Perry County, Missouri
Perry County is a county located in the southeastern portion of the U. S. state of Missouri. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,971, its county seat is Perryville. The county was organized on November 16, 1820 from Ste. Genevieve County and was named after Oliver Hazard Perry, a naval hero of the War of 1812; the first inhabitants of what is now Perry County were Mississippian Mound Builders who cultivated corn and constructed earthen mounds. The Mississippian Cultures inhabited the region until their decline in the 13th centuries. Remnants of their earthen mounds can be found in the eastern part of the county. By the time of European contact, the area was populated by Native Americans of the Illinois Confederation who inhabited much of eastern Missouri. During the 18th Century, the Perry County area, like the rest of the future State of Missouri, was part of French Louisiana known as the Illinois Country. For most of the 18th Century the area of present-day Perry County was left uninhabited by the French of nearby Ste.
Genevieve. The latter was the first permanent White settlement in the Missouri area. In 1764, when the terms of the 1763 Treaty of Paris were announced in Louisiana, the French settlers found themselves transferred to an alien domination, that of Spain. In general the French were unhappy with the change of rule and the Spanish governance of the territory was an uneasy one punctuated by armed rebellion. In the Ste. Genevieve area, the Spaniards, making a virtue of necessity, tended to let the French govern themselves. During the 1770s and 1780s members of the Peoria Tribe, whose situation had deteriorated under British and American rule in Illinois, migrated west across the Mississippi River into Ste. Genevieve and the lower part of the Bois Brule Bottoms; the French population suffered continued harassment by the Osage to the southwest. In the 1790s, Louis Lorimier, authorized by Spanish officials, invited the Shawnee and Deleware tribes in Ohio to immigrate and settle along Apple Creek in Perry County in the hope that they would act as a buffer between the French to the north and the Osage to the south.
Their largest village, Le Grand Village Sauvage - with a population of some 400, was located in the southern part of the county, just above Apple Creek, near present-day Old Appleton. Within a decade of the Native American immigration, Spanish authorities showed an interest in opening the area to colonization by Americans; the first French settlers were Jean Baptiste Barsaloux and his father Girard Barsaloux who lived in the Bois Brule Bottom in 1787. The first American settlers to Perry County arrived during the latter half of the 1790s and claimed rich land in Bois Brule Bottom; these Americans organized the region's original Baptist Church in 1807. In the early 19th century, a second group of American settlers crossed the Mississippi River to take advantage of Spanish land offers; these were Roman Catholics of English stock from north-central Kentucky. They had come from Maryland to escape religious discrimination and prided themselves on being descendants of Lord Baltimore's original colonists.
The first of these to settle permanently in the future Perry County was Isidore Moore. He arrived in 1801 and became a patriarch of the area, founded Tucker's Settlement. Others soon followed whose family names predominated the decades: Tucker, Cissell, Riney, Layton and Hagan. Most of these settled in the uplands around Perryville in a place called the Barrens because of its open land. Another Maryland Catholic, Joseph Fenwick, established the short-lived Fenwick Settlement at the mouth of Brazeau Creek in the Brazeau Bottoms; when the region was transferred to American sovereignty in 1803-1804, the Barrens became part of the Louisiana Territory. Prior to the admission of Missouri to statehood in 1821, several new migrations altered the religious composition of the future county. In 1817, a large group of Presbyterians from North Carolina settled in the neighborhood of Brazeau, an area bounded by the Mississippi River and the Cinque Hommes Creek and Apple Creek; these settlers organized a church in 1819.
They were soon followed by Methodists from the same state whose family names live on, like Abernathy and Rutledge. In 1826, they built their first log meeting house, replaced by York Chapel; until 1821, the Barrens region formed the southern portion of Ste. Genevieve County; when Missouri was granted statehood, Perry County was organized out of the parent district. It was divided into three townships: Brazeau, Cinque Hommes, Bois Brule, their boundaries, following natural geographical features, were quite irregular. In 1856, the borders were made symmetrical and two new townships, St. Mary's and Saline, were added. After 1821, the descendants of French colonial families from Ste. Genevieve trickled into Perry County, in the middle of the next decade, their ranks swelled by immigrants from France itself, they settled on the lands that were near the present city of Perryville. At about the same time, a small group of Flemings settled in the northeastern part of the county, with the present town of Belgique as their center.
There were Swiss in the same area. The late 1830s saw the beginnings of a heavy German immigration that would permanently alter the ethnic balance of the county. In the fall of 1838, more than 600 Saxon Lutherans, under the leadership of Pastor Martin Stephan, uprooted themselves and migrated to Missouri in what is called The Saxon Lutheran Migration, seeking to avoid the enforced religious conformity brought about by the Prussian Union of churches, they settled in the southeastern corner of the county and moved inland through a series of towns whose names enshrined both
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system on the North American continent, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. Its source is Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota and it flows south for 2,320 miles to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains all or parts of 32 U. S. two Canadian provinces between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains. The main stem is within the United States; the Mississippi ranks as the fifteenth-largest river by discharge in the world. The river either borders or passes through the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Tennessee, Arkansas and Louisiana. Native Americans have lived along its tributaries for thousands of years. Most were hunter-gatherers, but some, such as the Mound Builders, formed prolific agricultural societies; the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century changed the native way of life as first explorers settlers, ventured into the basin in increasing numbers.
The river served first as a barrier, forming borders for New Spain, New France, the early United States, as a vital transportation artery and communications link. In the 19th century, during the height of the ideology of manifest destiny, the Mississippi and several western tributaries, most notably the Missouri, formed pathways for the western expansion of the United States. Formed from thick layers of the river's silt deposits, the Mississippi embayment is one of the most fertile regions of the United States. During the American Civil War, the Mississippi's capture by Union forces marked a turning point towards victory, due to the river's strategic importance to the Confederate war effort; because of substantial growth of cities and the larger ships and barges that replaced steamboats, the first decades of the 20th century saw the construction of massive engineering works such as levees and dams built in combination. A major focus of this work has been to prevent the lower Mississippi from shifting into the channel of the Atchafalaya River and bypassing New Orleans.
Since the 20th century, the Mississippi River has experienced major pollution and environmental problems – most notably elevated nutrient and chemical levels from agricultural runoff, the primary contributor to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone. The word Mississippi itself comes from Misi zipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe name for the river, Misi-ziibi. In the 18th century, the river was the primary western boundary of the young United States, since the country's expansion westward, the Mississippi River has been considered a convenient if approximate dividing line between the Eastern and Midwestern United States, the Western United States; this is exemplified by the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the phrase "Trans-Mississippi" as used in the name of the Trans-Mississippi Exposition, it is common to qualify a regionally superlative landmark in relation to it, such as "the highest peak east of the Mississippi" or "the oldest city west of the Mississippi". The FCC uses it as the dividing line for broadcast call-signs, which begin with W to the east and K to the west, mixing together in media markets along the river.
The Mississippi River can be divided into three sections: the Upper Mississippi, the river from its headwaters to the confluence with the Missouri River. The Upper Mississippi runs from its headwaters to its confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis, Missouri, it is divided into two sections: The headwaters, 493 miles from the source to Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The source of the Upper Mississippi branch is traditionally accepted as Lake Itasca, 1,475 feet above sea level in Itasca State Park in Clearwater County, Minnesota; the name "Itasca" was chosen to designate the "true head" of the Mississippi River as a combination of the last four letters of the Latin word for truth and the first two letters of the Latin word for head. However, the lake is in turn fed by a number of smaller streams. From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, the waterway's flow is moderated by 43 dams. Fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes, including power generation and recreation.
The remaining 29 dams, beginning in downtown Minneapolis, all contain locks and were constructed to improve commercial navigation of the upper river. Taken as a whole, these 43 dams shape the geography and influence the ecology of the upper river. Beginning just below Saint Paul and continuing throughout the upper and lower river, the Mississippi is further controlled by thousands of wing dikes that moderate the river's flow in order to maintain an open navigation channel and prevent the river from eroding its banks; the head of navigation on the Mississippi is the Coon Rapids Dam in Minnesota. Before it was built in 1913, steamboats could go upstream as far as Saint Cloud, depending on river conditions; the uppermost lock and dam on the Upper Mississippi River is the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock an
1940 United States Census
The Sixteenth United States Census, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States to be 132,164,569, an increase of 7.3 percent over the 1930 population of 123,202,624 people. The census date of record was April 1, 1940. A number of new questions were asked including where people were 5 years before, highest educational grade achieved, information about wages; this census introduced sampling techniques. Other innovations included a field test of the census in 1939; this was the first census in which every state had a population greater than 100,000. The 1940 census collected the following information: In addition, a sample of individuals were asked additional questions covering age at first marriage and other topics. Full documentation on the 1940 census, including census forms and a procedural history, is available from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series. Following completion of the census, the original enumeration sheets were microfilmed; as required by Title 13 of the U.
S. Code, access to identifiable information from census records was restricted for 72 years. Non-personally identifiable information Microdata from the 1940 census is 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. On April 2, 2012—72 years after the census was taken—microfilmed images of the 1940 census enumeration sheets were released to the public by the National Archives and Records Administration; the records are indexed only by enumeration district upon initial release. Official 1940 census website 1940 Census Records from the U. S. National Archives and Records Administration 1940 Federal Population Census Videos, training videos for enumerators at the U. S. National Archives Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts from the U. S. Census Bureau Snow, Michael S. "Why the huge interest in the 1940 Census?"
CNN. Monday April 9, 2012. 1941 U. S Census Report Contains 1940 Census results 1940 Census Questions Hosted at CensusFinder.com
Grand Tower Pipeline Bridge
The Grand Tower Pipeline Bridge is a suspension bridge carrying a natural gas pipeline across the Mississippi River between Wittenberg and Grand Tower, Illinois. Although construction of a natural gas pipeline under the Mississippi River would have been cheaper, this option would have created great difficulty in handling any leaks and maintenance, so it was decided to construct a bridge to carry the gas pipeline; the bridge was the first pipeline suspension bridge. It was constructed for the Texas-Illinois Natural Gas Pipeline company for an estimated $3,800,000 in 1953, it was the final piece in the construction of a natural gas pipeline transporting gas from Corpus Christi, Texas to Chicago and Detroit, Michigan which carries 500 million cubic feet of gas a day at a pressure of 850 pounds of pressure per square inch. Work began in September, 1953; the bridge features one on each side of the river. Vertical steel suspender cables connect the twin 30 inch pipelines to the main suspension cables, at a height of 115 feet above the river.
During construction the 80 foot long pipes were stretched out across the river where welders connected them together. Each pipe weighs 5 tons and it took 72 pipes to span the river, adding to around 360 tons of dead weight; the abutments to support this weight go to the bedrock, 50 feet deep on the Illinois side and 154 feet on the Missouri side. The site at Grand Tower/Wittenberg was chosen because the river is narrow and deep there, the limestone bedrock could be reached. List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River Bridgemeister Midwest Places Bridgehunter Mississippi River Pipeline Bridge at Structurae
Dragoon
Dragoons were a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 18th century onward, dragoons were also employed as conventional cavalry, trained for combat with swords from horseback. Dragoon regiments were established in most European armies during the late 17th and early 18th centuries; the name is derived from a type of firearm, called a "dragon", a handgun version of a blunderbuss, carried by dragoons of the French Army. The title has been retained in modern times by a number of ceremonial mounted regiments; the establishment of dragoons evolved from the practice of sometimes transporting infantry by horse when speed of movement was needed. In 1552 Prince Alexander of Parma mounted several companies of infantry on pack horses to achieve surprise. Another early instance was ordered by Louis of Nassau in 1572 during operations near Mons in Hainaut, when 500 infantry were transported this way, it is suggested the first dragoons were raised by the Marshal de Brissac in 1600.
According to old German literature, dragoons were invented by Count Ernst von Mansfeld, one of the greatest German military commanders, in the early 1620s. There are other instances of mounted infantry predating this; however Mansfeld, who had learned his profession in Hungary and the Netherlands used horses to make his foot troops more mobile, creating what was called an "armée volante". The name derives from an early weapon, a short wheellock called a dragon, because the first dragoons raised in France had their carbine's muzzle decorated with a dragon's head; the practice comes from a time when all gunpowder weapons had distinctive names, including the culverin, falcon, etc. It is sometimes claimed a galloping infantryman with his loose coat and the burning match resembled a dragon, it has been suggested that the name derives from the German "tragen" or the Dutch "dragen", both being the verb "to carry" in their respective languages. Howard Reid claims that the role descend from the Latin Draconarius.
Dragoon is used as a verb to mean to subjugate or persecute by the imposition of troops. The term dates from 1689, at a time when dragoons were being used by the French monarchy to persecute Protestants by forcing Protestants to lodge a dragoon in their house to watch over them, at the householder's expense. Early dragoons were not organized in squadrons or troops as were cavalry, but in companies like the infantry: their officers and non-commissioned officers bore infantry ranks. Dragoon regiments used drummers, not buglers; the flexibility of mounted infantry made dragoons a useful arm when employed for what would now be termed "internal security" against smugglers or civil unrest, on line of communication security duties. During the English Civil War dragoons were used for a variety of tasks: providing outposts, holding defiles or bridges in the front or rear of the main army, lining hedges or holding enclosures, providing dismounted musketeers to support regular cavalry.. In the closing stages of the Battle of Naseby Okey's Dragoons, who had started the action as dismounted musketeers, got on their horses and charged the first time this was done.
Supplied with inferior horses and more basic equipment, the dragoon regiments were cheaper to recruit and maintain than the expensive regiments of cavalry. When in the 17th century Gustav II Adolf introduced dragoons into the Swedish Army, he provided them with a sabre, an axe and a matchlock musket, utilizing them as "labourers on horseback". Many of the European armies henceforth imitated this all-purpose set of weaponry. A non-military use of dragoons was the 1681 Dragonnades, a policy instituted by Louis XIV to intimidate Huguenot families into either leaving France or re-converting to Catholicism by billeting ill-disciplined dragoons in Protestant households. While other categories of infantry and cavalry were used, the mobility and available numbers of the dragoon regiments made them suitable for repressive work of this nature over a wide area. In the Spanish Army, Pedro de la Puente organized a body of dragoons in Innsbruck in 1635. In 1640, a tercio of a thousand dragoons armed with the arquebus was created in Spain.
By the end of the 17th century, the Spanish Army had three tercios of dragoons in Spain, plus three in the Netherlands and three more in Milan. In 1704, the Spanish dragoons were reorganised into regiments by Philip V, as were the rest of the tercios. Towards the end of 1776, George Washington realized the need for a mounted branch of the American military. In January 1777 four regiments of light dragoons were raised. Short term enlistments were abandoned and the dragoons joined for three years, or "the war", they participated in most of the major engagements of the American War of Independence, including the Battles of White Plains, Princeton, Germantown, Saratoga and Monmouth, as well as the Yorktown campaign. Dragoons were at a disadvantage when engaged against true cavalry, sought to improve their horsemanship and social status. By the Seven Years' War the primary role of dragoons in most European armies had progressed from that of mounted infantry to that of heavy cavalry. Earlier dragoon responsibilities for scouting and picket duty had passed to hussars and similar light cavalry corps in the French, Austrian and other armies.
In the Imperial Russian Army, due to the availability of the Cossack troops, the dragoons were retained in their original role for much longer. An exception t
Chester, Illinois
Chester is a city in and the county seat of Randolph County, United States, on a bluff above the Mississippi River. The population was 8,586 at the 2010 census, it lies 61 miles south of Missouri. Samuel Smith built the first home in Chester, established a ferry system, began the construction of a mill in 1829, he is said to be the town's founder. It was his wife Jane Smith, a native of Chester, who gave Chester its name as a tribute to her home town; the first business in Chester was a general store that opened in 1830 along with a castor oil press established by R. B. Servant, who furnished farmers with seed and growing methods to buy the beans they produced for oil extraction; this was a flourishing business. The first wedding in the town of Chester was held on February 4, 1834. Content Walker, the bride and Amzi Andrews, the groom held their wedding in a 16 feet square log cabin; the H. C. Cole Milling Company was founded by Nathan Cole in 1839, it started out as a small sawmill with a corn-grinding attachment which encouraged the townspeople to plant grains, in a short time the first Cole flour mill was built.
The mill still exists in Chester but it is now operated by Ardent Mills. Nathan Cole brought the first electric generator to Chester and used the surplus of power from the mill to operate street lights; this was a modern convenience, not available in Chicago at that point. The generator is now on display at the Ford Museum in Michigan. In 1916, Messrs. Bronson, Albert Gilster, Frank Wolff and John Herschbach developed the site for the International Shoe Company in the center of town where the Gilster Mary Lee Corp. is today. In 1922, a second building was built, the company had more than 1000 employees and was producing thousands of pairs of children's shoes. << During World War Two, the factory operated by women produced military/combat boots for the troops in service. Lenora Mae Tilton Hathaway was a shop foreman during this time. Anecdotal account directly from Lenora Mae Tilton Hathaway to her son Vaughn Edward Hathaway, Jr.. Mrs Hathaway worked at the factory until her death in 1947. >> In 1953, payroll reached over $2,000,000.
The factory was closed by the company in the early 1960s after 45 years of operation. In 1925, the Prim Hosiery Mill was a knitting mill that began operations under Joshua Richman with 50 employees; the mill grew to employ more than 275 people and produced over 300,000 pairs of stockings a month with annual payroll exceeding $700,000. The knitting mill continued operations through the 1960s; the building still stands as one of the Gilster Mary Lee Corp. factory buildings. Construction began for the Chester Pool in 1939 as part of a Works Progress Administration public works program to create employment during the Great Depression, it was completed in 1941, although due to the delivery of the filtration system being delayed it did not open until May 30, 1942, under the management of William Weber. A total of 250 swimmers visited the swimming pool in the first week and were charged 15 cents for weekdays and 25 cents for weekends. Due to leaks, the pool has been closed since 2014. Chester is the "Home of Popeye," where a 6-foot, 900-pound bronze statue of Popeye the Sailor Man stands in the Elzie C.
Segar Memorial Park, which honors Popeye's creator, Elzie Segar. The park is located next to the Chester Bridge. Several of Mr. Segar's characters were created from experiences with people of Chester. Chester's big event is parade, held the weekend after Labor Day. Popeye fans travel from all over the United States and the world to partake in the weekend activities. Most of the events and entertainment are family friendly. New statues honoring the other Thimble Theater characters are added each year; this character trail is spread throughout Chester and to date includes: Popeye J. Wellington Wimpy "Olive Oyl, Swee' Pea, Jeep" "Bluto" "Castor Oyl and Whiffle Hen" "Sea Hag" "Cole Oyl" "Alice The Goon" Poopdeck Pappy Professor Watasnozzle Roughhouse Pipeye, Pupeye and Poopeye, Popeye's four nephews King Blozo Nana Oyl Popeye's Picnic is an event held in Chester the Friday and Sunday following Labor Day in the month of September. Popeye's Picnic consists of rides, food stands and fireworks; the Popeye Parade is held on a Saturday morning.
Before the parade there is a run for anyone who wants to participate. Medals and trophies are awarded to the top walkers in each age category. A Popeye T-shirt is included with each entry. Many people from different towns participate in this parade; the parade consists of local school bands, band fronts, such as dance teams and cheerleaders, floats from various businesses, fire departments, veterans representing the United States, politicians marching, clowns passing out stickers and candy, horses trail the parade. Many people and businesses help donate money and time; the Chester area includes a number of historic sites. The Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Site has a beautiful overlook of the Mississippi River. Down the hill from the park is the Pierre Menard Home, an unusually fine example of French Creole-style architecture, built around 1815 and was the home of the first lieutenant governor of Illinois. Across the river from the fort is Kaskaskia Island, the only part of Illinois west of the current channel of the Mississippi River.
The island was the site of the first state capital of Illinois. A historic church founded by French explorer Pere Jacques Marquette still holds weekly mass on the island. The
Jackson County, Illinois
Jackson County is a county located in the U. S. state of Illinois with a population of 60,218 at the 2010 United States Census. Its county seat is Murphysboro, its most populous city is Carbondale, home to the main campus of Southern Illinois University; the county was named for Andrew Jackson. The community of Brownsville served as the fledgling county's first seat. Jackson County is included in IL Metropolitan Statistical Area, it is located in the southern portion of Illinois known locally as "Little Egypt". Human occupation of Jackson County began about 11,500 years ago. Extensive documentation of the area's indigenous peoples is ongoing. Exploration from the European explorers began with the Joliet-Marquette exploration along the Mississippi River, it was not until the 18th and 19th century when pioneer farmers began to settle in the area's inexpensive land along the Mississippi River and in the forested Shawnee hills with its one-hundred-foot trees. As early as 1810 William Boone and his indentured servant Peter mined coal from the banks along Big Muddy River.
This was Illinois' first coal mine. By 1813, Conrad Will, namesake of Will County, conducted a large salt extraction operation using slave labor on the banks of the Big Muddy River, south of today's Murphysboro; as this was in the "free" Northwest Territory, Will had to have a legal exemption to own slaves. Jackson County, Illinois' ninth county to be organized, was organized in 1816, having been carved out of Randolph County, Illinois on the north and Johnson County, Illinois on the South, it was named for Andrew Jackson, who had just defeated the British Army at the Battle of New Orleans. Brownsville, located near Will's salt works, was established as the county seat; when the courthouse burned in 1843, the county voted to move the county seat to a more central location. Murphysboro, located on land owned by Dr. John and Elizabeth Logan, became the second county seat in September 1843, it was named after William C. Murphy, one of the three Commissioners appointed to select the site. Civil War Major General John A. Logan, Dr. John and Elizabeth Logan's son, was born in what is now Murphysboro on February 9, 1826.
During the Civil War he moved to Carbondale, about 10 miles east of his birthplace. He moved to Chicago in 1871. During his residence in Carbondale, he took part in a Memorial Day observation at that city's Woodlawn Cemetery. In 1868, Logan, as Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued General Order No. 11 which established Memorial Day as a national holiday. On 18 March 1925, the great Tri-State Tornado ripped through Jackson County, leaving devastation in its path; the villages of Gorham and DeSoto and the city of Murphysboro were hit hard. The county courthouse is in downtown Murphysboro; the current reinforced concrete courthouse, completed in 1928, replaced earlier brick structures. According to the US Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 602 square miles, of which 584 square miles is land and 18 square miles is water; the average elevation is around 400 feet, except near the Mississippi River. The first coal mine in Illinois was opened on the south bank of the Big Muddy River near the present-day Route 127 Bridge.
In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Murphysboro have ranged from a low of 21 °F in January to a high of 88 °F in July, although a record low of −25 °F was recorded in January 1977 and a record high of 113 °F was recorded in August 1930. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 2.91 inches in January to 4.78 inches in May. Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge Shawnee National Forest Giant City State Park As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 60,218 people, 25,538 households, 12,621 families residing in the county; the population density was 103.1 inhabitants per square mile. There were 28,578 housing units at an average density of 48.9 per square mile. The racial makeup of the county was 77.8% white, 14.3% black or African American, 3.2% Asian, 0.4% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific islander, 1.6% from other races, 2.6% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 4.0% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 26.0% were German, 14.5% were Irish, 10.6% were English, 5.7% were American.
Of the 25,538 households, 23.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.5% were married couples living together, 10.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 50.6% were non-families, 35.1% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.87. The median age was 29.1 years. The median income for a household in the county was $32,169 and the median income for a family was $50,787. Males had a median income of $42,747 versus $31,244 for females; the per capita income for the county was $19,294. About 17.4% of families and 28.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.1% of those under age 18 and 7.9% of those age 65 or over. Much of the county's economic situation is dependent upon Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the city of Carbondale. A developing city, it is part of the Metro Lakeland area consisting of the major communities of Carbondale, Marion and Carterville; the outer regions of the Metro include Murphysboro, the rest of Jackson County, the rest of Williamson County, Perry County, Saline County.
Jackson County is located near the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail. Once a small business, the wine trail has evolved into a booming tourist attraction. Harrison Brownsville Jackson County has had a distinctive political history owing to the combination of its typically
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