Mound City is a city and 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 ...

of Pulaski County, Illinois, United States. It is located along the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

just north of its confluence with the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 588.

History

Mound City was incorporated in 1857 as a union of two cities: Mound City, founded by Major General Moses Marshal Rawlings, and Emporium City, a project of the Emporium Real Estate and Manufacturing Company, a group of

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

and

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

businessmen. The city took its name from a Native American mound on which guests at General Rawlings' hotel would sleep in summer, as the breezes cooled them and dispersed the mosquitoes. During the

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, Admiral Andrew Hull Foote made Cairo the naval station for the Mississippi River Squadron of over 200 ironclads, timberclads, hospital ships, transports, and other vessels. Since

had no land available for base facilities, the navy yard repair shop machinery was afloat aboard wharf-boats, old steamers, tugs, flat-boats, and rafts. The naval station was moved upstream in 1862 when of land was purchased in Mound City. The Mound City Naval Station included a shipyard with marine ways, a foundry, marine barracks, supply offices, and a hospital; but many repair facilities remained afloat because the Mound City land was frequently inundated by flood waters. USS ''Cairo'' was built in 1861 by James Eads and Co. of Mound City, under contract to the War Department. She was commissioned in January 1862 as part of the Mississippi River Squadron, U.S. Navy Lieutenant James M. Prichett in command. She was a City-class ironclad gunboat constructed for the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was the lead ship of the City-class gunboats, sometimes also called the ''Cairo'' class, and was named for Cairo, Illinois. On December 12, 1862, just north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, the USS ''Cairo'' became the first ship sunk by electrically detonated torpedoes during its mission to destroy Confederate batteries and clear the Yazoo River of underwater mines. In 2017, Mound City elected Allison Madison, the city's first African-American and first female mayor.

Geography

Mound City is located at (37.085624, -89.163054). According to the 2010 census, Mound City has a total area of , of which (or 91.91%) is land and (or 8.09%) is water. The majority of the Native American

mound A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...

s for which the city was named have been destroyed by development and farming.CCNet ESSAY
University of Georgia Library

Demographics

2020 census

2010 census

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 2010, there were 588 people and 270 households. The racial makeup of the city was 44.39%

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 ...

, 53.4%

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 ...

, a single Asian, three individuals from other races, and eight individuals from two or more races. There were nine people who were

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.

2000 census

As of the

of 2000, there were 692 people, 279 households, and 178 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 319 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 49.57%

, 49.57%

, 0.14% Asian, 0.14% from other races, and 0.58% from two or more races.

or Latino people of any race were 1.16% of the population. There were 279 households, out of which 40.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.5% were married couples living together, 30.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.2% were non-families. 31.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.48 and the average family size was 3.12. In the city, the population was spread out, with 32.5% under the age of 18, 11.0% from 18 to 24, 26.9% from 25 to 44, 17.8% from 45 to 64, and 11.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females, there were 71.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 65.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $16,607, and the median income for a family was $22,143. Males had a median income of $35,469 versus $15,583 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 $10,020. About 35.5% of families and 39.3% 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 47.5% of those under age 18 and 26.0% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

* Charlie Hoover, catcher for the Kansas City Cowboys * Katherine D. Tillman, writer

National Register of Historic Places

* Mound City Civil War Naval Hospital * Mound City National Cemetery

References

{{authority control Cities in Pulaski County, Illinois County seats in Illinois Populated places established in 1857 Illinois populated places on the Ohio River 1857 establishments in Illinois Cities in Illinois Mounds in Illinois