Eldred is a village in Greene 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 ...

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. The population was 201 at the 2010 census.

History

Eldred was founded because of its situation in the

Illinois River The Illinois River ( mia, Inoka Siipiiwi) is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River and is approximately long. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, it has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins at the confluence of the D ...

Bottoms as a town that combined the values of a river and a bluff-side village. Eldred first appeared on river plat books as "Farrow Town" in the 1830s, but was founded sometime before the admittance of Illinois as a state in 1818. A few of its original founders, were of Scotch-Irish ancestry from the Upland South.

Geography

Eldred is located in southwestern Greene County at (39.286663, -90.553458).

Illinois Route 108 Illinois Route 108 is an east–west highway in western Illinois. Its western terminus is at Illinois Route 100 in Kampsville, and its eastern terminus is at Interstate 55 in Zanesville Township near Raymond. This is a distance of . Route ...

passes through the village, leading east to Carrollton, the Greene County seat, and west to the

and the Kampsville ferry. According to the 2010 census, Eldred has a total area of , all land. Situated in the lower Illinois River Valley, north of the Illinois River's confluence with 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 f ...

at Grafton, Eldred is nestled between the soaring limestone bluffs and the fertile bottom land that follow the Illinois in its southern extreme. The bottoms were systematically drained during the 1920s, which caused much contention among the villagers as to the merits of drainage. Nevertheless, the drainage occurred and created a great expanse of farmland for the counties along the river.

Demographics

As of the

2000 United States Census The United States census of 2000, conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2 percent over the 248,709,873 people enumerated during the 1990 ce ...

, there were 211 people, 97 households, and 54 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 103 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 97.63%

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 ...

, 0.95%

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 ...

, and 1.42% from two or more races. There were 97 households, out of which 23.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.2% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.3% were non-families. 32.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 22.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.18 and the average family size was 2.69. In the village, the population was spread out, with 20.9% under the age of 18, 7.6% from 18 to 24, 21.8% from 25 to 44, 29.9% from 45 to 64, and 19.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females, there were 91.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.6 males. The median income for a household in the village was $26,250, and the median income for a family was $23,438. Males had a median income of $22,917 versus $17,115 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 village was $13,772. About 29.1% of families and 37.2% 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 t ...

, including 74.5% of those under the age of eighteen and 25.8% of those 65 or over.

References

{{authority control Villages in Greene County, Illinois Villages in Illinois