Hardin County

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 182 square miles (470 km2), of which 178 square miles (460 km2) is land and 4.1 square miles (11 km2) (2.2%) is water. It is the second-smallest county in Illinois by area.

Hicks Dome (37.53139°N 88.36833°W / 37.53139; -88.36833) 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 21 °F (−6 °C) in January to a high of 87 °F (31 °C) in July, although a record low of −22 °F (−30 °C) was recorded in January 1994 and a record high of 104 °F (40 °C) was recorded in August 2007. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 3.22 inches (82 mm) in October to 5.02 inches (128 mm) 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

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 3,649, the median age was 52.2 years, 18.2% of residents were under the age of 18, and 29.2% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 98.5 males age 18 and over.

As of the 2020 census, the racial makeup of the county was 93.6% White, 0.4% Black or African American, <0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.5% from some other race, and 5.0% from two or more races; Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 1.8% of the population.

As of the 2020 census, <0.1% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.

As of the 2020 census, there were 1,701 households in the county, of which 22.9% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 41.0% were married-couple households, 23.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 28.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present, while about 37.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. There were 2,196 housing units, of which 22.5% were vacant; among occupied housing units, 77.5% were owner-occupied and 22.5% were renter-occupied, with a homeowner vacancy rate of 2.3% and a rental vacancy rate of 9.3%.

2010 census

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 24.3 inhabitants per square mile (9.4/km2). There were 2,488 housing units at an average density of 14.0 per square mile (5.4/km2). 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

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

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.