Union is a village in McHenry County,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The population was 580 at the 2010

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 inc ...

, up from 576 in 2000.

History

A post office called Union has been in operation since 1852. The village was named for the

federal union A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governi ...

of the United States.

Geography

Union is located at (42.235237, -88.542379). According to the 2010 census, Union has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

At the 2000 census there were 576 people, 204 households, and 158 families living in the village. The population density was . There were 208 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 98.09% White, 0.35% Native American, 0.87% from other races, and 0.69% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 3.99%. Of the 204 households 37.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.7% were married couples living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.5% were non-families. 15.7% of households were one person and 6.4% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.15. The age distribution was 28.0% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 34.2% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 11.1% 65 or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.6 males. The median household income was $56,528 and the median family income was $57,500. Males had a median income of $38,393 versus $25,536 for females. The per capita income for the village was $21,218. About 5.8% of families and 5.2% 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 ...

, including 2.9% of those under age 18 and 16.7% of those age 65 or over.

Points of interest

Union was the site of the world's first fully automatic substation, on the current site of the

water tower A water tower is an elevated structure supporting a water tank constructed at a height sufficient to pressurize a distribution system for potable water, and to provide emergency storage for fire protection. Water towers often operate in conju ...

just east of Main Street. Union is also the home to the

Illinois Railway Museum The Illinois Railway Museum (IRM, reporting mark IRMX) is the largest railroad museum in the United States. It is located in the Chicago metropolitan area at 7000 Olson Road in Union, Illinois, northwest of downtown Chicago. Overview His ...

and the McHenry County Historical Society. It is also the home of Donley's Wild West Town amusement park and the site of the oldest and largest Antique Phonograph Show in the world. Donley's Wild West Town is now run by the Onesti entertainment group.

Notable person

Red Kelly Leonard Patrick "Red" Kelly (July 9, 1927 – May 2, 2019) was a Canadian professional ice hockey player and coach. He was also a Liberal Member of Parliament for the Toronto-area riding of York West from 1962 to 1965, during which time he als ...

, right fielder for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

; born in Union

Media

''The Marengo-Union Times'' is the newspaper of record in Union; it has a circulation of 6300 and is mailed to every home and business in the greater Marengo and Union area. For

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

, Union is served by

Charter Communications Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribe ...

instead of

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

, like the rest of the

Chicago Metropolitan Area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hin ...

References

External links

The Marengo-Union Times local newspaper website
{{authority control Villages in McHenry County, Illinois Villages in Illinois Chicago metropolitan area