wisconsin) as "minor civil divisions" (MCDs) and not as "incorporated places," even when they are incorporated. The Census Bureau defines a township as "a type of governmental unit that is the primary legal subdivision of a county in 28 states [including the New England states] and created to govern or administer an area [italics added] rather than a specific population" (U.S. Census Bureau Glossary of Terms at http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/metro-city/subcodoc.txt, visited April 9, 2001). The implied difference in this definition between government of an area versus a specific population is that an area may contain a dispersed population whereas the term "specific population" implies a concentration of dwellings. In these states, townships are civil subdivisions of counties that are formed to aid in the administration of local government. As noted earlier, the courts have ruled that "A city is a voluntary organization, whereas a county is merely an arm of state government" (Transamerica Title Co. v. Cochise County, 26 Ariz. App. at 327, 548 P.2d at 420). As subdivisions of counties, townships were usually formed involuntarily by state legislatures, although they were sometimes created in response to a petition from local residents. American Jurisprudence states that, While towns and townships are sometimes referred to or treated for certain purposes as municipal corporations, they may be so regarded only in a very broad or general sense, in the absence of statutes constituting them true municipal corporations. As ordinarily constituted, they are to be distinguished from municipal corporations in the strict or technical meaning of the term. Also, while the character, status, or powers of a municipality may be conferred upon a town or township by appropriate legislation, not every delegation of corporate power to a town or township will constitute it a municipal corporation. Counties, townships, towns, and some other political subdivisions of the state are not strictly municipal corporations but are public quasi-corporations, sometimes defined as involuntary political or civil subdivisions of the state, created by general laws to aid in the administration of government (56 Am. Jur., 2d, Municipal Corporations, Sects. 5 and 10 (2000)).In some states (e.g. Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio) townships are incorporated. In the New England states, New York and Wisconsin, townships are called towns though they often contained small communities and rural land at the time they were created. In these and a few other states, such townships or towns are governed directly by electors attending annual town meetings at which a board of town supervisors is elected. Towns in the New England states generally have broad, self-governing powers whereas towns in Minnesota, New York, and Wisconsin have limited powers. In some states, townships contain all or part of a municipality with the same name or they are coextensive with the municipality (i.e. they have the same area).
On September 14, 1752, England and its American colonies changed from the
Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar by adding 11 days to the date
under the old calendar. Citations for dates in this collection that
are prior to the conversion date are given as both Julian or Old Style
(O.S.) and Gregorian or New Style (N.S.) when a cited source specifies
that the dates they contain are Old Style. In addition, the first day
of the calendar year was changed from March 25 to the first of January.
Historians sensitive to this issue note Old Style dates from January
1 through March 24 with a double year (i.e. February 5, 1739/40) or
they specify any date prior to September 14, 1752 as Old Style. Reprinted
or reproduced documents containing dates prior to the calendar change
are, of course, Old Style. Some authors do not address the calendar
change issue so the dates they contain are without reference to Old
Style or New Style. Every effort is made in this collection to designate
in citations whether dates prior to the calendar change are Old Style
or New Style. All charts for dates prior to the calendar change are
calculated for the New Style or Gregorian calendar date.
There is a commentary for each state and the District of Columbia that you
will receive with the database of cities. These state commentaries describe
variations in legislative practice and procedure for municipal incorporations
and they include a related brief history. These summaries are not exhaustive
studies in each state and are only intended to outline the development
of municipal incorporation procedure over time. They also describe variations
between the self-governing histories of the cities in each state. At
some point in their history, most states delegated the authority to
incorporate municipalities, through the passage of general incorporation
laws, to county commissioners (or board of supervisors), circuit courts,
county courts, or the Governor. The approval dates and procedures contained
in general incorporation laws are provided in these introductions. If
the state allows municipalities to adopt their own charter, the legal
authority is given. The following information pertinent to each state
is included in these state commentaries, as applicable:
Name. A hyphenated name means that the municipality is consolidated with the
surrounding county (e.g. Nashville-Davidson, Tennessee) or that the
name resulted from a merger of two municipalities (e.g. Winston-Salem,
North Carolina). The name is followed by the two-letter U.S. Postal
Service abbreviation for the state (an exception is Oregon cities where
the three letter abbreviation of ORE is used). Win*Star allows
you to short the names in reversed format, which orders the charts
by the two letter state abbreviation and then alphabetically within
each state.
Birth date. Generally, this is the earliest incorporation, charter or self-governing date. See "When a Municipality is Born". All dates are in the New Style or Gregorian calendar format (see "Dates Prior to the Calendar Change"). Birth time. Usually noon (12:00 PM), a convention used when the time is unknown. A time of 00:00 AM is the beginning of a legal effective date specified in an incorporation law. Times other than noon or 00:00 AM are specific times stated in the law. See "Time of Day of Incorporations." CHART COMMENTS, BIOGRAPHY OR NOTES SECTION At the present time, CitiesDatabank is available as a Solar Fire or Win*Star astrology software file ready to be used by your program. Solar Fire charts include date citations, other significant dates, population data and all of the following information. Unfortunately, Win*Star charts do not contain a large enough "Notes" field to include any of the following information. Style. The style (U.S. village, borough, town, city, municipality or CDP) is the first entry. Population. The next information is the U.S. Census Bureau population enumeration as of the April 1, 2000 census, along with the percent change during the 1990-2000 period for the area of the municipality as it was legally defined as of the 2000 Census. See "U.S. Census Bureau Definitions and Data." County. The name of the county containing the municipality is next. If the city and county are consolidated, the U.S. Census designation "Consolidated City" appears instead of a county name. Independent cities are those that are politically independent of any county. The term "Independent City" appears instead of the county name in such cases (see "Independent, Consolidated and Merged Cities"). If a city spans more than one county, the counties containing it are separated by slashes. Louisiana counties are called parishes and Alaska county equivalents are called boroughs. If the municipality is a county seat and/or a state capital, these designations are included next. Incorporation (or charter) date as a village, town, borough or city is next. If this date is known to be the earliest, that term or the term "first incorporated" is used. Incorporations by colonial or territorial legislatures are included if they are the earliest or believed to be the earliest. Citations are included with each date. If the incorporation occurred when the municipality was in a different county, this is so stated. Designations such as county seat and/or state capital are included. In some instances, the date a municipality was designated county seat is included. In such cases, it may seem redundant that the designation "county seat" follows these dates but some municipalities are no longer county seat (see Monterey, California). Other dates included (when applicable or when found during research):
Copyright notice follows. The information for each record in this collection is copyrighted by Gary Brand. All rights are reserved. No part of the information contained in the Chart Comments or of this commentary may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author. RODDEN MUNDANE RATINGS for each chart follows. These mundane ratings were developed by Lois Rodden and Gary Brand. The ratings for city charts with an unknown time of day are based on the reliability of the source of the date. Only a small number of charts in the collection are for a timed event so most are calculated for 12:00 PM (noon). On the line under the Rodden rating is the Source of the date/time (e.g. Official source; untimed) followed by the Source notes, which specify the type of source (e.g. Date from legislation). What follows is a thorough list of sources for city birth dates by each type of Rodden mundane rating. AA: Date and time from an official source (00:00 time is used for a legal effective date) AAX: Date from an official source with no time:
AX: Documented date from a secondary source with no time:
BX: Date from a historical or organizational source with no time:
CX: Caution - original source of the date is unknown with no time:
DDX: Dirty data, conflicting dates from equivalent sources with no time XX: Date in question or undetermined:
The current version of CitiesDatabank™ (2006) contains 1,603 charts for 1,580 municipalities (22 cities have more than one chart) of which 80% are rated AAX, 12% are rated AX, 6.5% are rated AA (these are the only charts with a time of day), 1% are rated BX, and 0.5% are rated XX.
Events that occurred during the history of a few municipalities are
included in the collection. Event categories include:
Gary owes several people my deepest gratitude for their help and support in
creating this collection. Donna Cavallini, J.D., is a legal librarian
and dear friend and client who, long ago, recognized the value of this
work, encouraged the dissemination of it, and has been a tireless support
during the years of research that preceded it. She has also collected
some of the data in the collection, answered many of my questions about
proper citations, and helped Gary interpret some of the laws he encountered.
Raymond Hubbard, another dear friend and client, has collected some
of the dates in the collection and has obtained citations for some of
the more obscure references cited. Natalie Milani, another friend and
client, has been instrumental in helping Gary conceptualize and formulate
the requisite constituents of self-government. Donna Cavallini and Raymond
Hubbard have also helped in the conceptualization process and have been
invaluable contributors to the decisions about what to include in the
explanatory sections of this commentary. Gary is also indebted to Sarah
Shepherd for her efforts and help in obtaining dates for certain cities
and in verifying the accuracy of the data.
Gary is also very appreciative of the help he has received from the staff of librarians at the University of Virginia Law Library. The wealth of historical information contained in this library and in the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia is one of the reasons that he moved to Charlottesville in 1998 and has been able to acquire dates for such a diversity of municipalities in the collection. Gary is indebted to the late Lois Rodden and to Mark McDonough of AstroDatabank™ Company for their recognition of the value of this collection and for their inclusion of some of the cities in AstroDatabank™, under contract with them. He appreciates the many practicing astrologers, including Rob Hand, who have encouraged Gary to expand this collection and to disseminate it. Last, but by no means least, Gary wishes to express his heartfelt thanks to his wife, Marianne, for her unwavering support, patience and editorial suggestions. THE 1,580 U.S. CITIES IN CITIES DATABANK™ (all but two have a population greater than 10,000) The Rodden mundane rating follows the name of each municipality top of page
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