Morris, Illinois
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Morris is a city in 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 Grundy 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 ...
,
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and part of the southwest
Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also referred to as Chicagoland, is the largest metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the Midwest, containing the City of Chicago along with its surrounding suburbs and satellite cities. ...
. The population was 14,163 as of the 2020 census. A team of ten anthropologists and sociologists from nearby University of Chicago studied the city in depth and reported its findings in W. Lloyd Warner, editor, ''Democracy in Jonesville: A Study of Quality and Inequality'' (1949).


Description

Morris is the Grundy County seat and has a large hospital and modern schools. It is home to the Morris Community High School Redskins, who have won three state championships in football. There are many small parks, ball diamonds, tennis courts, two golf courses, an outdoor swimming pool, an indoor short course pool as well as the Gebhard Woods State Park and the William G. Stratton State Park for boat launching on the Illinois River and a skatepark located near White Oak elementary school. Morris Community High School is known to be located on an abandoned mining network that stems for approximately . Morris is known for its downtown, ranked #3 as one of the bes
Main Streets in Illinois.
Its home to more than 30 independently owned stores and restaurants.


Geography

Morris is located in northeast Grundy County along U.S. Route 6 and
Illinois Route 47 Illinois Route 47 (IL 47) is a largely rural north–south state highway that runs from the Wisconsin state border at Highway 120 (Wisconsin), Highway 120 near Hebron, Illinois, Hebron, to Illinois Route 10, IL 10, just south of I ...
and on the north side of 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 ...
at an elevation of . According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Morris has a total area of , of which (or 96.92%) is land and (or 3.08%) is water.


Climate

The annual precipitation for Morris is about 40 inches. The record high for Morris is 109 °F (43 °C) on July 14, 1936. The record low for Morris is -26 °F (−32 °C) in December 1924. The average high temperature for Morris in July is 84.5 °F (43 °C), while the average January low is 15.4 °F (-9.2 °C). Morris has not been struck by any major tornadoes in recent history, although they occur in Northern Illinois annually. Morris was the first town hit by the Super Outbreak of April 3–4, 1974. However, the damage within the city was relatively minor, and nobody was injured. The city can receive heavy snowfall and experience blizzards periodically.


Demographics

As of the 2020 census there were 14,163 people, 6,206 households, and 4,100 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 6,286 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 82.98%
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 ...
, 2.18%
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 ...
, 0.37% Native American, 1.17% Asian, 0.06%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...
, 4.84% from other races, and 8.39% 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 13.30% of the population. There were 6,206 households, out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.47% were married couples living together, 12.04% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.93% were non-families. 29.94% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.18% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.76 and the average family size was 2.27. The city's age distribution consisted of 22.9% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 26.8% from 25 to 44, 24% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37.6 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.8 males. The median income for a household in the city was $61,419, and the median income for a family was $73,750. Males had a median income of $47,209 versus $32,672 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 $32,024. About 6.5% of families and 10.2% 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 18.3% of those under age 18 and 8.2% of those age 65 or over.


Industries

The Allen Paper Car Wheel Works were based on East North Street in Morris, which supplied the Pullman Palace Car Company in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
from 1867 to 1890 with composite wheels for their railway carriages.John H. Lienhard
''Engines of Our Enginuity, No. 758: Paper railroad wheels.''
/ref> By the 1920s, the paper mill had become one of the largest employers in Morris, producing cardboard boxes of various shapes, sizes, and colors that were shipped throughout the US.''Then & Now: Morris Paper Mills – Morris.''
In: ''The Herald-News'', 18 October 2017.
The Lyondell Chemical Company is located about from the city center. The plant, located just off U.S. Route 6 heading eastbound away from Morris, employs many Morris residents. In addition to the chemical plant, three nuclear power plants are located within a radius of the center of Morris. The closest nuclear plant is only away, called the Dresden Nuclear Power Station. The LaSalle Nuclear Station is away, and Braidwood Generating Station is about away. All of the stations are owned by Exelon Corp. Among the stations, Dresden Generating Station generates energy for Chicago and surrounding areas.


Telephone switching history

In early 1960, the world's first electronic switching system was installed at the Morris central office. The system was a milestone in telephone switching history, an experiment whose planning started in the early 1950s, and led to the largest sustained research and development program toward a single goal in the Bell System. After conversion of the existing manual telephone system using telephone operators for completing telephone calls, with an automatic electromechanical crossbar switching system starting in ca. 1958, a few hundred subscribers received dial service from June 1960 through January 1962 from the first mostly electronic system, that used cold-cathode electron tubes, instead of mechanical relays and switches. For telephone subscribers, the most notable characteristic of what is usually called the ''Morris System'' was the use of electronic tone ringers which used up to eight different tones produced by a tweeter, rather than the traditional bell ringer.


Notable people

* Jessie Bartlett Davis, (c. 1859–1861–1905), operatic singer and actress * Jack Boyle, (1889–1971), third baseman for the
Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. The Phillies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has ...
* Ed Brady, (b. 1960), former NFL linebacker * Kelly Dransfeldt, (b. 1975), former shortstop for the Texas Rangers and
Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...
* Careen M. Gordon, (b. 1972), Member of the
Illinois House of Representatives The Illinois House of Representatives is the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. The body was created by the first Illinois Constitution adopted in 1818. The House under the constitution as amended in 1980 consists of 118 representativ ...
from the 75th district from 2003 to 2011 * Philip C. Hayes, (1833–1916), congressman * Albert Kingsbury, (1863–1943), engineer, inventor and entrepreneur * Eric J. Magnuson, (b. 1951), lawyer and Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court * Billy Petrick, (b. 1984), former pitcher for the
Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...
* Walter M. Pierce, (1861–1954), congressman from Oregon's 2nd congressional district and 17th
governor of Oregon The governor of Oregon is the head of government of Oregon and serves as the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The title of governor was also applied to the office of Oregon's chief executive during the provisional and U.S. ter ...
* Lyman Beecher Ray (1831–1916), lieutenant governor of Illinois 1889–93, politician and Morris shopkeeper * Scott Spiezio, (b. 1972), former Major League Baseball third baseman * Ronald Steel, (b. 1931), award-winning writer, historian, and professor * James R. Washburn (1921–2007), Illinois state representative and mayor of Morris * Jerry Weller, (b. 1957), former congressman from the 11th District of Illinois


References


External links

* {{authority control Cities in Illinois County seats in Illinois Cities in Grundy County, Illinois Populated places established in 1853 1853 establishments in Illinois