Tiskilwa is a village in Bureau 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 Rockf ...

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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The population was 740 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Ottawa Micropolitan Statistical Area. Exelon Wind, a division of Exelon Power, owns and operates the Illinois Wind AgriWind Project in Tiskilwa.

History

Early history

Founded in 1834, Tiskilwa emerged as a regional economic and cultural center integrating its own administrative capacities, schools, churches and shops serving a small population of townspeople and farm families from the surrounding . It was a small community whose center was three blocks of Main Street around which were located its churches, cafes, taverns, grocery stores, beauty parlors, barbershops and other businesses.

History of Tiskilwa High School

The high school was deactivated in 1996. The high school aged students from Tiskilwa now attend Princeton High School (Illinois). The grade school is now the property of the Princeton Elementary School District and now houses the Bureau Marshall Putnam counties' special education cooperative (BMP), and the Bureau County Special Schools Bureau Educational Support Team (BEST Program), a public K-12 alternative school. School buildings in Tiskilwa date to 1838. A newer building was built in 1850 and an updated building in 1868. In 1978 the building still standing today was built and closed with the deactivation of the school system in 1996. The first class to graduate high school from Tiskilwa did so in 1878 with a graduating class membership of two.

Festivals

Strawberry Festival

Tiskilwa's Strawberry and Artisan Festival is held on the second Saturday in June; it celebrates Tiskilwa's strawberry season and showcases area artists. The festival offers fresh berries and strawberry

shortcake Shortcake generally refers to a dessert with a crumbly scone like texture. There is multiple variations of shortcake most of which are usually served with fruit and cream, one of the most popular being strawberry shortcake which is typically s ...

, live entertainment, children's activities and food vendors in downtown Tiskilwa from late morning through early afternoon. It typically coincides with town-wide

garage sale A garage sale (also known as a yard sale, tag sale, moving sale and by many other namesSome rarely used names include "attic sale," "basement sale," "rummage sale," "thrift sale," "patio sale," "lawn sale," and "jumble sale".) is an informal ...

Pow Wow Days

Tiskilwa celebrates Pow Wow Days every year the first weekend in August. This is a three-day event with a community concert or big band dancing, children's "Muttin Bustin Rodeo", a parade, a Native American pow wow, a

beer garden A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees. Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...

, 4-H Club and cheerleader-sponsored food stands, church-sponsored lunches, historical tours, antique automobiles and tractors, and other events. Pow Wow Days was founded in 1976 as part of the national bicentennial.

Geography

Tiskilwa is located at (41.291664, -89.506462). According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Tiskilwa has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census there were 740 people, 298 households, and 191 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 340 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 92.43%

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 o ...

, 0.27%

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 0.41% Asian, 0.41% from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 6.49% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

or Latino of any race were 2.30% of the population. There were 298 households, out of which 30.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.64% were married couples living together, 10.07% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.91% were non-families. 34.56% of all households were made up of individuals, and 20.13% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.92 and the average family size was 2.33. The village's age distribution consisted of 22.7% under the age of 18, 9.5% from 18 to 24, 16.4% from 25 to 44, 28.9% from 45 to 64, and 22.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.7 males. The median income for a household in the village was $41,071, and the median income for a family was $53,250. Males had a median income of $40,139 versus $21,375 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 $22,328. About 17.3% of families and 21.8% 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 t ...

, including 30.6% of those under age 18 and 12.3% of those age 65 or over.

Notable Persons

Warren Giles Warren Crandall Giles (May 28, 1896 – February 7, 1979) was an American professional baseball executive. Giles spent 33 years in high-level posts in Major League Baseball as club president and general manager of the Cincinnati Reds (1937–1951 ...

, professional baseball executive, born in Tiskilwa *

Charles Torrey Simpson Charles Torrey Simpson (June 3, 1846 in Tiskilwa, Illinois – December 17, 1932 in Lemon City, Miami, Florida) was an American botanist, Malacology, malacologist, and Conservation movement, conservationist. He retired to Florida where he became ...

, botanist,

malacologist Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

and conservationist * Lilian Whiting, journalist, editor, and author of poetry and short stories

References

External links

Tiskilwa Historical Society

Tiskilwa Public Library

Tiskilwa Train Derailment
{{authority control Villages in Bureau County, Illinois Villages in Illinois Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area Populated places established in 1834 1834 establishments in Illinois