SMITH COUNTY (Judicial). Smith County, as established for judicial and other purposes on February 1, 1842, included approximately the territory of present Rusk County. Karnesville was to be the county seat. The county was abolished by a Texas Supreme Court decision, Stockton v. Montgomery (1842), which declared judicial counties unconstitutional. Present Smith County was established in 1846.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: James Wilmer Dallam, A Digest of the Laws of Texas (Baltimore: Toy, 1845). Hans Peter Nielsen Gammel, comp., Laws of Texas, 1822–1897 (10 vols., Austin: Gammel, 1898).
