East Peoria, Illinois

East Peoria is a city in Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. The population was 23,402 at the 2010 census. East Peoria is part of the Peoria, Illinois Metropolitan Statistical Area, located across the Illinois River from downtown Peoria. It is home to many Caterpillar Inc. facilities. The city is also the site of the home campus of Illinois Central College, a regional community college, and Par-A-Dice Hotel and Casino. The main commercial area of East Peoria is just across the river from downtown Peoria.

Geography
East Peoria is located at 40.66917°N, -89.54556°W (40.669075, -89.545533).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 21.0 square miles (54.5 km²), of which, 18.8 square miles (48.7 km²) of it is land and 2.2 square miles (5.7 km²) of it (10.56%) is water.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 22,638 people, 9,478 households, and 6,397 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,203.4 people per square mile (464.7/km²). There were 9,938 housing units at an average density of 528.3 per square mile (204.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 97.32% White, 0.47% African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.66% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.44% from other races, and 0.86% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.29% of the population.

There were 9,478 households out of which 28.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.7% were married couples living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.5% were non-families. 28.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.87.

In the city the population was spread out with 22.4% under the age of 18, 7.8% from 18 to 24, 28.0% from 25 to 44, 24.6% from 45 to 64, and 17.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 93.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 90.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $41,538, and the median income for a family was $51,836. Males had a median income of $39,549 versus $24,570 for females. The per capita income for the city was $20,147. About 4.9% of families and 7.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.6% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over.

Education
East Peoria is serviced by 3 school districts, 1 High School district and 2 Elementary Districts. East Peoria High School is the only high school and both the other districts, Robein and District 86 feed into it.

Media
East Peoria is home to the majority of the commercial television broadcast outlets that serve the Peoria area. WEEK-TV, channel 25, the local NBC affiliate, has long maintained studios and transmitter facilities on Springfield Road in East Peoria. In recent years, other stations have moved in with WEEK-TV as a result of operations mergers through local marketing agreements, including MyNetworkTV affiliate WAOE (channel 59), and ABC affiliate WHOI (channel 19), which moved to the Springfield Road studios in 2009 from its former location in nearby Creve Coeur. The remainder of Peoria's TV stations maintain their studios across the river in Peoria.

Utilities
The water provided by East Peoria Public Works (which services most, if not all of East Peoria homes and businesses) is extremely hard, at 28 grains/gallon as calcium, or roughly 479 mg/L. A higher-capacity water softener may be required to adequately soften water of this hardness level.

Caterpillar company
The Holt Manufacturing Company in Stockton, California had successfully built crawler-type tractors and in 1909 began looking for manufacturing facilities closer to the vast agricultural markets in the Midwest farm belt. Company President Benjamin Holt dispatched his nephew, Pliny E. Holt in March 1909 to find another plant. He met Murray Baker, an implement dealer, who knew of a factory already equipped to manufacture farm implements and steam traction engines that had belonged to the bankrupt Colean Manufacturing Co. of East Peoria.

Pliny inspected the Colean factory and learned Colean had spent at least $450,000 on the relatively new building and machinery. Holt bought the assets on October 25, 1909 for the $50,000 note held by a trust company. and began operations on Feb 15, 1910 with 12 employees. The "Holt Caterpillar Company" wasincorporated in both Illinois and California on January 12, 1910. East Peoria became Holt Manufacturing Company's eastern manufacturing plant, competing with the nearby Avery Tractor Company. Holt was credited with producing the first practicalcontinuous tracks for use with tractors and he registered "Caterpillar" as a trademark in 1911.

The Peoria facility proved so profitable that only two years later the Peoria facility employed 625 people and was exporting tractors to Argentina, Canada, and Mexico. In April and May 1925, after a period of financial difficulty, the financially stronger C. L. Best merged with the market leader Holt Caterpillar to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co. Clarence Leo Best assumed the title of CEO, and remained in that role until October, 1951. The new company was headquartered in San Leandro until 1930, when under the terms of the merger it was moved to Peoria. The Caterpillar company consolidated its product lines and went on to supply the Allied armies with artillery tractors during World War I, the first use of crawling type tractors for military purposes.

When World War I broke out, with the problem of trench warfare and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power of crawling-type tractors drew the attention of the military. In British trials, the75 hp Holt tractor was found to be better suited than its competitors to haul heavy loads over uneven ground. The War Office was suitably impressed and chose it as a gun-tractor. Holt Caterpillar tractors were also the inspiration for the development of the British tank, which profoundly altered ground warfare tactics.

Notable people

 * Joe Girardi, former Major League Baseball player; current MLB manager: New York Yankees
 * Sam Kinison, comedian, actor
 * Roger Phegley, former NBA player
 * Gary Richrath, guitarist and songwriter: formerly of REO Speedwagon
 * Matt Hale, White Supremacist, founder of The World Church of the Creator, now known as The Creativity Movement Sentenced to a 40-year prison term for soliciting an undercover FBI informant to kill federal judge Joan Lefkow. Currently incarcerated in the Administrative Maximum facility in Florence, Colorado as Inmate number 15177-424.