Ridgway is a village in Ridgway and North Fork Townships, Gallatin County,

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. As of the 2020 census, the population was 851. As of 2021, Nancy Kitchens was the town mayor.

History

Ridgway was established in 1866 as a construction camp along what would become the Springfield and Illinois South Eastern Railway. It was named for the railroad's president, Thomas S. Ridgway. The village, once home to a popcorn plant, is the former self-proclaimed "Popcorn Capital of the World". Popcorn Day continues as part of the Gallatin County Fair and is held the second Saturday in September. The February 2012 tornadoes, which killed seven in the nearby

Harrisburg Harrisburg ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat, seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50, ...

area, destroyed the St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Ridgway. The church was rebuilt in 2015 under the name "St. Kateri," in honor of

Kateri Tekakwitha Kateri Tekakwitha ( in Mohawk), given the name Tekakwitha, baptized as Catherine ("Kateri" in Mohawk), and informally known as Lily of the Mohawks (1656 – April 17, 1680), is a Mohawk/ Algonquin Catholic saint and virgin. Born in the Mohawk v ...

Geography

Ridgway is located in

southern Illinois Southern Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois comprising the southern third of the state, principally south of Interstate 70. Part of downstate Illinois, it is bordered by the two List of U.S. rivers by discharge, most voluminous ri ...

at (37.798036, -88.260571), north of Shawnee National Forest. It is in north-central Gallatin County, northwest of Shawneetown, 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 ...

. The village is concentrated along Ridgway Newhaven Road, just east of

Illinois Route 1 Illinois Route 1 (IL 1) is a state highway (US), state highway in the U.S. state of Illinois. Running parallel to the Indiana border, the highway starts at the Cave-In-Rock Ferry, free ferry crossing to Kentucky at Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, ...

. According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Ridgway has a total area of , of which (or 99.89%) is land and (or 0.11%) is water.

Demographics

As of the 2020 census there were 851 people, 445 households, and 282 families residing in the village. The population density was . There were 419 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 93.77%

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 ...

, 1.41%

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 ...

, 0.47% Asian, 0.71% from other races, and 3.64% 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 1.29% of the population. There were 379 households, 31.4% were married couples living together, 43.3% had a female householder with no husband present. The median income for a household in the village was $44,777, and the median income for a family was $68,958. About 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 1.7% of those under age 18 and 17.2% of those age 65 or over.

References

External links

* {{authority control Villages in Gallatin County, Illinois Villages in Illinois

History

Geography

Demographics

References

Further reading

External links