Hardin County, Illinois

Hardin County, Illinois
Hardin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 3,649, making it the least populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Elizabethtown. Hardin County is located in the part of the state known as Little Egypt. Hardin County was named for Hardin County, Kentucky, which was named in honor of Colonel John Hardin, an officer in the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War.
History
Hardin County was formed in 1839 from Pope County. Additional area was later added from Gallatin County. Hardin County was named for Hardin County, Kentucky, which was named in honor of Colonel John Hardin, an officer in the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. Hardin was murdered by Shawnee Indians while he was on a peace mission in 1792 for President George Washington, in what is now Shelby County, Ohio. In the 1790s and early 1800s, the Hardin County area, especially Cave-In-Rock, was notorious as a stronghold used by outlaws, bandits, river pirates, and counterfeiters.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.2%) is water. It is the second-smallest county in Illinois by area.
Hicks Dome is a geological feature in Hardin County. The Hicks Dome is underlain by ultramafic igneous rocks and igneous diatremes or breccia pipes. Most geologists accept the theory that the older rocks at the center of the uplift are a result of this deep-seated igneous activity. This activity may also have provided the fluorine in the fluorspar deposits in the region. Fluorspar, or calcium fluoride, was mined in Hardin County until the early 1990s.
Climate and weather
In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Elizabethtown have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in January 1994 and a record high of was recorded in August 2007. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in October to in May.
Adjacent counties
Gallatin County - north
Union County, Kentucky - east
Crittenden County, Kentucky - south
Livingston County, Kentucky - southwest
Pope County - west
Saline County - northwest
Transit
Rides Mass Transit District
Major highways
Illinois Route 1
Illinois Route 34
Illinois Route 146
National protected area
Shawnee National Forest (part)
Demographics
As of the 2010 census, there were 4,320 people, 1,915 households, and 1,234 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 2,488 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.3% white, 0.6% American Indian, 0.5% Asian, 0.3% black or African American, 0.1% Pacific islander, 0.3% from other races, and 0.8% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.3% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 26.5% were Irish, 23.8% were German, 10.4% were English, and 4.3% were American.
Of the 1,915 households, 26.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.9% were married couples living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 35.6% were non-families, and 31.7% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.78. The median age was 46.3 years.
The median income for a household in the county was $27,578 and the median income for a family was $38,576. Males had a median income of $42,955 versus $26,683 for females. The per capita income for the county was $18,515. About 17.4% of families and 22.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.4% of those under age 18 and 14.6% of those age 65 or over.
Communities
City
Rosiclare
Villages
Cave-In-Rock
Elizabethtown
Unincorporated communities
Cadiz
Eichorn
Finneyville
Gross
Hicks
Karbers Ridge
Lamb
Loves Corner
Peters Creek
Rock Creek
Saline Landing
Shetlerville
Sparks Hill
Precincts
Cave-In-Rock Precinct
East Rosiclare Precinct
McFarlan Precinct
Monroe Precinct
Rock Precinct
Rosiclare Precinct
Stone Church Precinct
West Rosiclare Precinct
Ghost towns
Battery Rock
Chambers Creek
Fairview Landing
Grosville
Hall Ridge
Hester
Illinois Furnace
Lambtown
Martha Furnace
McFarlan
Parkinson's Landing
Robin's Ferry
Sellers
Sellers Landing
Twitchell's Mills
Wolrab Mills
Notable people
Jeremiah Patton (composer/musician) | 1980-present, musician principal composer/arranger/lead guitarist for the acclaimed, award winning band Ceremony of Darkness, co-founder of Grave Robber Records
James Ford (1775-1833), civic leader and secret criminal leader of a gang of Ohio River pirates and highwaymen
James Karber (1914–1976), Illinois lawyer, businessman, and politician
Isaiah L. Potts (1784?-after 1843), tavern keeper of the notorious Potts Tavern who, allegedly, ran a gang of pirates and highwaymen
Jennifer Rhodes (1947-), television and film actress from Rosiclare
Sturdivant Gang, 19th century counterfeiters in Rosiclare
Politics
In its early history, Hardin County was opposed to the “Yankee” Republican Party and its Civil War against the South – with whom it was closely allied both culturally and economically. It did not vote for a Republican presidential candidate until Theodore Roosevelt’s 1904 landslide.
Since 1904, however, Hardin County has turned powerfully Republican. Like the nearby counties of Johnson, Massac and Pope, it managed to remain loyal to William Howard Taft during the 1912 election when the Republican Party was mortally divided. Hardin County would next be carried by a Democratic presidential candidate in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 landslide victory, and not after that until Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The county did trend Democratic in the following three decades, actually voting more Democratic than the nation at-large between 1972 and 1996. Nonetheless, since 2000 Hardin County has followed the same political trajectory as Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia and Appalachian regions of adjacent states, whereby the Democratic Party's liberal views on social issues have produced dramatic swings to the Republican Party amongst its almost entirely Southern white population. The past six Presidential elections have observed a swing totalling 79 percentage points to the GOP, with Hillary Clinton in 2016 receiving barely half the proportion of the worst-performing Democrat from before 2010.
See also
National Register of Historic Places listings in Hardin County, Illinois
References
History of Hardin County
External links
Hardin County tourism page
Harden County History
Illinois counties
1839 establishments in Illinois
Populated places established in 1839
Illinois counties on the Ohio River
Hardin County, Illinois