Macoupin County, Illinois

Macoupin County, Illinois
Macoupin County is located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 44,967. The county seat is Carlinville.
The primary industry is agriculture, consisting of crops of corn (maize), soybeans, and some wheat.
History
The region was inhabited by Illinoisan Indians when the first white explorers arrived. is an adaptation of the Miami-Illinois term for the American lotus Nelumbo lutea. None of the native Indians remain, although some descendants of the earliest European settlers claim partial ancestry. The first European contact was by French explorers in the seventeenth century, travelling southward down the major rivers. The main European settlement was from the southwest, as people moved inland from the established transportation route of the Mississippi River.
Macoupin County was established on January 17, 1829. It was formed out of Greene and Madison Counties and was named after Macoupin Creek, which runs near Carlinville and meanders southwest to the Illinois River. The economy was based on subsistence agriculture, and communication was to the southwest.
In the middle 19th century, Illinois developed and changed rapidly. The greatest change was in the building of railroads, and Macoupin County was on the rail and road transportation link between St. Louis and the still-young metropolis of Chicago. The county lies midway between St. Louis and the relocated state capital of Springfield. The economy was still based entirely on agriculture, but there was now easier access to markets. Towns were small and sparsely distributed, and any new communities were founded along the railroad lines that provided transportation. Culturally, the county remained closer to its historical ties with St. Louis than to more northerly areas within the state.
Agriculture remained a mainstay of the economy, but this was joined by coal mining, an industry that partially changed the complexion of the county. With coal underlying the entire region, the most economical development was to place mines alongside the railroad tracks (for transportation of coal) and located in or near already-existing towns. By the twentieth century, there were mines in many towns, all of them with substantial populations of foreign-born miners from everywhere in Europe.
During the twentieth century, agriculture and coal mining remained the mainstays of the county's economy, and the county's fortunes rose and fell with them. Farming was still family based. Macoupin County was often at the center of major labor disputes between mine owners and miners, and was a hotbed of union activity. The county had previously played a major role in violent 1890s disputes that brought unwanted national attention, was at center stage when the United Mine Workers rose to power, and was again prominent during the internecine war between the UMW and the Progressive Miners of America of the 1930s.
Agriculture remained the county's prime economic activity, but farming became a large-scale corporate enterprise, with small family farms rapidly disappearing. Coal mining decreased and has almost disappeared entirely. Buildings and structures related to coal mining were torn down as they wasted away, so that there is now little to see of this once-major industry.
Towns were (and still are) characterized either by a midwestern town square layout, or by a main street layout. In the former, a central city block may be a small park with a gazebo, with the small businesses of the town surrounding it. In the latter, a single street will have the small businesses of the town lining either side of it. Carlinville has a city square layout, with the main county building occupying the central city block. This building houses all the offices of the county. Typically, churches of the various denominations will lie within two or three blocks of the town square, or sometimes will lie mainly along a single street near the town's center.
With modern roads easily accessible, some towns in the northern part of the county became virtual bedroom communities as people commuted to Springfield to work and shop, hastening the decline of small businesses in the towns. The same effect was felt in the southernmost part of the county, and in 2005, the U.S. Census Bureau included the county in the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area due to increased commuting patterns and employment in St. Louis and the Metro-East.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.5%) is water.
Climate and weather
In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Carlinville have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in February 1905 and a record high of was recorded in July 1954. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in February to in May.
Major highways
Interstate 55
Illinois Route 4
Illinois Route 16
Illinois Route 138
Illinois Route 108
Illinois Route 111
Illinois Route 159
Illinois Route 267
Adjacent counties
Sangamon County – northeast
Montgomery County – east
Madison County – south
Greene County – west
Jersey County – west
Morgan County – northwest
Demographics
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 47,765 people, 19,381 households, and 13,224 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 21,584 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.6% white, 0.8% black or African American, 0.3% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 0.2% from other races, and 0.9% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 0.9% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 35.8% were German, 16.2% were Irish, 13.9% were English, 9.5% were American, and 8.0% were Italian.
Of the 19,381 households, 30.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.5% were married couples living together, 9.8% had a female householder with no husband present, 31.8% were non-families, and 27.0% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 2.90. The median age was 41.7 years.
The median income for a household in the county was $47,178 and the median income for a family was $59,700. Males had a median income of $48,878 versus $30,748 for females. The per capita income for the county was $23,222. About 9.7% of families and 12.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.4% of those under age 18 and 5.5% of those age 65 or over.
Communities
Cities
Benld
Bunker Hill
Carlinville (seat)
Gillespie
Girard
Mount Olive
Staunton
Virden
Towns
Nilwood
Shipman
Villages
Brighton
Chesterfield
Dorchester
Eagarville
East Gillespie
Hettick
Lake Ka-ho
Medora
Modesto
Mount Clare
Palmyra
Royal Lakes
Sawyerville
Scottville
Standard City
White City
Wilsonville
Unincorporated communities
Anderson
Atwater
Barr
Hagaman
McVey
Piasa
Plainview
Reader
Womac
Woodburn
Townships
Macoupin County is divided into twenty-six townships:
Barr
Bird
Brighton
Brushy Mound
Bunker Hill
Cahokia
Carlinville
Chesterfield
Dorchester
Gillespie
Girard
Hillyard
Honey Point
Mount Olive
Nilwood
North Otter
North Palmyra
Polk
Scottville
Shaws Point
Shipman
South Otter
South Palmyra
Staunton
Virden
Western Mound
Politics
As part of the rural German Catholic belt surrounding the Illinois section of the St. Louis metropolitan area, Macoupin County traditionally favored the Democratic Party. Up to and including the 2000 election, Macoupin voted for the Republican nominee only in six major landslide victories, and no Republican gained an absolute majority of the county's vote until Richard Nixon’s 3,000-plus-county landslides victory over George McGovern in 1972.
The twenty-first century has seen a major change in these voting patterns due to the county's conservative population. The 2012 election saw Illinoisan Barack Obama become the first Democrat to win the presidency without carrying Macoupin County, and in 2016 Hillary Clinton won less than thirty percent of the vote in this once traditionally Democratic county – a figure eleven percent worse than McGovern's in his landslide defeat.
Education
Bunker Hill Community Unit School District 8
Carlinville Community Unit School District 1
Gillespie Community Unit School District 7
Mount Olive Community Unit School District 5
North Mac Community Unit School District 34
Northwestern Community Unit School District 2
Southwestern Community Unit School District 9
Staunton Community Unit School District 6
See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Macoupin County, Illinois
Charles Goodnight
References
External links
Macoupin County web site
Macoupin County fact sheet
Illinois counties
Illinois placenames of Native American origin
1829 establishments in Illinois
Populated places established in 1829