Arlington, Illinois
Arlington is a village in
Bureau County,
Illinois,
United States. The population was 211 at the 2000 census.
But Arlington has a history that is unforgettable. Around the time of the local coal boom, Arlington, which was then called 'Lost Grove', was one of the biggest and bustling towns in the area. Many companies set up shop to make some money off the people flocking towards the coal. The businesses consisted of a mattress factory, beer brewery, numerous restaurants, a brothel, and hundreds of houses built by the coal workers. A man from New York moved out to Lost Grove, became mayor and changed the name to Arlington, after the town of Arlington, NY. Arlington was about the size of
Peru, Illinois. But when the Cherry mine disaster occurred, the growth of Arlington ground to a halt. Many years went by and Arlington was still a big town in Bureau County. Pool halls, churches, bars, restaurants, and schools still running with no stop. In the 1950's a tornado, one of the biggest to hit the area in a long time, came through and destroyed most of Arlington. Many people decided that Arlington was never going to be the town it used to be, so they packed up and moved away. Today Arlington has about 250 people living there. Restaurants are closed down, schools shut down, and pool halls gone. Most of the town is now corn and bean fields, but if you walk through those fields, you can still find bits of history like old medicine bottles, billiard balls, spoons, whisky jugs, and sidewalks leading to nowhere. Sometimes, you can find an old foundation of a house once filled with furniture and a family, now just a line of bricks under dirt with lost memories.
|
Location of Arlington, Illinois |
Arlington is located at (41.472353, -89.246989).
According to the
United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 1.1
km² (0.4
mi²), all land.
As of the
census of 2000, there were 211 people, 78 households, and 51 families residing in the village. The
population density was 189.5/km² (493.4/mi²). There were 88 housing units at an average density of 79.0/km² (205.8/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 92.42%
White, 0.95%
Native American, 0.95%
Asian, 5.69% from
other races.
Hispanic or
Latino of any race were 6.16% of the population.
There were 78 households out of which 33.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.8% were
married couples living together, 9.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.6% were non-families. 33.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.71 and the average family size was 3.47.
In the village the population was spread out with 32.7% under the age of 18, 5.2% from 18 to 24, 27.0% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 14.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 93.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.3 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $27,292, and the median income for a family was $38,125. Males had a median income of $22,292 versus $18,438 for females. The
per capita income for the village was $12,148. About 10.2% of families and 13.7% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 23.1% of those under the age of eighteen and none of those sixty five or over.
