Kinmundy is a city in Marion County,

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. The population was 733 at the 2020 census. The town is believed to have been named after a place in

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, the birthplace of William Ferguson, a London agent for the

Illinois Central Railroad The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the Central United States. Its primary routes connected Chicago, Illinois, with New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama, and thus, ...

during Kinmundy's construction. He visited the area in 1856.

Geography

Kinmundy is located in northeastern Marion County.

Illinois Route 37 Illinois Route 37, Illinois 37 or IL 37, is a north–south state highway in southern Illinois. IL 37's southern terminus is at U.S. Route 51 (US 51) and IL 3 in Cairo and the northern terminus is at US 45 in Watson. Rou ...

passes through the village center as 1st Street, leading southwest to Salem, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, and northeast to Farina.

Interstate 57 Interstate 57 (I-57) is a north–south Interstate Highway that exists in two segments. It runs through Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois. I-57 parallels the old Illinois Central Railroad for much of its route north of Interstate 55, I-55. T ...

passes northwest of the city, with access from Exit 127. I-57 leads northeast to Effingham and southwest to

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington, a Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. An American landmar ...

. According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, Kinmundy has a total area of , of which are land and , or 17.44%, are water. The water area consists of Kinmundy Lake, a reservoir west of the city proper. The city drains to the northwest, toward the East Fork of the

Kaskaskia River The Kaskaskia River is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 in central and southern Illinois in the U ...

History

The origins of the town of Kinmundy are rooted in the expansion of the railroads in

southern Illinois Southern Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois comprising the southern third of the state, principally south of Interstate 70. Part of downstate Illinois, it is bordered by the two List of U.S. rivers by discharge, most voluminous ri ...

, with the first significant economic influence being construction work on the Chicago branch of the

. In April 1857, the town was initially laid out east of the railroad, in 15 blocks of varying sizes, and later, incorporated as a city in 1867. In 1903 Kinmundy was struck by a fire in the evening that burnt down most of the downtown area, causing the sharpest drop in population in the town's history. One of the buildings that burnt was the opera house, which was rebuilt before burning again for the second, and final time in 1916, not being rebuilt afterward. In January 1912, Illinois Central Railroad train No. 3, traveling at , collided with passenger train No. 25, which was standing at the station in Kinmundy taking water. The devastating

train wreck A train accident or train wreck is a type of disaster involving one or more trains. Train wrecks often occur as a result of miscommunication, as when a moving train meets another train on the same track, when the wheels of train come off the ...

demolished the private car at the rear of train No. 25, killing five passengers, among them James T. Harahan, the recently retired president of the Illinois Central Railroad.

Arts and culture

Landmarks

The stately Italianate Calendar Rohrbough House, located on so-called "Quality Hill", is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The Illinois Central Railroad Water Tower and Pump House was added to the National Register of Historic places in 1998. The Kinmundy Log Cabin Village is a collection of twelve original pioneer homes rescued in the 1960s from the surrounding local region and reassembled in a wooded area on the edge of the town. All of the cabins pre-date the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, with the oldest originally constructed in 1818. The log cabin village plays host to an annual fall craft fair, during which the village is populated by local volunteers and crafts people in period dress and the authentically furnished homes are open to the public. Some of the volunteers are descendants of the original residents of the historic cabins. Stephen A. Forbes State Recreation Area lies about southeast of the town and offers trails, camping, hunting, and fishing. The park features a

man-made lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

which was completed in 1968 and boasts of shoreline.

Notable people

* Marilyn Kaytor, journalist and internationally known food critic; born in Kinmundy in 1929.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 892 people, 365 households, and 246 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 409 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 98.21%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.34%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.11% Native American, 0.34% from other races, and 1.01% 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 0.67% of the population. There were 365 households, out of which 31.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.4% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.6% were non-families. 28.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 17.0% 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 3.00. In the city, the population was spread out, with 25.6% under the age of 18, 9.4% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 24.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 89.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $28,500, and the median income for a family was $37,125. Males had a median income of $31,875 versus $20,938 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 $15,279. About 10.0% of families and 12.8% 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 ...

, including 16.0% of those under age 18 and 8.8% of those age 65 or over.

Ameren Ameren Corporation is an American power company created December 31, 1997, by the merger of Union Electric Company (formerly NYSE: UEP) of St. Louis, Missouri and the neighboring Central Illinois Public Service Company (CIPSCO Inc. holding, for ...

's Kinmundy Power Plant, a

combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...

turbine generator (CTG) power plant, is located in Kinmundy.http://www.ameren.com/source/AboutUs/Pages/ADC_CTGs.aspx

References

External links

* {{authority control Cities in Illinois Cities in Marion County, Illinois