Hodgkins is a village in

Cook County, Illinois Cook County is the List of counties in Illinois, most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the List of the most populous counties in the United States, second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, C ...

, United States, and is an

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. The population was 1,500 at the 2020 census, down from 1,897 at the 2010 census. A

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facility, known as CACH, is located in Hodgkins at 1 UPS Way. CACH employs over 9,000 people and is the "largest package sorting center in the world". On July 12, 2023, at approximately 6:30pm a tornado (eventually rated as an EF2) crossed LaGrange Road (U.S. 45) from neighboring Countryside. It caused tree damage in the Theodore Stone Forest Preserve. Structures along the path of the storm that were affected included Salerno's Restaurant, Ettleson Cadillac, The Quarry Shopping Mall (including Walmart, Kohl's, and Ross), Republic Bank, Menards, and Target. As it crossed East Avenue, it damaged D & S Truck Sales, and structures on Lenzi Avenue before spinning into the Vulcan Quarry. It eventually headed East, into neighboring McCook.

Geography

Hodgkins is located at (41.764181, −87.859384). According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Hodgkins has a total area of , of which (or 98.05%) is land and (or 1.95%) is water. Neighboring communities are Willow Springs,

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, Bedford Park, McCook, and Countryside.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census there were 1,500 people, 690 households, and 333 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 642 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 59.47%

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, 1.13%

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, 2.47% Native American, 1.53% Asian, 16.93% from other races, and 18.47% from two or more races.

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or Latino of any race were 44.13% of the population. There were 690 households, out of which 24.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.03% were married couples living together, 6.81% had a female householder with no husband present, and 51.74% were non-families. 46.67% of all households were made up of individuals, and 37.97% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.76 and the average family size was 2.54. The village's age distribution consisted of 25.2% under the age of 18, 4.8% from 18 to 24, 28.9% from 25 to 44, 18.4% from 45 to 64, and 22.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 119.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.9 males. The median income for a household in the village was $54,792, and the median income for a family was $53,194. Males had a median income of $40,592 versus $26,250 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 $24,597. About 9.9% of families and 14.6% 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 20.0% of those under age 18 and 13.3% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Hodgkins is governed by an elected president and six

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...

s. The Village President, Village Clerk, and three Trustees are elected every four years. The other group of three Trustees are also elected for four-year terms, but this election is staggered and takes place two years after the first group. The Village Treasurer, the Village Chief of Police, and the Village Superintendent of Public Works are appointed. Hodgkins is in Illinois's 3rd congressional district.

History

The first European visitors to present-day Hodgkins, explorers

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette, Society of Jesus, S.J. (; June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Society of Jesus, Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. M ...

and

Louis Joliet Louis Jolliet (; September 21, 1645after May 1700) was a French-Canadian explorer known for his discoveries in North America. In 1673, Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit Catholic priest and missionary, were the first non-Natives to explore ...

, paddled down the

Des Plaines River The Des Plaines River ( ) is a river that flows southward for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 through southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois''American H ...

in 1673, passing through the area, making their camp in present-day

Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

. Settlement in the area, however, was somewhat stagnant until the early 19th century. It was at this time, around 1836, that Irish and Italian immigrants came to the area to work on the

Illinois and Michigan Canal The Illinois and Michigan Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico. In Illinois, it ran from the Chicago River in Bridgeport, Chicago to the Illinois River at LaSalle-Peru. The canal crossed the Chicago ...

. The construction and eventual operation of the canal was responsible for the formation of many villages presently located along its banks, including Hodgkins.Village of Hodgkins – 100 Years of Progress booklet, published by the Village of Hodgkins for its centennial (1996) The village of Hodgkins was originally known as Gary, a name locals claim was derived from " Garibaldi", in recognition of the large number of Italian laborers working in an area grain mill. After several name changes, the Village of Hodgkins was incorporated in 1896. Jefferson Hodgkins, the president of the Kimball and Cobb Stone company, which was also the first business to locate in the village, was the man for whom Hodgkins was named. Modesto Lenzi, the somewhat dubious "King of Gary", became the village's first president that same year.

Patrick Crowley murder

Modesto Lenzi was unsuccessful in his 1909 reelection bid. Lenzi was defeated by L. E. Thatcher in an election that contemporary newspaper accounts called "a political feud between the prohibition and liquor interests". The election campaign raged hotly for several months, culminating in Lenzi's ouster. On the night of June 14, 1909, the crowd gathered in Hodgkins during and after the election became unruly. Village marshal Patrick Crowley, in an attempt to restore order, placed Modesto Lenzi, who was allegedly inciting the crowd, under arrest for disturbing the peace. As Crowley was bringing Lenzi to the jail: "A shot was fired in to his breast by some person in a crowd of alleged Lenzi sympathizers gathered about." The '' Fort Wayne News'' reported the following on June 14, 1909: ::Modesto Lenzi, an Italian, was defeated for re-election as president of the village, after a hot anti-liquor fight at the last election...the man started peacefully to the village lock-up, but when half way there suddenly offered resistance. As Crowley as remonstrating with him, an unknown man suddenly appeared, drew a revolver and shot Crowley dead. In the excitement the slayer fled. On June 22, 1909, a grand jury concluded: ::The said Patrick Crowley now lying dead...in said village of LaGrange...came to his death...from shock and hemorrhage due to a bullet wound in the right breast, said bullet fired from a revolver held in the hand of one Harry Lenzi, on the road at Gary odgkins Ill. on June 13, 1909. And from the evidence presented, we the jury recommend that Harry Lenzi, as principal and now at large, be apprehended, and that Modesto Lenzi and John May, as accessories before the fact, be held to the Grand Jury on the charge of murder, until released by due process of law. We the jury further believe that if one Frank Meno, had not interfered, the above named Harry Lenzi would now be in custody. We therefore recommend that Frank Meno be apprehended and held as an accessory after the fact. On December 23, 1909, it was reported by the '' Logansport Pharos'' newspaper that the charges of murder against Modesto Lenzi and John May had been dropped. The paper reported that Assistant State's Attorney Benedict J. Short told Judge Kersten's court that the state had no evidence against the defendants. Marshall Crowley was buried at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago.

McCook-Hodgkins Enterprise Zone

In the 1950s and 1960s, Hodgkins began to attract motor freight terminals. The village's location relative to expressways and the availability of high, flat, and dry land made it a natural distribution and transfer point between Chicago and the rest of the nation. Hodgkins grew substantially during these two decades; however, by the late 1970s, the motor freight industry began to decline. In 1985, Hodgkins joined with the village of McCook to create the McCook-Hodgkins Enterprise Zone. The next year saw the creation of a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District within the Enterprise Zone. Both of these tools allowed the village to offer incentives to new businesses desiring to locate there. As a result of these programs, commercial business began to replace motor freight as Hodgkins' mechanism of growth. Developers built a major local shopping center, The Quarry Mall, on land vacated by the declining motor freight companies in 1992. Several auto dealerships, restaurants, a movie theater and an

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establishment were also attracted to the development.

Jefferson Hodgkins

The village's name comes from a local landowner and businessman, Jefferson Hodgkins, and is unrelated to the discoverer of

Hodgkin's lymphoma Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is a type of lymphoma in which cancer originates from a specific type of white blood cell called lymphocytes, where multinucleated Reed–Sternberg cells (RS cells) are present in the lymph nodes. The condition was named a ...

, Thomas Hodgkin. It is unclear exactly how Hodgkins' name came to replace Gary as the village's moniker. Throughout its history, Hodgkins has been known by several different names. In the years before settlers began to arrive, the

Potawatomi The Potawatomi (), also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American tribe of the Great Plains, upper Mississippi River, and western Great Lakes region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, ...

people lived in the area near the Des Plaines River. From 1836 transient workers were brought to the area to work on the I&M Canal; however, it was not until 1860, when the United States government deeded property to a local settler, Hurls Polk, that the name "Polk" was given to the area. When the Santa Fe Depot was built in 1887, the name of the stop was "Novak". By 1890, the

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the largest Class 1 railroads in the United States between 1859 and 1996. The Santa Fe was a pioneer in intermodal freight transport; at vario ...

listed the stop in present-day Hodgkins as "Gary". this designation would stick until July 1, 1896, when the village of Hodgkins was incorporated. Quarrying continues today at the Vulcan Materials Company McCook Quarry, with a total of in Hodgkins and McCook.

Immanuel Lutheran Church

Thoughts of organizing a

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

congregation at Hodgkins were entertained as far back as the 1880s. At that time there were several Lutheran families living in what would later be the village of Hodgkins who were members of the Lutheran churches of La Grange (St. John) and Willow Springs (Trinity). A local merchant named John Witsan organized a

Sunday school ] A Sunday school, sometimes known as a Sabbath school, is an educational institution, usually Christianity, Christian in character and intended for children or neophytes. Sunday school classes usually precede a Sunday church service and are u ...

in Hodgkins about this same time. The development of the Sunday school amplified, for the Lutheran families, the inconvenience of sending their children to the Lutheran day schools and Sunday schools in La Grange and Willow Springs, and thoughts of a stand-alone congregation in Hodgkins began to materialize. Two representatives from the Lutheran churches in La Grange and Willow Springs, Reinhardt Leu and Henry Bloedorn, approached Reverend Alex Ullrich of LaGrange with the proposition of establishing a Lutheran congregation in Hodgkins.Order of Services of the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary of the Dedication and A Brief History of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church, Hodgkins, Illinois (September 26, 1937)

Fire protection

The district maintains professional, full-time firefighting crews at all three stations including

paramedic A paramedic is a healthcare professional trained in the medical model, whose main role has historically been to respond to emergency calls for medical help outside of a hospital. Paramedics work as part of the emergency medical services (EMS), ...

s for its ambulances. The Pleasantview Fire Protection District is also an integral member of a large Mutual Aid Association of fire fighters, paramedics, and rescue workers throughout the area.

Hodgkins today

The village of Hodgkins maintains its own police department, public works department, and water department, which purchases

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

water from McCook. Hodgkins Elementary School is part of La Grange School District 105. High school students attend Lyons Township High School. The Hodgkins Park District offers a large community center and schedules a myriad of activities all year long. The Hodgkins Public Library is a full-service facility within the Reaching Across Illinois Library System. The Village of Hodgkins currently employs 25 full- and part-time employees.

Transportation

Pace provides bus service on multiple routes connecting Hodgkins to destinations across the region. Hodgkins is located along the BNSF Railway line between Chicago and Los Angeles, it was served by commuter trains until 1903.