Tex-Arcana: State's earliest county lines tend to be messy, that is, more organic

“Our original land grant surveys were more organic. They tend to follow the rules of the road - what the rivers looked like, what the hills and valleys looked like.”

Look at the layout of counties on a map of Texas and you'll note the neatly drawn squares and rectangles in the Panhandle, West Texas and areas southwest of San Antonio. via MySA.com