Grayville is a city in Edwards and

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counties in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 1,550, down from 1,666 at the 2010 census. Grayville is the birthplace of naval hero James Meredith Helm.

History

Grayville was founded in about 1810 by the head of the Gray family, James Gray. The city became popular for its oil. Many people came to drill for oil. In the 1950s the population began to drop. Unlike other Illinois oil towns, Grayville still tends to thrive.

Geography

Grayville is located at (38.259146, -87.996678). According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Grayville has a total area of , of which (or 98.02%) is land and (or 1.98%) is water.

Climate

Roads

In Grayville, Illinois Route 130 meets Illinois Route 1, and Route 1 meets

Interstate 64 Interstate 64 (I-64) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its western terminus is at Interstate 70, I-70, U.S. Route 40 (US 40), and U.S. Route 61, US 61 in Wentzville, Missouri. Its eastern ter ...

. Grayville was built on the

Wabash River The Wabash River () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 river that drains most of the state of Indiana, and a significant part of Illinois, in the United ...

. While it is no longer on any major rail line, it was home to a large rail bridge across the Wabash into

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, but sections of that bridge collapsed in January 2005 due to a major flood of the Wabash River. In late 2005, an

ethanol Ethanol (also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is an Alcohol (chemistry), alcohol, with its formula also written as , or EtOH, where Et is the ps ...

plant was proposed for the Grayville area, and the construction of the plant would have included rebuilding the bridge and rail lines leading to it on both the Indiana and Illinois sides of the river, but as of July 2009, neither the plant nor the bridge have been built. The largest bridge to

south of Lawrenceville, and the only

Interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, or the Eisenhower Interstate System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National H ...

link between Illinois and Indiana south of Terre Haute, the I-64 river crossing runs parallel to the collapsed rail bridge, about 1000 feet upstream.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census there were 1,550 people, 680 households, and 400 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 808 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 94.45%

, 0.32%

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, 0.06% Native American, 0.71% Asian, 0.13%

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, 0.52% from other races, and 3.81% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 1.61% of the population. There were 680 households, out of which 32.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.24% were married couples living together, 14.12% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.18% were non-families. 33.97% of all households were made up of individuals, and 20.00% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.78 and the average family size was 2.24. The city's age distribution consisted of 22.4% under the age of 18, 7.0% from 18 to 24, 26.5% from 25 to 44, 24.1% from 45 to 64, and 20.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.4 males. The median income for a household in the city was $47,222, and the median income for a family was $58,333. Males had a median income of $41,522 versus $22,500 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $24,233. About 14.0% of families and 20.5% 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 29.5% of those under age 18 and 18.0% of those age 65 or over.

The River

Grayville had been at the northern end of a four-mile-long

oxbow __NOTOC__ An oxbow is a U-shaped metal pole (or larger wooden frame) that fits the underside and the sides of the neck of an ox or wikt:bullock, bullock. A bow pin holds it in place. The term "oxbow" is widely used to refer to a U-shaped meand ...

bend of the main channel of the

. The river changed course after a flood in 1985, with the result being that the town is now two miles from the new river channel. Bonpas Creek trickles through a portion of the former river channel, creating continued access to water for canoes, rafts, and extremely shallow-draft small boats.

References

External links

{{authority control Cities in Illinois Cities in Edwards County, Illinois Cities in White County, Illinois