TOWN. 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 compris ing 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 af fairs as have been or may be conferred or im posed 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. Hig gins, 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 organiza tion,—the counties being composed of a num ber of towns. Towns are regarded as cor porations 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 synony mous with village ; Enfield v. Jordan, 119 U. S. 680, 7 Sup. Ct. 358, 30 L. Ed. 523. Town and borough, though legally distinct, are oft en 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. But see an ar ticle by A. M. Eaton in 14 Harv. L. Rev. and 15 id., and 1902 Report Am. Bar Assoc. 336.
In England, the term town or vill compre bends under it the several species of cities, boroughs, and common towns. 1 Bla. Coro. 114.
See Garland, New Engl. Town Law.