Eldred is a village in Greene County,

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 ...

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. The population was 149 at the 2020 census.

History

Eldred was founded because of its situation in the

Illinois River The Illinois River () is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River at approximately in length. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, the river has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins with the confluence of the Des Plaines ...

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, Illinois, Kampsville, and its eastern terminus is at Interstate 55 in Zanesville Township near Raymond, Illinois, ...

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

and the

Kampsville Kampsville is a village in Crater and Carlin precincts, Calhoun County, Illinois, United States, located on the west bank of the Illinois River. The population was 310 at the 2020 census. Name Kampsville was originally known as ''Beeman's Landi ...

ferry. According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, 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 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 ...

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 2020 census there were 149 people, 113 households, and 46 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 101 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 94.63%

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 ...

, 0.00%

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 ...

, 0.00% Native American, 0.67% Asian, 0.00%

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, 0.67% from other races, and 4.03% from two or more races.

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or Latino of any race were 0.00% of the population. There were 113 households, out of which 5.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 30.09% were married couples living together, 8.85% had a female householder with no husband present, and 59.29% were non-families. 57.52% of all households were made up of individuals, and 46.90% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.96 and the average family size was 1.81. The village's age distribution consisted of 7.4% under the age of 18, 3.4% from 18 to 24, 7.8% from 25 to 44, 42.2% from 45 to 64, and 39.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 56.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 107.7 males. The median income for a household in the village was $41,875, and the median income for a family was $92,750. Males had a median income of $50,517 versus $40,438 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 village was $32,013. About 4.3% of families and 9.8% 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 none of those under age 18 and 13.8% of those age 65 or over.

References

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