town

any walled collection of houses.

In General. The word "town" sometimes indicates a division of the county next smaller in extent than the county itself. It is also often used to denote a small city or village. 125 Ga. 559; 54 S. E. 539. The word may be and frequently is used as meaning "township" and vice versa. 244 111. 554; 82 111. 121. See "Township." Organization, Purpose and Government. In the New England states, the town is for many purposes the unit of civil government. In other states, the county is the.unit, and the town has local government in only a few matters. Generally they are mere political organizations created wholly by statute for certain purposes of local government. They are vested with no franohises or special privileges for their own benefit, have only such powers as the statute confers, and are subject to no obliga- ^

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.

In English law. Originally, a vill or tithing; but now a generic term, which comprehends under it the several species of cities, boroughs, and common towns. 1 Bl. Comm. 114.

In American law. A civil and political division of a state, varying In extent and importance, but usually One of the divisions of a county. In the New England states, the town is the political unit, and is a municipal corporation. In seme other states, where the county is the unit, the town is merely one of its subdivisions, but possesses some powers of local self-government. In still other states, such subdivisions of a county are called "townships," and "town" ls the name of a village, borough, or smaller city. See Herman v. Guttenberg, 62 N. J. Law, 605, 48 Atl. 703 ; Van Riper v. Parsons, 40 N. J. Law, 1; Sinte v. Denny, 118 Ind. 449, 21 N. E. 274, 4 In R. A. 65; Sessions v. State, 115 Ga. 18, 41 S. E. 259; Milford v. Godfrey, 1 Pick. (Mass.) 97; Enfield v. Jordan, 119 U. S. 680, 7 Sup. Ct. 358, 30 In Ed. 523 ; Rogers v. Galloway Female College, 64 Ark. 627, 44 S. W. 454, 39 L. R. A. 636; Railway Co. v. Oconto, 50 Wis. 189, 6 N. W. 607, 36 Am. Rep. 840; Lovejoy v. Foxcroft, 91 Me. 367, 40 Atl. 141; Bloomfield v. Charter Oak Bank, 121 U. S. 121, 7 Sup. Ct. 865, 30 L. Ed. 923; Lynch v. Rutland, 66 Vt 570, 29 Atl. 1015. -

— Town agent. Under the prohibitory liquor laws in force in some of the New England states a town agent ls a person appointed in each town to purchase intoxicating liquors for the town and having the exclusive right to sell the same for the permitted purp

A collection of houses in one neighborhood, — a generic term, comprehending cities, boroughs and common towns; in modern law, usually a collection of houses larger than a village; in New England, and in some other states of the Union, a subdivision of a county. In English lato. Town-reeve: the reeve or chief officer of a town.

This terni is differently used in different parts of the United States, in some regions signifying a civil division of a county, irrespective of incorporation or powers of government, such as is elsewhere called a township; in others, denoting a species of municipality more highly organized than a village, and less so than a city. What would best harmonize the varying usage as to the word would probably be to say, that counties throughout the United States are generally divided into townships, which are divisions of territory, made irrespective of settlement or local government; these townships adjoin each other, and completely fill the county. Then, when the number of inhabitants in any distinct settlement becomes large enough to require formation of a political municipality, one is erected; and this will be either a village, a town, or a city, according to the number and needs of the inhabitants, — a city being, in general, characterized by enofficers, whii* a town is marked by a reservation of power to the inhabitants to decide general questions in public meeting of the voters, execution of their will, in matters of detail, being the chief function of the corporate officers. But this is only a very general outline, and cannot be applied in all the states, without consideration of the local law and usage. By scanning the points from American decisions, given below, which are chiefly from recent reports, selected to indicate present usage, it will be seen that "town" is generally used in connections evincing that a body politic, an incorporated municipality, is meant; and "township" very frequently may mean only a territorial division, a unit of survey. Yet instances occur in which " town " has the meaning of a territorial division only; and it is sometimes thought necessary to avert that construction, when a municipal government is mentioned, by using the phrase " incorporated town." Town is a walled place or borough: the old boroughs were first of all towns; and upland towns, which are not ruled and governed as boroughs, are but towns, though enclosed with walls. (Finch, 80.) There ought to be in every town a constable or tithing-man; and it cannot be a town unlei*! it has, or had, a church, with celebration •>! sacraments and burials, &c. But if a ton n is decayed so that it hath no houses 1< ft, yet it is a town in law. (1 Inst. 115.) Under the name of a town or village, boroughs, and, it is said, cities are contained; for every borough or city is a town. Jacob. A village and a town are not identical. A village is ordinarily less than a town, and more occupied by agriculturists; yet the two cannot be definitely distinguished by the size of the place or employment of the inhabitants. Truax v. Pool, 46 Iowa, 256. " Town," in a general statute, may well include cities, where that meaning is indicated by the general purpose of the enactment. Commissioners v. Mc Gurrin, 6 Daly, 349. It is sometimes employed to designate a township. Harris v. Schryock, 82 m. 119. In Arkansas, there is no precise legal definition of the term town, and it is supposed to have been used in the statute in its popular sense. At " Cadron," the courts for the county ware held from 1826 to 1828, but never afterwards; it was never incorporated; it was abandoned In 1831, and continued abandoned until 1845 or 1846; in 1855, there was one store, doing business to was a dwelling-house for two families, and out-houses; the population consisted of two families, numbering six persons; there was one warehouse, from which produce was shipped, varying in value from $200 to $1,500 per annum. It was held that to call this a town would be an obvious misapplication of the term. Murray v. Menefee, 20 Arh. 561. A township voted stock in a company, which afterwards was merged in a new one hy consolidation; and it was held that a subsequent subscription by the township to the new company was unauthorized. Harshman V. Bates County, 3 Dill. 150. A town which, as a corporation, has voted and issued bonds, is estopped, when sued by an innocent holder of such bonds, from setting up as a defence that it was never incorporated. Aller u. Cameron, 3 Dill. 198. The constitution of Illinois, which came into operation July 2, 1870, annulled the power of any city, town, or township to make donations or allow its credit to a railroad company; and, after that date, rendered ineffective the act of 1867, authorizing towns acting under the township organization law of the state to appropriate money to aid in the construction of a certain railroad. Concord v. Portsmouth Sav. Bank, 92 V. S. 625. Notwithstanding an incorporated town is changed to a city, the municipality remains the same under its new organization as in its former condition; and any debt incurred while a town continues to be the debt of the corporation as a city. Olney v. Harvey, 50 III. 453. Townships are incorporated not as cities and villages are, for their own benefit, and by their assent, but like counties, as mere civil divisions of the state; hence are not liable for neglect to keep highways in repair, except for such penalty as may be expressly imposed. Waltham v. Kemper, 55

This word is used differently in different parts of the United States. In Pennsylvania and some others of the middle states, it signifies, a village ora city. Insome of the north-eastern states it denotes a subdivision of a county called in other places a township.