Carlinville, Illinois

Carlinville is a city in Macoupin County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 Census, the population was 5,685, and 5,912 at a 2009 estimate. It is the county seat of Macoupin County, and so it is an outlying part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.

Carlinville is also the home of Blackburn College, a small college affiliated with the Presbyterian church, and Prairie Farms Dairy.

History
Carlinville is named for Thomas Carlin, once Governor of Illinois, who as a member of the state legislature was instrumental in creating Macoupin County.

Carlinville has long been a site of Illinois history, and has played host to many presidential hopefuls via campaign stops at a time in American history when railway routes produced many visits by politicians. Perhaps the largest and most important hallmark of Carlinville's history is its courthouse, the largest built outside of New York City at the time of its erection. Built in 1870 and designed by famous state capitol building architect Elijah E. Myers, the construction of Carlinville's courthouse produced its candidacy for the location of the State Capitol. Locally, it is known as "The Million Dollar Courthouse" due to its cost overruns at the time it was built.

In the early 1900s Carlinville became the site of a great many Sears Catalog Homes. An entire neighborhood was constructed of the homes and was funded, in 1918, by Standard Oil of Indiana for its mineworkers in Carlinville, at a cost of approximately 1 million dollars. In gratitude, Sears, Roebuck named one of its house models the "Carlin." Today 150 of the original 156 homes still exist, the largest single repository of Sears Catalog Homes in the United States.

One notable resident of Carlinville was American entomologist Charles Robertson, who carried out what is still the single most intensive study of flower-visiting insects of a single locality (Carlinville), culminating in a 221-page book published in 1928 under the title Flowers and Insects. From among the specimens he collected in the process of doing this study, he named over 100 new species of bees and wasps. Scientists in 1970–1972 did a similar survey, and found that most of the bees noted by Robertson were still present. This is presumably due to the existence of bee habitat in hedgerows, on slopes, and in other non-agricultural land in the survey area.

Other notable Carlinvillians include nature writer and novelist Mary Hunter Austin, once called "the most intelligent woman in America" by H.G. Wells, and current resident and scholar Andy Freehill (author of The Ontology of the Living Deity).

Geography
According to the 2010 census, the city has a total area of 3.00 sqmi, all land.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 5,685 people, 2,125 households, and 1,393 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,390 people per square mile (922/km²). There were 2,289 housing units at an average density of 962.3 per square mile (371.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.01% White, 1.50% African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.26% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.23% from other races, and 0.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.76% of the population.

There were 2,125 households, of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.3% were married couples living together, 11.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.4% were non-families. 30.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.96.

In the city the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 12.8% from 18 to 24, 25.1% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 19.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 89.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 84.1 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $34,259, and the median income for a family was $39,693. Males had a median income of $35,137 versus $21,286 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,663. About 9.0% of families and 12.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.3% of those under age 18 and 14.6% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation
Illinois Route 4 directly passes through Carlinville. Interstate 55 is also within 12 mi of the city. Illinois Route 108 Passes through Carlinville from Interstate 55 to the East, to Kampsville, Illinois, where it crosses the Illinois River on a free, state-operated ferry. Alongside a developed road network, the  Carlinville Amtrak station is also served directly by five daily trains, offering easy access to Springfield, St. Louis, and Chicago.

Freight rail service is provided by the Union Pacific Railroad, formerly the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio, Illinois Central Gulf, Chicago, Missouri and Western, Southern Pacific Chicago - St. Louis Railways. The Illinois Terminal Railroad passed down the middle of West Street in Carlinville, and was still operating freight service to a nearby grain elevator into the 1970s. A trestle crossing Goat Hollow south of Carlinville burned, thus severing line, which was abandoned. A small portion of the line is used by Monterey Coal Co. mine to connect with the former Chicago and North Western Transportation Company L & M District], serving coal-fired power plants.

Notable people
Notable people who were born in Carlinville:


 * Walter Stratton Anderson (1881–1981), Vice Admiral in the United States Navy during the World War II
 * John McAuley Palmer (1870 – 1955), Brigadier general in the U.S. Army
 * Peter F. Mack, Jr. (1916 - 1986), U.S. Representative from Illinois.
 * Palemon Howard Dorsett (1862 - 1943), Horticulture|Horticulturalist employed by the USDA
 * Mary Hunter Austin (1868 – 1934), American writer, author of The Land of Little Rain
 * William Moise (1922 - 1980), visual artist, primarily an abstract impressionist painter, working in a regionalist style.