Tarrant County, located in the United States, is the third most populous county in Texas and the 15th most populous in the United States. Home to the Fort Worth Genealogical Society Fund 471789Fort Worth, Texas 76147-1408 Website, the county seat is Fort Worth. The Tarrant County Courthouse, built with pink granite from central Texas and completed in 1895, took more than two years to construct. Tarrant County was established by the State of Texas to function as a decentralized administrative division that provided state services and collected state taxes. The first county seat election was held in 1851 and Birdville was chosen as the first seat of Tarrant County, as required by law.
On a cliff where the Tarrant County Courthouse now stands, a Second U. S. Army company established a military post in 1849. Starting in 1952, most voters supported the Republican Party's presidential candidate in every election, except 1964 when Tarrant County voted for Lyndon B. Johnson.
Since then, Tarrant County has been conservative enough to be an urban county and one of the most populous Republican-leaning counties in the country. The Tarrant County Sheriff's Office and the Tarrant County Police Office are responsible for law enforcement throughout the county. DFW Airport, the Tarrant County Hospital District and the Tarrant Regional Water District also have their own police forces. Since the dissolution of the North Tarrant County Fire Department, there are no firefighting services throughout the county. Tarrant County consists of 898 square miles of gently sloping terrain with elevations ranging from 420 feet in the southeast to 960 feet in the northwest. In any case where it is legally required to rely on the information contained in these pages, the official Tarrant County records should be consulted.
