Filmed on Friday, April 7, 2023, I drive around the small city Pekin, Illinois to see what's going on.
Farmer Jonathan Tharp, who came from Ohio, was the first non-native American resident of what would become Pekin, building a log cabin in 1824 on a ridge above the Illinois River at a site near the present foot of Broadway Drive. Other settlers soon joined him, including his father Jacob Tharp who arrived from Ohio in 1825. They lived near Chief Shabbona's large Indian village of about 100 wigwams, populated primarily by Potawatomi.
The county surveyor, William Hodge, measured and laid out a “town site” in 1827. In 1829, the plat was taken to Springfield and auctioned; the town site was awarded to Major Isaac Perkins, Gideon Hawley, William Haines and Major Nathan Cromwell. Major Cromwell’s wife, Mrs. Ann Eliza Cromwell, selected the name of Pekin.
It has been stated that Mrs. Cromwell named the town "Pekin" because she thought Peking was on the exact opposite side of the world from the town she founded. In the 1800s, China and the United States were thought to be antipodes- or locations that were exactly opposite of each other on the globe. As such, towns were sometimes named after their supposedly antipodal locations. Another example is Canton, Ohio. "Peking" was often romanized as "Pekin", as in other towns founded during the 1800s (such as Pekin, Ohio).
Pekin was the residence of Nance Costley, known to history as the first enslaved person to be freed with the help of Abraham Lincoln. She was auctioned off to Nathan Cromwell in 1827 and brought to Pekin. Her original case was part of a Probate Court hearing regarding the estate when he died in 1836. David Bailey, a local merchant of abolitionist leanings, sought the help of an attorney friend after he (and Nance) lost the case. Abraham Lincoln argued the case in 1841 at the Illinois Supreme Court, citing the Illinois Constitution and Northwest Ordinance. Justice Breese determined that Nance was a free person and reversed the Circuit Court ruling, stating that “it is a presumption of law, in the State of Illinois, that every person is free, without regard to color,” and “the sale of a free person is illegal”. After her freedom was legally secured, she remained in Pekin with her husband and children.
Although Illinois was a "free" state, pro-slavery sentiment was predominant throughout southern and central Illinois, which had been largely settled by Southerners, some of whom were slaveholders before the state was admitted to the union. Cities with pro-slavery sentiment included Peoria and Pekin.
Nonetheless, there was abolitionist sentiment in Pekin. Among Pekin's abolitionist leaders was Dr. Daniel Cheever, who performed Underground Railroad activities in his office at the corner of Capitol and Court streets and the brothers Samuel and Hugh Woodrow. (Catherine Street in Pekin is named for Samuel's wife, and Amanda Street is named for Hugh's wife). T
The sentiment was bolstered by the German immigrants that arrived in the area after the Revolutions of 1848; while there were small groups that supported slavery, finding them would prove difficult as the German community disapproved of the idea.
In an early 20th-century revival, the Ku Klux Klan recruited new members as a fraternal organization, opposing new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, and becoming influential in rapidly industrializing urban areas in the Midwest and West, as well as in the South. It had numerous members in Pekin and other Illinois cities. It was during this period that leading Klansmen took over ownership of the city newspaper, the Pekin Daily Times; they used it as an organ of Klan viewpoints. They sold off the paper within a few years.
The city had an identity and reputation as a sundown town; it was known to be hostile to black residents and few settled there. On the other hand, some Pekin church pastors participated in the civil rights marches of the 1960s, and U.S. Senator Everett Dirksen from Pekin was integral to achieving passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
As of the census of 2020, there were 31,731 people, 13,706 households, and 8,721 families residing in the city.
The racial makeup of the city was 92.9% White, 3% African American, 0.2% Native American or Alaska Native, 0.5% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 0.6% from other races, and 3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.6% of the population.
The median income for a household in the city was $50,838, and the median income for a family was $68,784. About 11.5% of families and 15% of the population were living below the poverty line, including 19.1% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over. #driving #travel #drivingtour
5 сен 2024
