Town

A term of somewhat varying signification, but denoting a division of a country next smaller in extent than a county. A town is a municipal corporation comprising the inhabitants within its boundaries and formed for the purpose of exercising such powers and discharging such duties of local government and administration of public affairs as have been or may be conferred or imposed upon it by law.

Dunn v. Whitestown, 185 Fed. 585.

It is generic, and includes cities; State v. Craig, 132 Ind. 54, 31 N. E. 352, 16 L. R. A. 688, 32 Am. St. Rep. 237; Klauber v. Higgins, 117 Cal. 451, 49 Pac. 466. In Pennsylvania and some other of the Middle states, it denotes a village or city, but it is not, strictly, a legal term. In the New England states, it is to be considered for many purposes as the unit of civil organization, — the counties being composed of a number of towns. Towns are regarded as corporations or quasi-corporations; Fourth School Dist. in Rumford v. Wood, 13 Mass. 193. In New York and Wisconsin, towns are subdivisions of counties; and the same is true of the townships of most of the Western states. In Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa, they are called townships. In Illinois it is synonymous with village; Enfield v. Jordan, 119 U. S. 680, 7 Sup. Ct. 358, 30 L. Ed. 523. Town and borough, though legally distinct, are often used interchangeably; Bloomsburg Case, 33 Pa. Co. Ct. R. 137. "Towns were of themselves corporations having perpetual succession, consisting of all persons inhabiting within certain territorial limits."

Shaw, C. J., Overseers of Poor v. Sears, 22 Pick. (Mass.) 130.

See Garland, New Engl. Town Law.