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An incorporated town is a town that is a municipal corporation.

Canada[]

Incorporated towns are a form of local government in Canada, which is a responsibility of provincial rather than federal government.


United States[]

Template:Geographical imbalance An incorporated town in the United States is an incorporated municipality, that is, one with a charter received from the state, similar to a city. An incorporated town will have elected officials, as differentiated from an unincorporated community, which exists only by tradition and does not have elected officials at the town level. In some states, especially in midwestern and western states, civil townships may sometimes be called towns, but are generally not incorporated municipalities, but are administrative subdivisions and derive their authority from statute rather than from a charter. In New York and Wisconsin, the term "town" refers to municipalities more similar to townships in other states than to incorporated towns in most states (see Administrative divisions of New York, Political subdivisions of Wisconsin). In some other states, the term "town" is not used for municipalities.

California[]

Under California's Government Code Sections 34500-34504, the terms "city" and "town" are explicitly interchangeable, i.e. there is no legal distinction between an incorporated city and an incorporated town. California has 22 incorporated municipalities that are styled "Town of (Name)" instead of "City of (Name)".

Illinois[]

In Illinois, an incorporated town is one of three types of municipalities. An incorporated town is a municipality that was incorporated by a special act of the Illinois General Assembly prior to the creation of the Illinois Municipal Code. Illinois' standard law on municipalities came into effect on July 1, 1872 and does not provide for the incorporation of municipal towns. Since the Municipal Code provides a standard way for citizens to incorporate a new city or village, incorporated towns are far less common than City and village municipalities in Illinois.

Well-known examples of incorporated towns include the Town of Cicero and the Town of Normal. Although civil townships and incorporated towns are sometimes both called towns, they are completely separate types of government in Illinois—unlike incorporated towns, townships are subdivisions of a county and are not municipalities.

The oldest existing municipal town in Illinois is Fulton County's Astoria, incorporated January 24, 1839; the newest existing is Adams County's La Prairie, incorporated on April 15, 1869.[1]

There are 20 incorporated towns in Illinois, none of which are county seats[1]:

Existing Incorporated Towns in Illinois
Town County Incorporated
Annawan Henry 1869-03-31
Astoria Fulton 1839-01-24
Atkinson Henry 1867-03-07
Belle Prairie City Hamilton 1869-03-30
Bentley Hancock 1869-03-25
Chatsworth Livingston 1867-03-08
Cicero Cook 1867-02-28
Cortland DeKalb 1865-02-16
Dakota Stephenson 1869-03-11
La Prairie Adams 1869-04-15
Mason Effingham 1865-02-15
Naples Scott 1839-02-01
New Canton Pike 1869-03-31
Nilwood Macoupin 1867-03-09
Normal McLean 1867-02-25
Otterville Jersey 1867-03-07
Palestine Crawford 1855-02-15
Sigel Shelby 1867-03-07
Topeka Mason 1869-04-10

Despite its name, Belle Prairie City, Illinois is an incorporated town, not a city.

Maryland[]

Municipalities in Maryland can be cities, towns, or villages.


New England[]

In all six New England states (Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine), towns are the main units of local government. Towns cover most or all land area in all six states, including rural areas. New England towns are notable for their town meeting form of government.

See also[]

  • Urban township

References[]

  1. ^ a b Illinois Regional Archives Depository System. "Name Index to Illinois Local Governments". Illinois State Archives web site. Illinois Secretary of State. http://www.ilsos.gov/GenealogyMWeb/niilgsrch.html. Retrieved 2007-11-06. 


This page uses content from the English language Wikipedia. The original content was at Incorporated town. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with this Familypedia wiki, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons License.
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