Paxton (Illinois)

Ford County

17-58239

Paxton is a small town and county seat of Ford County in the east of the U.S. state of Illinois. In 2000, Paxton had 4525 inhabitants.

Geography

Paxton is located at 40 ° 27'31 " north latitude and 88 ° 05'45 " west longitude. The city covers more than 5.7 square kilometers, which consist exclusively of land area.

Paxton is located on the Vermillion River, a tributary of the opening into the Ohio River Wabash River.

By Paxton runs of U.S. Highway 45, which is crossed in the center by the Illinois State Route 9. On the western outskirts Interstate 57, the shortest route from Chicago (176 km in a north - northeasterly direction ) to Memphis (Tennessee ) forms ( 684 km south- südweslicher direction).

The nearest towns are Bloomington (81 miles west), Champaign ( 44.6 km to the south), Lafayette in the neighboring state of Indiana (107 km east) and Kankakee ( 81.6 kilometers north-northwest ).

By Paxton also performs a main line of the Canadian National Railway belonging to the Illinois Central Railroad.

History

A first settlement in the area was already known in the late 1840s, Prairie City. 1855 the town was renamed by a senior official of the Illinois Central Railroad in Prospect City.

1859, the city was named after the architect of London's Crystal Palace, Joseph Paxton, named. Paxton was also a major shareholder of the Illinois Central Railroad, which entertained the time the longest railway in the world, from Chicago to Cairo in 1856. About Paxton is narrated that he wanted to promote the occupation of the site with immigrants from England. This is, however, never occurred, but the actual founding of the city has since been connected with the work of Paxton, Paxton ensuring that the city in 2009 celebrated the 150th anniversary of its existence.

The Augustana College, an educational institution of Swedish immigrants, had from 1863 to 1875 based in Paxton.

On 22 June 1919, the former President William Howard Taft visited the town and gave a speech in which he expressed himself in the League of Nations newly established for the entry of the United States. A pinned on microfilm excerpt from this speech can now be visited in the Paxton Carnegie Library.

Demographic data

In the census of 2000 a population of 4,525 was determined. These distributed to 1,776 households in 1,198 families. The population density was 792.6 / km ². There were 1,876 residential buildings, which corresponded to a housing density of 328.6 / km ².

The population consisted in 2000 of 97.9 % White, 0.3 % African American, 0.1% Native Americans, 0.4 % Asian and 0.6 % other. 0.9 % said to be descended from at least two of these groups. 1.6% of the population were Hispanics who belonged to the various of the aforementioned groups.

26.1% were under the age of 18, 7.79 % from 18 to 24, 28.0% 25-44, 19.4% from 45 to 64 and 18.7 % 65 and older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females were statistically 92.3 men in the over 18 -year-old 86.5.

The median income per household was $ 37,804, the median family income $ 44,256. The median income for men was $ 31,140 and for women about $ 23,555. The per capita income amounted to $ 18,617. Around 4.2% of families and 4.8 % of the total population were income below the poverty line.

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