Regarding sheriffs and counties, Connecticut is a special case. Connecticut voted to abolish county government in 1959, relegating all of the services formerly provided by counties to either the state or the towns (which are somewhat akin to townships in the midwest).--all of the state is part of one town or another, so they function like 169 small counties. The one and only vestige of county government which remained was the office of sheriff (though actually administered by the state judicial department). That last vestige was done away with in 2000.

Rhode Island is the only other state in the US which has no county government (with 41 Rhode Island towns and cities functioning like the Connecticut towns). There are two other states that don't have "counties"--Louisiana calls its counties "parishes", and Alaska has "boroughs" which function like counties.

Southern states, where the Lazarus ballad originated, have very strong county governments, and few minor civil divisions underneath counties, except for incorporated cities which occupy a limited land area. Most of the law enforcement in those states was done at the county level, hence by sheriffs.

--Charlie Baum