Franklin County (Illinois)

The Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. In 2010, the County had 39 561 inhabitants and a population density of 37.1 inhabitants per square kilometer. The the county seat ( county seat ) is in Benton.

Geography

The County is located in southern Illinois. It has an area of ​​1117 square kilometers, of which 50 square kilometers of water surfaces. In a north-south direction the County is drained by the Big Muddy River, which is dammed in the north to Rend Lake. The western border of the county is made of Little Muddy River.

At the Franklin County borders the following Nachbarcountys:

History

The Franklin County was formed on January 2, 1818 and is one of the 15 Originalcountys the Illinois territory, ie from a time before the formation of states. It was named after Benjamin Franklin, a North American publisher, statesman, writer, scientist, inventor, natural philosopher and Freemason, who is also regarded as one of the founding fathers of the United States. The first Countyverwaltung was in Frankfort. As the Williamson County was formed in 1839 from the Franklin County, was moved this to the edge of Rowling's prairie, which later became the city of Benton was.

1804 settled here seven brothers who built the Jordan 's Fort. After the war of 1812 came more settlers and 1818 this was the southern and eastern part of the County are considered to be colonized. In the early days the settlers harvested just enough to feed themselves. Later they began to cut down trees and bring the wood, along with excess farm income, to St. Louis.

The country had no rich mineral resources and agricultural yields were not very high, which makes the further colonization progressed slowly. Only in 1826 the first courthouse and jail was built. 1854, the former price of $ 1.25 per acre was reduced to 12.5 cents. The legal basis for this was the adoption of the Act bit by the government and the Illinois Central Railroad was for a fraction of the estimated cost of 33,078 acres (134 km ²) of land to buy up for the railway line.

Territorial Development

From the spin-off of Williamson County in 1839 until today

Demographic data

According to the census in 2010 lived in Franklin County 39 561 people in 16,228 households. The population density was 37.1 inhabitants per square kilometer. In the 16,228 households lived statistically 2.41 per person.

The racial the population was composed of 97.7 percent white, 0.5 percent African American, 0.3 percent Native American, 0.4 percent Asian and other ethnic groups; 1.0 percent were descended from two or more races. Regardless of ethnicity were 1.4 percent of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

22.7 percent of the population were under 18 years old, 59.0 percent were between 18 and 64 and 18.3 percent were 65 years or older. 51.1 percent of the population was female.

The median income for a household was $ 34,381. The per capita income was $ 18,504. 19.8 percent of the population lived below the poverty line.

Places in Franklin County

Citys

  • Benton
  • Christopher
  • Orient
  • Sesser
  • West Frankfort
  • Zeigler

Villages

  • Buckner
  • Ewing
  • Freeman Spur1
  • Hanaford
  • Macedonia2
  • North City
  • Royalton
  • Thompsonville
  • Valier
  • West City

Census-designated place (CDP )

  • Mulkeytown

Unincorporated communities

  • Akin
  • Akin Junction
  • Benton Park
  • Bessie
  • Boothby
  • Cambon
  • Cleburne
  • Coello
  • Deering City
  • Diana
  • Ferber
  • Frisco
  • Groat
  • Hickory Corners
  • Kegley
  • Lake Creek
  • Meyer
  • Mitchell
  • New Bush
  • Parrish
  • Pershing
  • Plumfield
  • Rend City
  • Rust
  • Steel City
  • Urbain
  • Valier patch
  • West End
  • Whittington

1 - partially in Williamson County 2 - partially in Hamilton County

Structure

The Franklin County is divided into twelve townships:

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