Muscatine

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Muscatine
Center of Muscatine overlooking the Mississippi
Center of Muscatine overlooking the Mississippi
Location in Iowa
Muscatine County Iowa Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Muscatine Highlighted.svg
Basic data
Foundation : 1839 (as Bloomington)
State : United States
State : Iowa
County : Muscatine County
Coordinates : 41 ° 25 ′  N , 91 ° 3 ′  W Coordinates: 41 ° 25 ′  N , 91 ° 3 ′  W
Time zone : Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 )
Residents : 22,697 (as of: 2000)
Population density : 520.6 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 46.3 km 2  (approx. 18 mi 2 ) of
which 43.6 km 2  (approx. 17 mi 2 ) is land
Height : 177 m
Postcodes : 52761
Area code : +1 563
FIPS : 19-55110
GNIS ID : 0465186
Website : www.muscatine.com
Mayor : Richard O'Brien

Muscatine is a town and administrative center of the Muscatine County in the southeast of the US -amerikanischen state of Iowa on the west bank of the Mississippi River . In 2000 the city had 22,697 inhabitants.

geography

Muscatine is at 41 ° 25'26 "north latitude and 91 ° 02'22" west longitude. The city extends over an area of ​​46.3 km², which is spread over 43.6 km² of land and 2.7 km² of water.

Muscatine is located on the western bank of the Mississippi River, which forms the border between the states of Iowa and Illinois . In the center of the city, the Iowa Highway 38 finds its southern end point and the Iowa Highway 92 on the Norbert F. Beckey Bridge leading to Illinois its eastern end point and continues as Illinois State Route 92 to the east. The Iowa Highway 22 crosses the city from west to east. The most important traffic axis is the US Highway 61 running from south to north through the city , which is also the largest national highway through Muscatine and connects Minnesota along the Mississippi with Louisiana .

Iowa's capital, Des Moines, is 150 miles west of Muscatine. Davenport is 46 miles east, and Chicago is 324 miles away in the same direction . To the north it is 547 km to Minneapolis via Cedar Rapids and to the south it is 425 km to St. Louis .

history

In 1833 a trading post was established on the site of the present city. In 1839 the city was founded, which was then called Bloomington . Because of the confusion this common name created in the United States, the name was changed in 1849. There are two theories for the origin of the name Muscatine : The first is based on the name of the nearby Indian tribe of the Mascoutes , the second is based on the Sioux word for Tierra del Fuego (Fire Island).

Between the 1840s and the American Civil War , Muscatine had the largest black community in Iowa. This consisted of escaped slaves from the south and immigrant free Afro-Americans from the east. One of the best known leaders of the community was Alexander Clark Sr. one of Pennsylvania originating barber , who was in Muscatine for wealthy timber merchant, assisted runaway slaves fought for the abolition of racial laws in Iowa before the civil war. Clark also helped set up a regiment made up of blacks. In 1868, after a legal battle, Clark was able to have the racial barriers at Iowa's public schools lifted. In 1879, his son Alexander was the first black graduate from the University of Iowa . His father was the second graduate five years later, even though he was 58 years old at the time. Clark became a prominent member of the Republican Party and was sent as ambassador to Liberia by President Benjamin Harrison in 1890 , but died there after a year of illness.

In addition to Clark, three other diplomats came from Muscatine between 1855 and 1900: George Van Horne was consul in Marseille in the 1860s , Samuel McNutt in Maracaibo in Venezuela in 1890 and Frank M. Mahin in 1900 in Reichenberg, Austria (now Liberec , Czech Republic ).

Sam Clemens , better known as Mark Twain , worked for the local daily Muscatine Journal in 1855 , in which his brother Orion Clemens was involved. Some of his memories of Muscatine appear in his book Life on the Mississippi .

In 1884, German immigrant JF Boepple founded a factory that made buttons from mussels extracted from the Mississippi River. In 1915, Weber & Sons Button Co., Inc. was the world's largest manufacturer of mother-of-pearl buttons made from freshwater mussels. Muscatine was named Pearl of the Mississippi in reference to it . The Weber company still produces today and celebrated its centenary in 2004.

In 2007, a magnitude 3 tornado on the Fujita scale devastated large parts of the city.

Demographic data

In the 2000 census, the population was 22,697. These were distributed over 8,923 households in 6,040 families. The population density was 520.4 / km². There were 9,375 buildings, which corresponds to a building density of 214.9 / km².

The population in 2000 was 90.40% white , 1.08% African American , 0.37% American Indian , 0.65% Asian and 6.07% other. 1.44% stated that they descended from at least two of these groups. 12.30% of the population were Hispanics from any of the above groups.

26.4% were under 18 years of age, 9.2% between 18 and 24, 28.6% between 25 and 44, 21.9% between 45 and 64 and 14.0% 65 and older. The average age was 36 years. For every 100 women there were 94.7 men, among those over 18 years of age 90.2.

The median income per household was $ 38,122 and the median family income was $ 45,366. The average income for men was $ 36,440 and that of women was $ 23,953. The per capita income was $ 19,483. Around 8.0% of families and 10.9% of the total population had their income below the poverty line .

Personalities

Twin cities

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ US Postal Service - ZIP Codes
  2. ↑ Google Maps
  3. ^ History
  4. ^ The Quakers of Iowa
  5. ↑ Original title: Life on the Mississippi - German translation published by Aufbau-Verlag, ISBN 3-7466-6092-0 , 57th chapter
  6. ↑ "Terrible touchdown in Muscatine"
  7. ^ US Census Bureau - Muscatine, Iowa

Web links