Godfrey is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

Madison County, Illinois Madison County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a part of the Metro East in southern Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 264,776, making it the eighth-most populous county in Illinois and the most po ...

, United States. The population was 17,982 at the 2010 census. Godfrey is located within the Riverbend portion of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.

Geography

Godfrey is located at (38.948097, -90.202886). According to the 2010 census, Godfrey has a total area of , of which (or 94.55%) is land and (or 5.45%) is water. The southwestern boundary of the village is a wall of limestone bluffs along the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

. Approximately upstream is the mouth of the Illinois River. The Missouri River empties into the Mississippi downstream. Godfrey retains the status of a village and is a mixture of small business, agriculture, and upper middle class housing developments.

History

The village is named for Captain Benjamin Godfrey, a native

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

er, who arrived in the area in 1832. 1838 saw the establishment of the Monticello Female Seminary, later renamed Monticello College. Captain Godfrey, the father of eight daughters, was an advocate of higher education for women and made a large donation of funds and land for the college. Monticello operated as a two-year college for women until the campus was sold in 1970 to establish

Lewis and Clark Community College Lewis and Clark Community College is a public community college in Godfrey, Illinois. It serves approximately 15,000 credit and non-credit students annually. The college has nine locations throughout the St. Louis Metro East, including a campu ...

. Monticello's final class graduated in 1971. The nearby mouth of the Missouri River was the starting point for the expedition of Lewis and Clark

Demographics

At the 2000 census there were 16,286 people, 6,427 households, and 4,698 families living in the village. The population density was . There were 6,694 housing units at an average density of . The

racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

of the village was 94.06% White, 4.04% African American, 0.31% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.19% from other races, and 0.74% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.98%. Of the 6,427 households 29.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.2% were married couples living together, 8.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.9% were non-families. 23.3% of households were one person and 11.4% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.90. The age distribution was 22.6% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 26.8% from 25 to 44, 26.5% from 45 to 64, and 17.8% 65 or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.1 males. The median household income was $50,342 and the median family income was $57,971. Males had a median income of $43,017 versus $27,870 for females. The per capita income for the village was $25,292. About 3.2% of families and 5.9% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 5.1% of those under age 18 and 2.5% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

* Zoe Akins - Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and playwright, attended school in Godfrey *

Craig Hentrich Craig Hentrich (; born May 18, 1971) is a former American football punter in the National Football League (NFL) for 17 seasons. He played college football for Notre Dame. He was drafted by the New York Jets in the eighth round of the 1993 NFL ...

- NFL punter from 1994 - 2009 * John Madson - freelance naturalist, tallgrass prairie ecosystems * Ellis Wainwright - brewer, art collector and socialite

References

External links

Village of Godfrey official website
{{Riverbend, state=collapsed Villages in Madison County, Illinois Villages in Illinois Populated places established in 1832 Illinois populated places on the Mississippi River 1832 establishments in Illinois