1.
Illinois
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Illinois is a state in the midwestern region of the United States, achieving statehood in 1818. It is the 6th most populous state and 25th largest state in terms of land area, the word Illinois comes from a French rendering of a native Algonquin word. For decades, OHare International Airport has been ranked as one of the worlds busiest airports, Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and politics. With the War of 1812 Illinois growth slowed as both Native Americans and Canadian forces often raided the American Frontier, mineral finds and timber stands also had spurred immigration—by the 1810s, the Eastern U. S. Railroads arose and matured in the 1840s, and soon carried immigrants to new homes in Illinois, as well as being a resource to ship their commodity crops out to markets. Railroads freed most of the land of Illinois and other states from the tyranny of water transport. By 1900, the growth of jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted a new group of immigrants. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars, the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in Chicago, who created the citys famous jazz and blues cultures. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was the only U. S. president born and raised in Illinois. Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official slogan, Land of Lincoln. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is located in the capital of Springfield. Illinois is the spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers name for the Illinois Native Americans. American scholars previously thought the name Illinois meant man or men in the Miami-Illinois language and this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for man is ireniwa and plural men is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has also said to mean tribe of superior men. The name Illinois derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa he speaks the regular way and this was taken into the Ojibwe language, perhaps in the Ottawa dialect, and modified into ilinwe·. The French borrowed these forms, changing the ending to spell it as -ois. The current spelling form, Illinois, began to appear in the early 1670s, the Illinois 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 has been excavated and demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Hugh Mercer
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Hugh Mercer was a Scottish soldier and physician. Mercer died as a result of his wounds received at the Battle of Princeton and became a fallen hero and rallying symbol of the American Revolution. Mercer was born near Rosehearty, at the manse of Pitsligo Kirk, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to Church of Scotland minister Reverend William Mercer of Pitsligo Parish Kirk, at 15, he attended the University of Aberdeen, Marischal College, studying medicine and graduated a Doctor. As a fugitive in his own homeland in 1747, Mercer fled Scotland after months in hiding and he bought his way onto a ship and moved to America, settling near what is now Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and practiced medicine for eight years. He came to the aid of the wounded and eventually took up arms in support of the army that a few years prior had hunted him, this time as a soldier, not a surgeon. By 1756, he was commissioned a captain in a Pennsylvania regiment, during the attack, Mercer was badly wounded and separated from his unit. He trekked 100 miles through the woods for fourteen days, injured and with no supplies, until he found his way back to Fort Shirley and he rose to the rank of colonel and commanded garrisons. It was during this period that Mercer developed a lifelong and warm friendship with another colonel, both Washington and Mercer served under British General John Forbes during the second attempt to capture Fort Duquesne. Forbes occupied the fort on November 25,1758. Forbes immediately ordered the construction of a new fortification to be named Fort Pitt and he also named the settlement between the rivers Pittsborough, modern Pittsburgh. Forbes’s health, which had been poor for much of the campaign, on December 3,1758, now gravely ill, Forbes began the arduous journey back to Philadelphia leaving Colonel Hugh Mercer in command of Fort Pitt. General Forbes died in Philadelphia on March 11,1759 and he was buried in Christ Church in Philadelphia. Mercers first task was to construct a fort to hold the two forms of the Ohio in case the French were able to execute their plans to return in the Spring of 1759. Drawings of the call this temporary fortification Mercers Fort. It stood at the site of what is today a lot between Point State Park and the Pittsburgh Post Gazette Building. After befriending several Virginia men, Mercer moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1760 to begin his medical practice anew at the conclusion of the war. When Mercer arrived in Fredericksburg, it was a thriving Scottish community that must have been a sanctuary for a Scotsman who could never again see his homeland. He became a member and businessman in town, buying land
4.
Illinois's 17th congressional district
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The 17th Congressional District of Illinois is represented by Democrat Cheri Bustos. It includes most of the portion of the state, with most of its population living on the Illinois side of the Quad Cities, as well as parts of Peoria. The 17th congressional district has shifted northward after the 2012 redistricting and it lost Quincy and Decatur, as well as its share of Springfield. It was generally thought that the map would allow the district to revert to the Democrats. As expected, one-term Republican incumbent Bobby Schilling was defeated by Democratic opponent Cheri Bustos in the 2012 election cycle, all or parts of Canton, East Moline, Freeport, Galesburg, Kewanee, Moline, Peoria, Rock Island, Rockford, Pekin and Sterling are included. The representatives for these districts were elected in the 2012 primary and general elections, from 2003 to 2013 the district was known as the rabbit on a skateboard for its unusual shape devised as the outcome of gerrymandering. The boundaries were drawn in a deal to protect both Democratic incumbent Lane Evans and neighboring Republican incumbents. The lines of the district were drawn to move Republican voters into neighboring districts and to include Democratic neighborhoods in Springfield, as of May 2015, two former members of the U. S. House of Representatives from Illinoiss 17th congressional district are alive. The most recent representative to die was Lane Evans on November 5,2014, Illinoiss congressional districts List of United States congressional districts Gerrymander Martis, Kenneth C. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress, the Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts
5.
Davenport, Iowa
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Davenport was founded on May 14,1836 by Antoine Le Claire and was named for his friend, George Davenport, a colonel during the Black Hawk War stationed at nearby Fort Armstrong. According to the 2010 census, the city had a population of 99,685, located approximately halfway between Chicago and Des Moines, Davenport is on the border of Iowa and Illinois. The city is prone to frequent flooding due to its location on the Mississippi River, there are two main universities, Saint Ambrose University and Palmer College of Chiropractic, which is where the first chiropractic adjustment took place. Several annual music festivals take place in Davenport, including the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, The Mississippi Valley Fair, an internationally known 7-mile foot race called the Bix 7 is run during the festival. The city has a Class A minor league team, the Quad Cities River Bandits. Davenport has 50 plus parks and facilities, as well as over 20 miles of paths for biking or walking. Four interstates and two major United States Highways serve the city, Davenport has seen steady population growth since its incorporation, with an exception being the 1980s, when the population decreased due to job loss. The Quad Cities was ranked as the most affordable metropolitan area in 2010 by Forbes, in 2007, Davenport, along with neighboring Rock Island, won the City Livability Award in the small-city category from the U. S. In 2012, Davenport as well as the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area was ranked among the areas in the nation in the growth of high-tech jobs. The current mayor of Davenport is Frank Klipsch, the land was originally owned by the Sauk people, Meskwaki, and Ho-Chunk – indigenous peoples of the Americas. In 1803 France sold it to the United States under the Louisiana Purchase, lieutenant Zebulon Pike was the first United States representative to officially visit the Upper Mississippi River area. On August 27,1805, Pike camped on the present day site of Davenport, in 1832, a group of Sauk, Meskwaki, and Kickapoo people were defeated by the United States in the Black Hawk War. The United States government then concluded the Black Hawk Purchase, sometimes called the Forty-Mile Strip or Scotts Purchase, the purchase was made for $640,000 on September 21,1832 and contained an area of some 6 million acres, at a price equivalent to 11 cents/acre. Although named after the defeated chief Black Hawk, he was being held prisoner at the time, the purchase was therefore agreed to by Sauk chief Keokuk, who had remained neutral in the war. It was made on the site of present-day Davenport, army General Winfield Scott and Governor of Illinois, John Reynolds, acted on behalf of the United States, with the future Davenport founder, half-Native, Antoine Le Claire serving as translator. Chief Keokuk gave a portion of land to Antoine Le Claires wife, Marguerite. Antoine built their home on the spot where the agreement was signed. Antoine did so, finishing the Treaty House in the spring of 1833, Davenport was established on May 14,1836 by Le Claire, and named after his friend Colonel George Davenport, who was stationed at Fort Armstrong during the war
6.
Moline, Illinois
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Moline is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 43,977 in 2010, it is the largest city in Rock Island County, Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and the cities of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. The Quad Cities has an estimate of 381,342. The city is the ninth-most populated city in Illinois outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area. S, Quad City International Airport, Niabi Zoo, Black Hawk College, and the Quad Cities campus of Western Illinois University-Quad Cities. Moline is a hub for the Illinois Quad Cities, as South Park Mall. In the mid-1990s, the city undertook major efforts to revitalize its central business district, today, Molines downtown again serves as one of the civic and recreational hubs of the Quad Cities, many events take place at the 12, 000-seat iWireless Center and at John Deere Commons. Downtown Moline features hotels such as Radisson and Stoney Creek Inn, and commercial areas such as Bass Street Landing, the city of Moline is nestled beside and on a broad bluff situated between the banks of the Mississippi River and Rock River in Rock Island County, Illinois. The citys highland areas are cut across by many ravines that break up the city into natural neighborhoods. The city is bounded to the east by East Moline and to the west by Rock Island, Moline is located approximately 165 miles west of Chicago and approximately 164 miles northwest of Springfield, Illinois. The area is served by four highways, Interstate 74, Interstate 280, Interstate 80. This airport is the third busiest one in the state of Illinois, following Chicagos OHare International Airport and Midway Airport. According to the 2010 census, the city has an area of 16.66 square miles. Temperatures reach 100 °F only several years per decade, and −20 °F readings are even rarer, the average window for freezing temperatures is October 10 thru April 24, allowing a growing season of 168 days. Snowfall averages 31.6 inches per season, but has ranged as low as 11.1 in in 1901–02 to 69.7 in in 1974–75, on average, measurable snow occurs from November 21 to March 26, and rarely in October. Unlike much of the Midwest, measurable snow has never occurred in May. Indigenous peoples of varying cultures inhabited areas along the river over thousands of years, using it for transportation, water and this tribe saw the land between the Rock and Mississippi rivers as ideal for farming and fishing. In 1832 Chief Black Hawk declared war on the United States, when the war ended later that year, Black Hawk and his people were forced to leave the area and go north, paving the way for more European-American settlers to enter the Mississippi Valley. Sears and a group of associates built a 600-foot stone-and-brush dam across Sylvan Slough, thereby connecting the southern bank of the Mississippi River to what is today called Arsenal Island
7.
Rock Island, Illinois
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Rock Island is a city in and the county seat of Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. The original Rock Island, from which the city name is derived, is the largest island on the Mississippi River and it is now called Arsenal Island. The population was 39,018 at the 2010 census, located on the Mississippi River, it is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring Moline, East Moline, and the Iowa cities of Davenport and Bettendorf. The Quad Cities has a population of about 380,000, the city is home to Rock Island Arsenal, the largest government-owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the US, which employs 6,000 people. Theres a wide variety of housing available in Rock Island including historic homes, new downtown condos, new construction in the heart of the city, the Rock Island-Milan School District, Rockridge School District along with private schools, serve the city. The District has art galleries and theaters, nightclubs and coffee shops, golf courses, parks, a casino, botanical center, marina, historic tours, bike paths, and festivals offer entertainment opportunities. In 2015 Rock Island was ranked the 32nd Best Small City in the based on economic health, affordability. Rock Island made the list of the nations 25 Most Affordable Housing Markets and this area has been a fortuitous place first for settlement and then for steamboat traffic, bridges, and railroads. Various Native American tribes occupied this area for thousands of years before settlement, by the early nineteenth century, it was occupied chiefly by the historic Sauk tribe. Their major village of Saukenuk was located on the side of Rock Island. After the War of 1812, the United States built Fort Armstrong on the island for defensive reasons in 1816, Saukenuk was the birthplace of the Sauk war chief Black Hawk, for whom the Black Hawk War of 1831–1832 was named. Fort Armstrong served as the US militarys headquarters for the war, today the Black Hawk State Historic Site, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, includes much of the site of the original village of Saukenuk. The park includes a museum and a number of hiking trails along the Rock River, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was founded here in 1851. It was informally known as the Rock Island Line, as part of later nineteenth-century development, two first-class hotels, the Harper House and the Rock Island House were built in town. Rock Island Arsenal has manufactured military equipment and ordnance for the U. S. Army since the 1880s, the railroad was liquidated in bankruptcy in 1980. The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River was built between Arsenal Island and Davenport in 1856, two weeks after the bridge opened, the steamboat Effie Afton collided with the bridge, caught fire, and damaged the bridge. The owner of the Effie Afton sued the company for damages. This test case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court, although the original bridge is long gone, a monument exists on Arsenal Island marking the Illinois side
8.
Quad Cities
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The Quad Cities is a region of four counties in northwest Illinois and Southeastern Iowa. The urban core consists of four cities, Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. These cities are the center of the Quad Cities Metropolitan Area, which as of 2013 had an estimate of 383,781. At the time of European encounter, it was a home and principal trading place of the Sauk, Saukenuk was the principal village of the Sauk tribe and birthplace of its 19th-century war chief, Black Hawk. In 1832, Sauk chief Keokuk and General Winfield Scott signed a treaty in Davenport after the US defeated the Sauk, the treaty resulted in the Native Americans ceding six million acres of land to the United States in exchange for a much smaller reservation elsewhere. Black Hawk State Historic Site in Rock Island preserves part of historic Saukenuk and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the history of urban settlements in the Quad-Cities was stimulated by riverboat traffic. For 14 miles between LeClaire, Iowa, and Rock Island, the Mississippi River flowed across a series of finger-like rock projections protruding from either bank and these rapids were difficult for steamboats to traverse. As demand for river-based transportation increased along the upper Mississippi, the navigability of the river throughout the Rock Island Rapids became a greater concern, over time, a minor industry grew up in the area to meet the steamboats needs. Today, the rocks are submerged six feet underwater by a formed by two locks and dams. As the Industrial Revolution developed in the United States, many enterprising industrialists looked to the Mississippi River as a source of water power. The combination of energy and easy access to river transportation attracted entrepreneurs, in 1848, John Deere moved his plough business to Moline. His business was incorporated as Deere & Company in 1868, Deere & Company is the largest employer today in the Quad Cities. The first railroad built across the Mississippi River connected Davenport. It was built by the Rock Island Railroad Company, and replaced the seasonal ferry service. Steamboaters saw the nationwide railroads as a threat to their business, on May 6,1856, just weeks after completion of the bridge, an angry steamboater crashed the Effie Afton into it. John Hurd, the owner of the Effie Afton, filed a lawsuit against the Rock Island Railroad Company, the Rock Island Railroad Company selected Abraham Lincoln as their trial lawyer and won after he took the case to the US Supreme Court. Phillip Suiter was one of his expert witnesses and it was a pivotal trial in Lincolns career. After the civil war, the region began to gain a common identity, the river towns that were thoughtfully planned and competently led flourished, while other settlements, usually get-rich-quick schemes for speculators, failed to pan out
9.
Arkansas
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Arkansas is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Its name is of Siouan derivation from the language of the Osage denoting their related kin, the states diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and the Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U. S. Interior Highlands, to the forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River. Arkansas is the 29th largest by area and the 33rd most populous of the 50 United States, the capital and most populous city is Little Rock, located in the central portion of the state, a hub for transportation, business, culture, and government. The northwestern corner of the state, such as the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers Metropolitan Area and Fort Smith metropolitan area, is a population, education, the largest city in the eastern part of the state is Jonesboro. The largest city in the part of the state is Pine Bluff. The Territory of Arkansas was admitted to the Union as the 25th state on June 15,1836, in 1861 Arkansas withdrew from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. Upon returning to the Union in 1868, the state would continue to suffer due to its reliance on slavery. White rural interests continued to dominate the politics until the Civil Rights Movement. Arkansas began to diversify its economy following World War II and relies on its service industry, aircraft, poultry, steel, tourism, cotton, and rice. The culture of Arkansas is observable in museums, theaters, novels, television shows, restaurants, wright, and physicist William L. McMillan, who was a pioneer in superconductor research, have all lived in Arkansas. The name Arkansas derives from the root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansa tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains, the word Arkansas itself is a French pronunciation of a Quapaw word, akakaze, meaning land of downriver people or the Sioux word akakaze meaning people of the south wind. In 2007, the legislature passed a non-binding resolution declaring the possessive form of the states name to be Arkansass which has been followed increasingly by the state government. Arkansas borders Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, Oklahoma to the west, Missouri to the north, as well as Tennessee, the United States Census Bureau classifies Arkansas as a southern state, sub-categorized among the West South Central States. The state line along the Mississippi River is indeterminate along much of the border with Mississippi due to these changes. Arkansas can generally be split into two halves, the highlands in the northwest half and the lowlands of the southeastern half, the highlands are part of the Southern Interior Highlands, including The Ozarks and the Ouachita Mountains. The southern lowlands include the Gulf Coastal Plain and the Arkansas Delta and this dual split can yield to general regions named northwest, southwest, northeast, southeast, or central Arkansas
10.
Michigan
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Michigan /ˈmɪʃᵻɡən/ is a state in the Great Lakes and Midwestern regions of the United States. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, Michigan is the tenth most populous of the 50 United States, with the 11th most extensive total area. Its capital is Lansing, and its largest city is Detroit, Michigan is the only state to consist of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, the two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge. The state has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, as a result, it is one of the leading U. S. states for recreational boating. Michigan also has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds, a person in the state is never more than six miles from a natural water source or more than 85 miles from a Great Lakes shoreline. What is now the state of Michigan was first settled by Native American tribes before being colonized by French explorers in the 17th century, the area was organized as part of the larger Northwest Territory until 1800, when western Michigan became part of the Indiana Territory. Eventually, in 1805, the Michigan Territory was formed, which lasted until it was admitted into the Union on January 26,1837, the state of Michigan soon became an important center of industry and trade in the Great Lakes region and a popular immigrant destination. Though Michigan has come to develop an economy, it is widely known as the center of the U. S. automotive industry. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous tribes were Algonquian peoples, which include the Anishinaabe groups of Ojibwe, Odaawaa/Odawa, the three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. The Ojibwe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the largest, French voyageurs and coureurs des bois explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlés expedition in 1622, the first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as a base for Catholic missions, missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette. Jesuit missionaries were received by the areas Indian populations, with relatively few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph, in 1691, the French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present day city of Niles. The hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent, cadillacs wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first European women to settle in the Michigan wilderness. The town quickly became a major fur-trading and shipping post, the Église de Saint-Anne was founded the same year
Mercer County, Illinois
