Freeport (Illinois)
Stephenson County
17-27884
Freeport is a city in Stephenson County, Illinois, United States. The area of Freeport is 30.0 km ². The population was recorded in the census in 2000 at 26,433.
History and location
Freeport is about 20 km south of the border to Wisconsin and about 25 km west of Rockford in the midst of an era marked by the agriculture area.
The Federal Highway U.S. Highway 20 runs north to Freeport's city limits continue to Rockford to Interstate 90 and Interstate 39 Interstate 90 highway is the main route from Chicago to Minneapolis -St. Paul. Interstate 39 runs from Rockford to Interstate 74 and Interstate 55 from Freeport from the highway U.S. Route 20 leads west to Galena (Illinois ) and to the metropolitan region of Dubuque (Iowa). 7.5 km southeast of the town is the Albertus Airport.
Originally called in the foundation ' Winneshiek ', the name of the town changed due to the river port on the Pecatonica River at Freeport. The name ' Winneshiek ' is still used by a theater group in Freeport.
1837 Stephenson County was formed and 1838, Freeport became its administrative center. With Chicago connected by the stagecoach, the church grew rapidly. 1840, a courthouse and a school building had been erected. Within two years, Freeport had two newspapers, was added in 1853 with a population of 2000, a third in the German language.
On August 27, 1858 a landmark debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas took place in Freeport in the election campaign.
The split in the Democratic Party in connection with the issue of slavery would then allow the candidate of the Republican Party Abraham Lincoln presidential elections of 1860 to win.
A monument dedicated to this debate had been built in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt at the same place. Another statue in the city Taylor Park shows Abraham Lincoln as a debater. Once a year the debate again listed in the nationwide cable TV C-SPAN is shown.
Freeport is called Pretzel City and the baseball and football teams call themselves " Pretzels". The nickname is reminiscent of the ethnic origin of many Free porters since the late 1850s, many German from Pennsylvania and coming from Europe, in Stephenson County settled. The Germans brought their preference with the pretzels and a first pretzel bakery was born.
Freeport is home to the oldest Carnegie Library of Illinois.
Personalities
- Alfred A. Cohn, writer (1880-1951)
- Calista Flockhart, actress
- Corky Hale, Jazz Musician
- Robert L. Johnson, founder of the TV station B.E.T.
- Gerald McClellan, middleweight boxing champion
- Louella Parsons, society reporter
- Geoff Rodkey, screenwriter and author