Illinois
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes region of the United States. It has the fifth largest gross domestic product, the sixth largest population, the 25th largest land area of all U. S. states. Illinois is noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in northeastern Illinois, small industrial cities and immense agricultural productivity in the north and center of the state, natural resources such as coal and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, encompasses over 65% of the state's population; the Port of Chicago connects the state to international ports via two main routes: from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway to the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports.
Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics. The capital of Illinois is Springfield, located in the central part of the state. Although today's Illinois' largest population center is in its northeast, the state's European population grew first in the west as the French settled the vast Mississippi of the Illinois Country of New France. Following the American Revolutionary War, American settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1780s via the Ohio River, the population grew from south to north. In 1818, Illinois achieved statehood. Following increased commercial activity in the Great Lakes after the construction of the Erie Canal, Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River at one of the few natural harbors on the southern section of Lake Michigan. John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois's rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmland, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden.
The Illinois and Michigan Canal made transportation between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River valley faster and cheaper, new railroads carried immigrants to new homes in the country's west and shipped commodity crops to the nation's east. The state became a transportation hub for the nation. By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars; the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in the state, including Chicago, who founded the city's famous jazz and blues cultures. Chicago, the center of the Chicago Metropolitan Area, is now recognized as a global alpha-level city. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Barack Obama. Additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was born and raised in the state.
Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official state slogan Land of Lincoln, displayed on its license plates since 1954. The state is the site of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield and the future home of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. "Illinois" is the modern spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers' name for the Illinois Native Americans, a name, spelled in many different ways in the early records. American scholars thought the name "Illinois" meant "man" or "men" in the Miami-Illinois language, with the original iliniwek transformed via French into Illinois; this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for "man" is ireniwa, plural of "man" is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has been said to mean "tribe of superior men", a false etymology; the name "Illinois" derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa - "he speaks the regular way". This was taken into the Ojibwe language in the Ottawa dialect, modified into ilinwe·.
The French borrowed these forms, changing the /we/ ending to spell it as -ois, a transliteration for its pronunciation in French of that time. The current spelling form, began to appear in the early 1670s, when French colonists had settled in the western area; the Illinois's name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans; the Koster Site demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation. Cahokia, the largest regional chiefdom and urban center of the Pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, was located near present-day Collinsville, Illinois, they built an urban complex of more than 100 platform and burial mounds, a 50-acre plaza larger than 35 football fields, a woodhenge of sacred cedar, all in a planned design expressing the culture's cosmology.
Monks Mound, the center of the site, is the largest Pre-Columbian structure north of the Valley of Mexico. It is 100 feet high, 951 feet long, 836 feet wide, covers 13.8 acres. It contains about 814,000 cubic yards of earth, it was topped by a structure thought to have measured about 105 feet in length and 48 feet in width, covered an area 5,000 square feet, been as much as 50 feet high, making its peak 150 feet above the level of the pl
Illinois's 15th congressional district
The 15th Congressional District of Illinois is located in eastern and southeastern Illinois. Republican John Shimkus represents the district; the congressional district covers parts of Bond, Champaign and Madison counties, all of Clark, Clinton, Crawford, Douglas, Edwards, Fayette, Hamilton, Jasper, Lawrence, Massac, Pope, Saline, Vermilion, Washington and White counties. All or parts of Centralia, Danville, Effingham, Glen Carbon and Rantoul will be included; the representatives for these districts were elected in the 2012 primary and general elections, the boundaries became effective on January 5, 2013. Republican John Shimkus representing the 19th district, was on the 2012 ballot for the 15th congressional district. Angela Michael, a retired nurse and pro-life activist, ran on a single-issue pro-life Democratic ticket. Shimkus won reelection again, after facing a primary challenge from Illinois State Senator Kyle McCarter with Tea Party backing and funding from the Club for Growth. Shimkus continues to loom large in the 15th, but faces credible Democratic opposition from a local teacher and former Obama campaign worker.
The district included the cities of Charleston, Urbana and Champaign, all or parts of Livingston, Ford, McLean, DeWitt, Vermillion, Piatt, Edgar, Coles, Clark, Lawrence, Edwards, White and Gallatin counties. District created March 4, 1873 As of May 2015, two former members of the U. S. House of Representatives from Illinois's 15th congressional district are alive; the most recent representative to die was Tim Lee Hall on November 12, 2008. The most serving representative to die was Edward Rell Madigan on December 7, 1994. Illinois's congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Martis, Kenneth C.. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present 2002 Census of Agriculture - 15th Congressional District Profile District map Congressional district profiles Washington Post page on the 15th District of Illinois U.
S. Census Bureau - 15th District Fact Sheet
1910 United States Census
The Thirteenth United States Census, conducted by the Census Bureau on April 15, 1910, determined the resident population of the United States to be 92,228,496, an increase of 21.0 percent over the 76,212,168 persons enumerated during the 1900 Census. The 1910 Census switched from a portrait page orientation to a landscape orientation; the 1910 census collected the following information: Full documentation for the 1910 census, including census forms and enumerator instructions, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. The column titles in the census form are as follows: LOCATION. Street, road, etc. House number. 1. Number of dwelling house in order of visitation. 2. Number of family in order of visitation. 3. NAME of each person whose place of abode on April 15, 1910, was in this family. Enter surname first the given name and middle initial, if any. Include every person living on April 15, 1910. Omit children born since April 15, 1910. RELATION. 4. Relationship of this person to the head of the family.
PERSONAL DESCRIPTION. 5. Sex. 6. Color or race. 7. Age at last birthday. 8. Whether single, widowed, or divorced. 9. Number of years of present marriage. 10. Mother of how many children: Number born. 11. Mother of how many children: Number now living. NATIVITY. Place of birth of each person and parents of each person enumerated. If born in the United States, give the state or territory. If of foreign birth, give the country. 12. Place of birth of this Person. 13. Place of birth of Father of this person. 14. Place of birth of Mother of this person. CITIZENSHIP. 15. Year of immigration to the United States. 16. Whether naturalized or alien. 17. Whether able to speak English. OCCUPATION. 18. Trade or profession of, or particular kind of work done by this person, as spinner, laborer, etc. 19. General nature of industry, business, or establishment in which this person works, as cotton mill, dry goods store, etc. 20. Whether as employer, employee, or work on own account. If an employee— 21. Whether out of work on April 15, 1910.
22. Number of weeks out of work during year 1909. EDUCATION. 23. Whether able to read. 24. Whether able to write. 25. Attended school any time since September 1, 1909. OWNERSHIP OF HOME. 26. Owned or rented. 27. Owned free or mortgaged. 28. Farm or house. 29. Number of farm schedule. 30. Whether a survivor of the Union or Confederate Army or Navy. 31. Whether blind. 32. Whether deaf and dumb. Special Notation In 1912 and 1959, New Mexico, Arizona and Hawaii would become the 47th, 48th, 49th and 50th states admitted to the Union; the 1910 population count for each of these areas was 327,301, 204,354, 64,356 and 191,909 respectively. On this basis, the ranking list above would be modified as follows: First 42 ranked states - positions unchanged New Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii, Wyoming and Alaska; the original census enumeration sheets were microfilmed by the Census Bureau in the 1940s. The microfilmed census is available in rolls from the National Records Administration. Several organizations host images of the microfilmed census online, along which digital indices.
Microdata from the 1910 census are available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System. 1911 U. S Census Report Contains 1910 Census results Historic US Census data census.gov/population/www/censusdata/PopulationofStatesandCountiesoftheUnitedStates1790-1990.pdf
Mattoon, Illinois
Mattoon is a city in Coles County, United States. The population was 18,555 as of the 2010 census; the city is home to a Burger King, not related to the worldwide Burger King chain. One of the main factors determining the settlement of Mattoon and Coles County in general was the topography. Coles County straddled a timberline in the southern prairie in the north; the forested areas were fed by two major rivers: the Embarras River in the east and the Kaskaskia in the west. The prairie, known as the "Grand Prairie", was wet and swampy. An early historian described the geography: "Away from the timber to the north, the face of the country is quite level, broken only by long undulations, it is entirely prairie land in this part, was allowed to remain uncultivated until after the opening of the railroads. It was used for pasturage during this period, presented signs of great animation as the herds of cattle, under the care of their drovers, moved about over its grassy undulating surface."Groves could be found scattered throughout the area.
Early settlers to the area started homesteads in the timberline, which provided building materials and fuel. Since the vast majority of early settlers came from wooded areas of Indiana and Tennessee, the forests provided a sense of familiarity. In 1826, Kentucky émigré Charles Sawyer became the first white man known to settle in the Mattoon area, just north of the timberline along the Little Wabash River. Levi Doty built Sawyer's cabin while the latter returned to Kentucky to retrieve the rest of his family. Within a year, a few families quickly settled around Sawyer in the area of Paradise Township, including Dr. John Epperson, the county's first physician. Settlers built. "The luxuries of life were not seen the first years of the settlement, but appeared as the residents could obtain them."Corn was planted and remained a staple crop. Gardens of potatoes and other vegetables were maintained. Hogs, which ran wild in the woods, provided pork, while "deer, wild turkeys, prairie chickens provided an abundant supply of wild meat."
Wolves proved troublesome to domesticated animals. The first school was established in 1827-28 in the Paradise Township, taking place in a makeshift cabin and taught by James Waddill; the costs were $2.50-3.00 per student. School was maintained in this location until 1844-45, when the first real schoolhouse was built in what would become Mattoon; that year, the Illinois State Legislature passed its first school laws, making Mattoon a forerunner for early education in the state. As the population grew, demand for a local government increased. On Christmas Day, 1830, Coles County was established; the county was named after Edward Coles, the second governor in Illinois who served from 1822 to 1826. Settlers in the Mattoon area remained poor and humble. In 1836, "Old State Road", which runs along the southern end of town, became one of the first trails to be established in the Mattoon area. Another trail, the Kaskaskia Pass, traveled past what was known as "The Lone Elm Tree", a natural landmark that helped guide visitors and newcomers.
The tree was cut down on August 1950, due to disease. A plaque at the corner of 32nd Street and Western Avenue marks the location of this important landmark; the growth and subsequent history of Mattoon is tied to that of local railroads. In 1854, railroad surveyors from the Illinois Central Railroad and Terre Haute and Alton Railroad found their railroads would cross in the Mattoon area, a burst of investment and land speculation began; the two railroads raced to the meeting point, on the understanding that the first to arrive would not have to pay to maintain the crossing. The community that had grown in the area of swamp grass and prairie came to be known as "Pegtown", which referred to the pegs used to demarcate lots to be sold at public auction. Among the speculators were Elisha Linder, Ebenezer Noyes, James T. Cunningham, Stephen D. Dole, John L. Allison, John Cunningham. Land was purchased for $2.50 per acre. On December 12, 1854, County Surveyor John Meadows laid out the town; the 1850s saw a flurry of activity for the emerging town.
In 1855, the first houses were built. Benjamin Turney used 16 yoke of oxen to drag his home from a farm three miles away, while R. H. McFadden built his home near the area of present-day First Street and Prairie Avenue. In May that year, "Pegtown" lots were auctioned. On June 9, 1855, the first train arrived on the Terre Haute Alton Railroad. In July, the Pennsylvania House became the first hotel in town, operating at the present-day 1600 block of Broadway Avenue; that month the first post office was established, with James M. True serving as postmaster. In September, Rev. Isaac Hart performed the town's first wedding, marrying Sarah Norvell and R. H. McFadden; the next year, 1856, saw the creation of the first newspaper. The weekly "Independent Gazette" published seven-column editions. In that same year, the first public school was established. In 1856, the first two babies were born in Mattoon, Charles Cartmell in July and Mollie Puff in September. By now, the growing town had more than 100 buildings.
Between 1856-57, the first Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches were formed. In May 1857, residents voted to incorporate the town, with 65 votes for and 25 votes against. In 1857, ordinances passed forbidding drunkenness, working on Sunday, disturbing public or religious meetings, leaving carcasses on the streets, obstructing sidewalks, driving fast horse
1930 United States Census
The Fifteenth United States Census, conducted by the Census Bureau one month from April 1, 1930, determined the resident population of the United States to be 122,775,046, an increase of 13.7 percent over the 106,021,537 persons enumerated during the 1920 Census. The 1930 Census collected the following information: address name relationship to head of family home owned or rented if owned, value of home if rented, monthly rent whether owned a radio set whether on a farm sex race age marital status and, if married, age at first marriage school attendance literacy birthplace of person, their parents if foreign born: language spoken at home before coming to the U. S. year of immigration whether naturalized ability to speak English occupation and class of worker whether at work previous day veteran status if Indian: whether of full or mixed blood tribal affiliationFull documentation for the 1930 census, including census forms and enumerator instructions, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series.
The original census enumeration sheets were microfilmed by the Census Bureau in 1949. The microfilmed census is located on 2,667 rolls of microfilm, available from the National Archives and Records Administration. Several organizations host images of the microfilmed census online, digital indices. Microdata from the 1930 census are available through the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Aggregate data for small areas, together with electronic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System. 1930 Census Questions Hosted at CensusFinder.com 1931 U. S Census Report Contains 1930 Census results Historic US Census data 1930Census.com: 1930 United States Census for Genealogy & Family History Research 1930 Interactive US Census Find stories and more attached to names on the 1930 US census
Charleston, Illinois
Charleston is a city in and the county seat of Coles County, United States. The population was 21,838, as of the 2010 census; the city has close ties with its neighbor, Mattoon. Both are principal cities of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area. Native Americans lived in the Charleston area for thousands of years before the first European settlers arrived. With the great tallgrass prairie to the west, beech-maple forests to the east, the Embarras River and Wabash Rivers between, the Charleston area provided semi-nomadic Indians access to a variety of resources. Indians may have deliberately set the "wildfires" which maintained the local mosaic of prairie and oak–hickory forest. Streams with names like'Indian Creek' and'Kickapoo Creek' mark the sites of former Indian settlements. One village is said to have been located south of Fox Ridge State Park near a deposit of flint; the early history of settlement in the area was marked by uneasy co-existence between Indians and European settlers.
Some settlers lived peacefully with the natives. After Indians harassed surveying crews, an escalating series of poorly documented skirmishes occurred between Indians and the Illinois Rangers. Two pitched battles occurred just south of Charleston along "the hills of the Embarrass," near the entrance to Lake Charleston park; these conflicts did not slow American settlement, Indian history in Coles County ended when all natives were expelled by law from Illinois after the 1832 Black Hawk War. With the grudging exception of Indian wives, the last natives were driven out by the 1840s. First settled by Benjamin Parker in 1826, Charleston was named for Charles Morton, its first postmaster; the city was established in 1831, but not incorporated until 1865. When Abraham Lincoln's father moved to a farm on Goosenest Prairie south of Charleston in 1831, Lincoln helped him move left to start his own homestead at New Salem in Sangamon County. Lincoln was a frequent visitor to the Charleston area, though he spent more time at the Coles County courthouse than at the home of his father and stepmother.
One of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates was held in Charleston on September 18, 1858, is now the site of the Coles County fairgrounds and a small museum. Lincoln's last visit was in 1859, when the future President visited his stepmother and his father's grave. Although Illinois was a solidly pro-Union, anti-slavery state, Coles County was settled by many Southerners with pro-slavery sentiments. In 1847, the county was divided when prominent local citizens offered refuge to a family of escaped slaves brought from Kentucky by Gen. Robert Matson. Abe Lincoln, by a young railroad lawyer, appeared in the Coles County Courthouse to argue for the return of the escaped slaves under the Fugitive Slave Act in a case known as Matson v. Ashmore; as in the rest of the nation, this long-simmering debate broke out into violence during the American Civil War. On March 28, 1864 a riot—or a small battle—erupted in downtown Charleston when armed Confederate sympathizers known as Copperheads arrived in town to attack half-drunk Union soldiers preparing to return to their regiment.
In 1895, the Eastern Illinois State Normal School was established in Charleston, which became Eastern Illinois University. This led to lasting resentment in nearby Mattoon, which had led the campaign to locate the proposed teaching school in Coles County. A Mattoon newspaper printed a special edition announcing the decision with the derisive headline "Catfish Town Gets It." Thomas Lincoln's log cabin has been restored and is open to the public as the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, 8 mi. south of Charleston. The Lincoln farm is maintained as a living history museum where historical re-enactors depict life in 1840s Illinois. Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln are buried in the nearby Shiloh Cemetery. On May 26, 1917, a tornado ripped through Charleston, killing 38 and wounding many more along with destroying 220 homes. Charleston is located at 39°29′5″N 88°10′41″W. According to the 2010 census, Charleston has a total area of 9.63 square miles, of which 8.92 square miles is land and 0.71 square miles is water.
As of the census of 2010, there were 21,472 people, 7,972 households, 3,329 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,632.2 people per square mile. There were 8,794 housing units at an average density of 1,019.4 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 90.4% White, 5.7% African American, 0.1% Native American, 2.4% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.9% from other races, 0.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.2% of the population. There were 7,972 households out of which 20.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.9% were married couples living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 56.6% were non-families. 34.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.5% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.75 and the average family size was 2.44. In the city, the population was spread out with 9.8% under the age of 18, 44.1% from 18 to 24, 18.7% from 25 to 44, 13.7% from 45 to 64, 7.9% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 21.9 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $21,849, the median income for a family was $49,625. Males had a median income of $30,906 versus $21,822 for females; the per capita income f
1890 United States Census
The Eleventh United States Census was taken beginning June 2, 1890. It determined the resident population of the United States to be 62,979,766—an increase of 25.5 percent over the 50,189,209 persons enumerated during the 1880 census. The data was tabulated by machine for the first time; the data reported that the distribution of the population had resulted in the disappearance of the American frontier. Most of the 1890 census materials were destroyed in a 1921 fire and fragments of the US census population schedule exist only for the states of Alabama, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, the District of Columbia; this was the first census in which a majority of states recorded populations of over one million, as well as the first in which multiple cities – New York as of 1880, Philadelphia – recorded populations of over one million. The census saw Chicago rank as the nation's second-most populous city, a position it would hold until 1990, in which Los Angeles would supplant it.
The 1890 census collected the following information: The 1890 census was the first to be compiled using methods invented by Herman Hollerith and was overseen by Superintendents Robert P. Porter and Carroll D. Wright. Data was entered on a machine readable medium, punched cards, tabulated by machine; the net effect of the many changes from the 1880 census: the larger population, the number of data items to be collected, the Census Bureau headcount, the volume of scheduled publications, the use of Hollerith's electromechanical tabulators, was to reduce the time required to process the census from eight years for the 1880 census to six years for the 1890 census. The total population of 62,947,714, the family, or rough, was announced after only six weeks of processing; the public reaction to this tabulation was disbelief, as it was believed that the "right answer" was at least 75,000,000. The United States census of 1890 showed a total of 248,253 Native Americans living in the United States, down from 400,764 Native Americans identified in the census of 1850.
The 1890 census announced that the frontier region of the United States no longer existed, that the Census Bureau would no longer track the westward migration of the U. S. population. Up to and including the 1880 census, the country had a frontier of settlement. By 1890, isolated bodies of settlement had broken into the unsettled area to the extent that there was hardly a frontier line; this prompted Frederick Jackson Turner to develop his Frontier Thesis. The original data for the 1890 Census is no longer available. All the population schedules were damaged in a fire in the basement of the Commerce Building in Washington, D. C. in 1921. Some 25 % of the materials were presumed another 50 % damaged by smoke and water; the damage to the records led to an outcry for a permanent National Archives. In December 1932, following standard federal record-keeping procedures, the Chief Clerk of the Bureau of the Census sent the Librarian of Congress a list of papers to be destroyed, including the original 1890 census schedules.
The Librarian was asked by the Bureau to identify any records which should be retained for historical purposes, but the Librarian did not accept the census records. Congress authorized destruction of that list of records on February 21, 1933, the surviving original 1890 census records were destroyed by government order by 1934 or 1935; the other censuses for which some information has been lost are the 1810 enumerations. Few sets of microdata from the 1890 census survive, but aggregate data for small areas, together with compatible cartographic boundary files, can be downloaded from the National Historical Geographic Information System. Mayo-Smith, Richmond, "The Eleventh Census of the United States". In: The Economic Journal, Vol. 1, p. 43 - 58 1891 U. S Census Report Contains 1890 Census results Historical US Census data from the U. S. Census Bureau website Hollerith 1890 Census Tabulator by Columbia University "The Fate of the 1890 Population Census" from the National Archives website
Interstate 57
Interstate 70
U.S. Route 40
U.S. Route 45
Illinois Route 49
Illinois Route 121
Illinois Route 130
Cumberland County, Illinois
