Muscatine, Iowa
Muscatine County
19-55110
Muscatine is a small town and county seat of Muscatine County in the southeast of the U.S. state of Iowa on the west bank of the Mississippi River. In 2000, the city had 22,697 inhabitants.
Geography
Muscatine is located at 41 ° 25'26 " north latitude and 91 ° 02'22 " west longitude. The city covers an area of 46.3 km ² which 43.6 km ² land and 2.7 km ² water surface spread.
Muscatine is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, which forms the border between the states of Iowa and Illinois. In the center of the Iowa Highway 38 finds its southern and Iowa Highway 92 at the Norbert F. Beckey Bridge leading to Illinois its eastern terminus and leads as Illinois State Route 92 to the east. The Iowa Highway 22 crosses the city from west to east. The most important transport hub of the north- south running from the city U.S. Highway 61, which is the largest national highway through Muscatine at the same time along the Mississippi and Minnesota connects with Louisiana.
Iowa's capital Des Moines is located 243 km west of Muscatine, Davenport After it is in an easterly direction 46 km in the same direction Chicago 324 miles away. To the north there are more than 547 km Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis, to the south is St. Louis 425 km away.
History
In 1833 a trading post was established at the site of the present city. 1839 saw the establishment of the city, which at that time was called Bloomington. Because of the confusion that caused this frequently occurring name in the U.S., in 1849 the name was changed. For the origin of the name Muscatine, there are two theories: The first goes by the name of the person established in the vicinity of the Indian tribe Mascouten, the second sets theory underlying the Sioux word for Tierra del Fuego ( Fire Iceland ).
Between the 1840s and the American Civil War Muscatine had the largest black community in Iowa. This was made up of escaped slaves from the South and immigrant free African Americans from the East. One of the most well-known community leader was Alexander Clark Sr., a native of Pennsylvania barber who was in Muscatine for the wealthy timber merchant, assisted runaway slaves campaigned for the abolition of racist laws in Iowa before the Civil War a. Clark also helped in the preparation of an existing all-black regiment. 1868 could reach that racial barriers to Iowa's public schools were abolished Clark after a lawsuit. In 1879, his son Alexander was the first black graduate of the University of Iowa. His father was five years later, the second graduate, even though he was already 58 years old. Clark was a prominent member of the Republican Party and was sent in 1890 by President Benjamin Harrison as Ambassador to Liberia, where he died after one year from a disease.
In addition to Clark came 1855-1900, three other diplomats from Muscatine: George Van Horne was in the 1860s Consul in Marseille, Samuel McNutt 1890 in Maracaibo in Venezuela and Frank M. Mahin in 1900 in the then Austrian Reichenberg (today Liberec, Czech Republic ).
Sam Clemens, better than Mark Twain known, worked in 1855 at the local daily newspaper Muscatine Journal, where his brother Orion Clemens was involved. Some of his memories of Muscatine come in his book Life on the Mississippi before.
In 1884, the German immigrants JF Boepple a factory that manufactured buttons from shells that were recovered from the Mississippi River. 1915 was the company Weber & Sons Button Co., Inc. is the world's largest manufacturer of pearl buttons from freshwater mussels. Muscatine was called in allusion to Pearl of the Mississippi. The Weber still in production and in 2004 celebrated its centenary.
In 2007 a tornado measuring 3 on the Fujita scale devastated large parts of the city.
Demographic data
In the census of 2000 a population of 22,697 was determined. These distributed to 8,923 households in 6,040 families. The population density was 520.4 / km ². There were 9,375 buildings, which corresponds to a site density of 214.9 / km ².
The population was in 2000 from 90.40 % White, 1.08 % African American, 0.37 % Native Americans, 0.65 % Asian, and 6.07% other. 1.44 % said to be descended from at least two of these groups. 12.30% of the population were Hispanics who belonged to the various of the aforementioned groups.
26.4 % were under the age of 18, 9.2 % from 18 to 24, 28.6 % 25-44, 21.9% from 45 to 64 and 14.0 % 65 and older. The average age was 36 years. For every 100 females were statistically 94.7 men in the over 18 year-olds was 90.2.
The average income per household was $ 38,122, the average family income is $ 45,366. Men's income averaged $ 36,440, and for women about $ 23,953. The per capita income amounted to $ 19,483. Around 8.0 % of families and 10.9 % of the total population were income below the poverty line.
Famous people
- Jim Yong Kim - originally from South Korea Professor of Medicine
- Ellis Parker Butler writer
- Max Allan Collins writer, screenwriter, and comic book writer.
- Terry Beatty cartoonist
- Phil Vischer - founder of the Christian Filmstudions VeggieTales
- Margherita Roberti - opera singer who grew up in Muscatine
Twin Cities
- Argentina Crespo, Argentina
- Drohobytsch Ukraine, Ukraine
- Japan Ichikawadaimon, Japan
- Russia Kislovodsk, Russia
- Poland Lomza, Poland
- Germany Ludwigslust, Germany
- Argentina Parana, Argentina
- Paysandú Uruguay, Uruguay