Mount Vernon is a city located in Jefferson County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 16,269.
Mount Vernon is located at 38°18'49" North, 88°54'29" West (38.313512, -88.908159).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 30.1 km2 (11.6 mi2). 29.8 km2 (11.5 mi2) of it is land and 0.3 km2 (0.1 mi2) of it is water. The total area is 0.86% water.
Mt. Vernon is located on high ground between Casey Creek and the Big Muddy River, which join south of the town in what is now Rend Lake. In presettlement times the area around these waterways was a swamp, a heavily forested area that was waist-deep in water through much of the winter, and during wet summers. Mt. Vernon was thus often surrounded by water and swamp on three sides.
High ground was located to the north of Mt. Vernon. A ridge ran between the Big Muddy River and Casey Creek north toward what is now Dix, Illinois.
There are high places to the east and west of Mt. Vernon from which one can see the town as a forested point of high ground jutting out into the bottoms. From the west, near the Woodlawn, Illinois interchange off Interstate 64. From the east, on the Old Fairfield Road, near the Summersville School.
As of the census of 2000, there are 16,269 people, 6,988 households, and 4,157 families residing in the city. The population density is 545.3/km2 (1,412.1/mi2). There are 7,814 housing units at an average density of 261.9/km2 (678.2/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 84.25% White, 12.36% African American, 0.17% Native American, 0.77% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.47% from other races, and 1.97% from two or more races. 1.49% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 6,988 households out of which 27.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.1% are married couples living together, 13.9% have a female householder with no husband present, and 40.5% are non-families. 35.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 16.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.25 and the average family size is 2.92.
In the city the population is spread out with 24.7% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 21.9% from 45 to 64, and 19.3% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 38 years. For every 100 females there are 84.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 80.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $28,145, and the median income for a family is $36,660. Males have a median income of $31,569 versus $20,198 for females. The per capita income for the city is $16,268. 17.1% of the population and 13.0% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 20.5% of those under the age of 18 and 12.9% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Mt. Vernon was founded by Zadok Casey, who was elected to the State Senate in 1822, and was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1833. He served in the U.S. Congress between 1833 and 1843.
The town was named for George Washington's plantation, Mt. Vernon, which was named for Edward Vernon, a British naval hero. When Mt. Vernon was founded, around 1817, there was no road to it. One had to get there by following the high ground from the north, or one had to cross the swamps from the south.
In the early 1800's the Goshen Road crossed Illinois in a northwesterly direction from Old Shawneetown, Illinois to the Goshen Settlement, near what is now Edwardsville, Illinois. This was the main road in Illinois.
When Mt. Vernon was first settled, the Goshen Road made a wide arc across Jefferson County, crossing Casey Creek and the Big Muddy north of Mt. Vernon, avoiding the swamps to the south, but by-passing Mt. Vernon. The Road entered the County at its southeast corner. It passed through, or near, what are now Opdyke, East Salem, Idlewood, Dix and Walnut Hill.
It was apparent to the early settlers that the town would fail without roads. In 1820 - 1821, Ben Hood and Carter Wilkey built a bridge over Casey Creek, to the southeast of town. This was near the present Illinois Route 142 bridge. A road was built from there northwest, over ground that is now impassible, toward the old cemetery behind the modern Bethel Cemetery. Deep cuts through the old cemetery attest to the location of the road. From there it probably followed modern Route 37 into town, somehow shifting from 10th Street west to 12th Street.
After the State capitol was moved to Vandalia, Illinois in 1819, it became apparent that a road to Vandalia was needed. A party was sent out to the northwest to mark the road.
In 1823, Thomas D. Minor and William Maxwell built the "Vandalia Road", now called the "Old Centralia Road". It runs northwest out of Mt. Vernon to Walnut Hill. Although legend has it that this road is crooked because of the drunken state of the surveyors, the path is probably just the natural path of a pioneer road following the terrain.
After the bridge and the Vandalia Road had been built, Mt. Vernon was "on the map". The bridge across Casey Creek and the Vandalia Road provided a much shorter path across Jefferson County than the original Goshen Road. The new Goshen Road soon captured the traffic, and Mt. Vernon became an important stop on the road west.
In 1836 Joshua Grant came to Mt. Vernon from Christian County, Kentucky with several of his sons and daughters. This was an extremely wealthy, southern, slave-owning family, most of which soon moved to Arkansas, probably because slavery was illegal in Illinois. Joshua left behind several daughters, and one son, Angus McNeil Grant, who soon became extremely important in the development of the town. "Upon his arrival, there were but four or five houses in the place, and from that time to the present (1883) he has constantly and ably exerted himself in securing to it the full development of its resources."
Angus M. Grant's brother, Joshua Grant, Jr., taught school in Mt. Vernon in 1838. Some sources cite him as the first school teacher in the town.
In 1848 the Illinois Supreme Court was relocated to Mt. Vernon. A stately building was constructed, which is still in use today as the Appellate Court House. When the Supreme Court was in session, the important lawyers in Illinois, including Abraham Lincoln, gathered in Mt. Vernon to argue their cases. The lawyers gathered at the Mt. Vernon Inn, owned by Angus McNeil Grant, and his in-laws, the Andersons.
In the 1870's Mt. Vernon for a time prohibited the sale of alcohol. A village called "East Mt. Vernon" was organized in 1877 to allow the sale of alcohol. A court fight eventually held that the village was organized illegally. Mt. Vernon then voted alcohol back in, and the area of East Mt. Vernon was annexed into the City.
On February 19, 1888, a tornado cut a path a half mile wide through Mt. Vernon, killing 37 people and destroying more than 450 houses. The Jefferson County Courthouse was destroyed. This was one of the first disasters to which the American Red Cross responded. Clara Barton herself directed the relief efforts.
The Mt. Vernon Car Manufacturing Company opened in 1889 after moving from Litchfield, IL This may have been an outgrowth of the relief efforts following the tornado. The Louisville and Nashville Railroad hauled in some 1,900 carloads of supplies for reconstruction of the town. Somehow this translated into a major business building railroad cars, at first building about ten cars per day. By 1909, the car shops was producing 25 cars per day, employing more than 1000 workers, with a payroll of $60,000 per month.
During World War II, the car shops was converted over to wartime production, including the production of bomb casings.
In 1954, the car shops closed, sending Mt. Vernon into an economic tailspin from which it has never really recovered.
Around 1939, a portion of the car shops was purchased by Precision Engineering, which originally built components for locomotives. During the 1970's, this company purchased old diesel/electric ralroad locomotives, which it scrapped out or refurbished. This operation has continued off and on through the 1990's.
Moving ahead a few years, Beatle George Harrison visited Mt. Vernon before the Beatles' first tour of the United States. He purchased the Fender Stratocaster he used on the Ed Sullivan Show from Red Fenton in Mt. Vernon.
Source:
MountVernonIllinois.com
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