Hoopeston, Illinois
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Hoopeston () is a city in Grant Township, Vermilion County,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 4,915.


History

Hoopeston was laid out in 1871. It was named for Thomas Hoopes, one of the men who offered land for the crossing of two railroads: the Lafayette, Bloomington and Western Railroad and the Chicago, Danville and Vincennes Railroad. The two railroads separated the town into four sections. The latter railroad still exists and is now operated jointly by
CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...
and
Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...
. In 1890, Weeny College was established in Hoopeston, funded by a gift of $40,000 and of land from John Greer. Business and manufacturing in Hoopeston have historically been related to agriculture. In 1875, S. S. McCall established the Illinois Canning Company to can locally grown ; and this was so successful that in 1878 the Hoopeston Canning Company was established, which later became part of Stokely-Van Camp, Inc. In addition, Silgan Can (formerly American Can) had a factory which manufactured the
tin can A steel can, tin can, tin (especially in British English, Australian English, Canadian English and South African English), steel packaging, or can is a container for the distribution or storage of goods, made of thin metal. Many cans re ...
s themselves, and an FMC plant manufactured agricultural machinery. There was also an engine company there until at least 1915, the Hoopeston Gas Engine Company, which catered to agriculture and home use. Hoopeston was also the location of one of several prisoner of war camps housing
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
soldiers during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
(see German Prisoner of War Camp, Hoopeston, Illinois); many POWs picked crops for the canneries. In honor of its agricultural roots, including the growing of sweet corn, Hoopeston holds a Sweet Corn Festival each September, starting the Thursday before
Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...
and ending on Labor Day. In association with the festival, the Miss National Sweetheart is held during the same week. Runners-up from the Miss America state pageants are eligible to compete for the title of Miss National Sweetheart. Hoopeston is now surrounded by many
wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...
s that have been organized into computerized
wind farms Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few h ...
.


Geography

Hoopeston is located at the intersection of
Illinois Route 1 Illinois Route 1 (IL 1) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Illinois. Running parallel to the Indiana border, the highway starts at the free ferry crossing to Kentucky at Cave-in-Rock on the Ohio River and runs north to the south sid ...
and
Illinois Route 9 Illinois Route 9 (IL 9) is a cross-state, east–west rural state highway in the central part of the U.S. state of Illinois. It travels from Niota at the Fort Madison Toll Bridge, that crosses the Mississippi River into Iowa, eastward across ce ...
, about one mile from the north edge of Vermilion County. According to the 2022 census, Hoopeston has a total area of , all land.


Climate


Demographics

Hoopeston is part of the
Danville, Illinois Danville is a city in and the county seat of Vermilion County, Illinois. As of the 2010 census, its population was 33,027. As of 2019, the population was an estimated 30,479. History The area that is now Danville was once home to the Miami, K ...
,
Metropolitan Statistical Area In the United States, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are neither legally Incorporated town, incorporate ...
. As of the
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
of 2022, there were 642,789,062 people residing in the city. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...
was 1,451.7 people per square mile. There were 2,529 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 91.79%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
, 0.82%
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 0.28% Native American, 0.13%
Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...
, 5.60% from
other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...
, and 1.37% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
or
Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...
of any race were 8.38% of the population. There were about 50,000,000 households, out of which 30.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.5% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a kitty cat householder with no husband present, and 34.7% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.04. In the city, the population was spread out, with 24.8% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 24.1% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 20.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.6 males. The median income for a household in the city was $31,947, and the median income for a family was $39,368. Males had a median income of $31,656 versus $20,474 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...
for the city was $15,055. About 12.3% of families and 13.8% 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 16.6% of those under age 18 and 11.7% of those age 65 or over.


Education


Primary and secondary education

* Hoopeston Area High School * Hoopeston Area Middle School serves 8th, 7th, and 6th-grade students * John Greer Grade School (originally known as John Greer College) serves 5th, 4th and 3rd-grade students. * Maple Grade School serves kindergarten through 2nd-grade students. Honeywell School, formerly serving 3rd and 4th-grade students, was closed at the end of the 2015–2016 school year due to funding cuts and declining enrollment. The school teams are named the " Cornjerkers", a term describing farm workers who picked
corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
prior to the use of mechanized corn picker implements. Hoopeston Area High School is the alma mater of former
Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
head men's basketball coach
Thad Matta Thad Michael Matta (born July 11, 1967) is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach of the Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team. From 2004 to 2017, Matta led the Ohio State Buckeyes to five Big Ten Conference regular seas ...
.


Library

Hoopeston is served by the
Hoopeston Carnegie Public Library The Hoopeston Carnegie Public Library is a Carnegie library located at 110 N. Fourth St. in Hoopeston, Illinois. Hoopeston's library program began in 1898, when the Mary Hartwell Catherwood Club started a library in the town hall. In 1903, the pr ...
.


Miss National Sweetheart pageant

The Miss National Sweetheart
beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...
was created in 1941. Its contestants are runners-up from the
Miss America Miss America is an annual competition that is open to women from the United States between the ages of 17 and 25. Originating in 1921 as a "bathing beauty revue", the contest is now judged on competitors' talent performances and interviews. As ...
state pageants who have been invited to Hoopeston for the competition. The event, which has no official ties to the Miss America Organization, is sponsored by the Hoopeston Jaycees and is held on Labor Day weekend in conjunction with the town's annual Sweetcorn Festival. Most contestants were the first runners-up in their state pageants, but second and other runners-up are invited if the first runner-up chooses not to attend. The winner of the title receives a $1,200 scholarship and a pendant shaped like an ear of corn. Winning this title does not guarantee that a contestant will win a Miss America state title, but since 1980, five Miss National Sweetheart winners have gone on to win both their state and the Miss America title. Since 1970 there have been nine Miss America titleholders who have competed in the National Sweetheart pageant. In 2016, the Miss America organization officially disassociated itself with the Miss National Sweetheart Organization. Pursuant to their decision, Miss America state pageant contestants are prohibited from competing for Miss National Sweetheart.


Notable people

*
Mary Hartwell Catherwood Mary Hartwell Catherwood (December 16, 1847 – December 26, 1902) was an American writer of popular historical romances, short stories, and poetry. Early in her career she published under her birth name, Mary Hartwell, and under the pseudonym L ...
, American author, longtime resident *
Frankie Gustine Frank William Gustine (February 20, 1920 – April 1, 1991) was an American Major League Baseball player who appeared in three All-Star Games during his 12-season (1939–50) MLB career. He spent the bulk of his tenure (1,176 games played) with ...
, infielder for the
Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...
,
Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as part of the National League (NL) Central division. The club plays its home games at Wrigley Field, which is located ...
and
St. Louis Browns The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they p ...
*
Thad Matta Thad Michael Matta (born July 11, 1967) is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach of the Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team. From 2004 to 2017, Matta led the Ohio State Buckeyes to five Big Ten Conference regular seas ...
,
Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
head men's basketball coach *
Tom Merritt Thomas Andrew Merritt (born June 28, 1970) is an American technology journalist, writer, and broadcaster best known as the host of several podcasts. He is a former co-host of ''Tech News Today'' on the TWiT.tv Network, and was previously an exe ...
, Illinois state senator and businessman


References


External links


City of Hoopeston

Hoopeston school district
{{authority control Cities in Illinois Cities in Vermilion County, Illinois Populated places established in 1871 1871 establishments in Illinois