Lexington, Illinois
| Lexington | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname : THE MINUTEMEN | |||
Location in Illinois
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| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1836 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Illinois | ||
| County : | McLean County | ||
| Coordinates : | 40 ° 38 ′ N , 88 ° 47 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 ) | ||
| Residents : | 1,912 (as of: 2000) | ||
| Population density : | 637.3 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 3.0 km 2 (approx. 1 mi 2 ) of which 3.0 km 2 (approx. 1 mi 2 ) are land |
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| Height : | 229 m | ||
| Postal code : | 61753 | ||
| Area code : | +1 309 | ||
| FIPS : | 17-43094 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 411977 | ||
| Website : | www.lexingtonillinois.org | ||
| Mayor : | Spencer Johansen | ||
Lexington is a city in McLean County in the US state Illinois , with 1,912 inhabitants (2000).
geography
Lexington's geographic coordinates are 40 ° 38 ′ N , 88 ° 47 ′ W (40.6414237, −88.7834001). The place is on a railway line of the Illinois Central Railroad . The ramp to Interstate 55 is about two kilometers west of the town center. The Mackinaw River flows past Lexington approximately one mile southwest.
According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 3.0 km² and does not contain any significant body of water.
Lexington is named after Lexington , Massachusetts and Lexington , Kentucky . Gridley's father had fought at the Battle of Lexington , Massachusetts in the Revolutionary War, and Brown was from Lexington, Kentucky.
history
Origins
Lexington was founded on January 4, 1836 by Asahel Gridley (1810-1881) and James Brown (around 1802-?). Gridley was a Bloomington lawyer and banker who eventually became the richest man in McLean County; Brown was born in Lexington , Kentucky , and Lexington, Illinois appears to have been his only attempt to start a city. The city was founded at the time of a real estate boom that swept across the nation. Within a few months, seven other new cities were founded in McLean County: Concord (now Danvers ), Hudson , Le Roy , Livingston , Lytleville, Mt. Hope and Wilksborough. As with other cities founded during the boom in 1836, and unlike many other cities, Lexington was built around a centrally located public square. The right-angled street grid was aligned exactly to the north. In the case of Lexington, the original floor plan was 36 blocks, each with six lots . Like many towns of the time, Lexington was on the border between prairie and woodland, and the southeast corner of town was already in the woods. Like many other cities on the Mackinaw River, Lexington was built on higher ground, somewhat away from the river.
Before the railway was built
Gridley and Brown put the first lots in town up for sale on April 30, 1836. In their printed brochures, the city founders promised that Lexington was on the main road from Springfield to Bloomington to Chicago , and a mile from the Mackinaw River . They wrote that Lexington was “on the edge of a gently rolling prairie, near a great and inexhaustible supply of the best wood the land has to offer. They told the potential buyers that there were two sail mills and one flour mill. Also, they said, the construction of the city has already started. A twelve-month loan can be made available to those who offer good collateral. "
But between 1837 and 1854 the survival of the newly founded city was in doubt. The great land rush of 1836 resulted in a long nationwide depression. While Gridley's and Brown's statements that they had already started building the town were true, the first completed structure was used as a shop that broke before a year was up. The building was dismantled and moved to Bloomington. The first residence was also occupied for a short time, but was then moved to the rival town of Clarksville , a few miles downstream. Besides, no one knew exactly what route the Springfield to Chicago road would take. Clarksville tried to win construction of the road through its area by building a bridge over the river, and Pleasant Hill , founded upriver town in 1840, also tried everything to attract traffic. The county government eventually began collecting taxes on unsold lots in town; In the early 1850s, more than 300 parcels were put up for sale to pay the unpaid taxes. The central square of the city was used for grazing cattle. Yet some residents continued to believe in Lexington's success. Jacob Spawr (1802-1902) had come to Lexington a year after the shop had closed, where he built a house; this actually consisted of two huts facing each other that had a common roof. This structure served as accommodation, post office and inn. With Lexington halfway between the county seats in Pontiac and Bloomington, Spawr's house was a convenient resting place. The future President Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas were regular guests. The 1850 United States Census recorded Spawr's occupation as a landlord. By 1854 only about a dozen families were estimated to be living in Lexington.
Construction of the railroad
On July 4, 1854, what would later become known as the Chicago and Alton Railroad reached Lexington. This changed a lot. A warehouse for grain was dragged to the other side of the railroad tracks, received a platform and was used as a station building. Dawson and McCurdy built a grain elevator , and three denominations built church buildings. The town had its own administration, and the town’s first official act was to buy up and throw away the stocks of two local whiskey dealers. The Mahan brothers built a windmill and a new hotel was built. Lexington was booming. In 1865 the first brick building was built. On November 21, 1860, a train brought Abraham Lincoln to Lexington. He said a few words of farewell to his old friends; when another train passed through Lexington shortly before noon on May 2, 1865, it was carrying Lincoln's body.
People v. Chicago and Alton Railroad Company
The city of Lexington soon became the focus of a trial that would change American legal history. After the railroads began to open up the American Midwest , it turned out that the railroad companies could siphon off much of the wealth of the farmers quite easily because they were able to unilaterally set the transportation prices for freight. As a result, new legislation in 1870 enabled the state government to play a role in setting transportation and storage prices; the wording and the legal basis behind this part of the new laws came from the pen of the lawyer Ruben M. Benjamin (1833-1917) practicing in Bloomington. A test case was needed and Benjamin settled on Lexington. The Chicago and Alton Railroad charged four dollars and 35 cents to move 1,000 board feet of wood from Chicago to Bloomington, but charged five dollars to move the same amount on the shorter route from Chicago to Lexington. In 1871 Benjamin filed a lawsuit against the railway company. The latter argued that they had to set their price for the transport to Bloomington lower because they were exposed to more competition in this relation than on the route to Lexington. The case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court , where People v. The Chicago and Alton Railroad Company became part of the Granger Cases, named after the Granges of the Patrons of Husbandry who sued in favor of regulating freight prices. These cases allowed state governments to regulate railroad freight rates for at least a while.
President Roosevelt visits Lexington
Of all the events in Lexington history, President Theodore Roosevelt's visit to the city is the most significant for the city. On the afternoon of July 15, 1902, a crowd of 20,000 gathered near the tracks of the railway line where a long grandstand had been erected and decorated in red, white and blue. The President of the United States and hero of the Battle of San Juan Hill shook hands with the reception committee but refused to get off the train. From the platform of a carriage at the end of the train, he gave a short speech that was received with applause by the audience. Roosevelt's visit was the only one incumbent president to Lexington to date.
Lexington and Route 66
Transport has always been key to Lexington's successful development. The city was initially a rest stop on the Chicago Trail, and the first mention of the city's name in the press in 1836 indicated the city's location on the road from Springfield to Chicago . Their existence was secured by Lexington becoming a station on the railway line between the two cities. As rail traffic slowly declined in the 20th century, traffic increasingly shifted to the road. When the Second World War broke out, only two passenger trains stopped a day; in 1946, passenger traffic was stopped.
In 1915 a paved road was built, which was initially referred to as Route 4 and ran parallel to the railway line that was then part of the Chicago and Alton Railroad . After the renumbering of the United States Highways in November 1926, the highway was given the name that would later make it famous: Route 66 . During the next five decades, Lexington became a frequented stop on what is arguably America's most famous street. In 1955, Route 66 in the Lexington area was expanded to four lanes. It was in operation until 1978 when Interstate 55, which ran largely parallel, was opened to traffic. At Lexington, however, much of the old highway is still passable.
Attractions
The John Patton Log Cabin , a 1829 built log cabin , located in a park in Lexington.
Demographics
The residents are German (34.5%), Irish (16.7%), American (13.9%), British (13.2%), French (3.9%) and Dutch (3.5%) Ancestry.
sons and daughters of the town
- Alice Ambrose (1906-2001), from 1964 to 1972 as a philosopher at Smith College operates
- Ed Kinsella , (1880–1976) Major League Baseball pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates and St. Louis Browns
- John A. Sterling (1857-1918), from 1903 to 1913 and again from 1915 to 1918 Congressman for Illinois
- Alex Tanney , substitute for the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback
- William R. Roy (1926-2014), who represented Kansas in the United States House of Representatives from 1971 to 1975, attended school in Lexington.
Web links
supporting documents
- ↑ 2010 Census US Gazetteer Files for Places - Illinois ( English ) United States Census. Archived from the original on January 12, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
- ↑ James Calloun: Place Names of Illinois . University of Illinois Press, 2009, ISBN 9780252033568 , p. 198.
- ^ History of McLean County, Illinois (Chicago: William LeBaron, 1879) pp 190-191.
- ^ Sublett, Michael D., William D. Walters, Jr. and Sotherd Modry, Commentary on a Cornbelt Countryside (Bloomington: Illinois State University Department of Geography-Geology, 1973) pp. 105-107
- ↑ McLean County Combined Atlases, 1856-1914 (Bloomington: McLean County Historical Society and McLean County, Genealogical Society, 2006) iv-vi, 2-3, 113
- ↑ Sangamo Journal (Springfield, Illinois) April 16, 1836, p. 3
- ^ History of McLean County , 1879, p. 489.
- ↑ Pantagraph (Bloomington, Illinois) January 15, 1851
- ^ History of McLean County , 1879, p. 490.
- ^ Lexington, Illinois, 150 years (Lexington: Sesquicentennial Committee, 2007) pp. 34-35.
- ^ Hasbrouck, Jacob, History of McLean County, Illinois (Topeka and Indianapolis: Historical Publishing Company, 1924) 2: 108
- ^ Architectural Historical Tour: Lexington, Illinois (McLean County Arts Council 1979).
- ^ History of McLean County , 1879, pp. 34-35.
- ^ Solan Justice Buck, The Granger Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1913) p. 141.
- ↑ Lexington Illinois, 2007, p. 31.
- ↑ Lexington, Illinois , 2007, pp. 35-37.
