Carrier Mills, Illinois

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Carrier Mills is a village in Saline County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,886 at the 2000 census.

From the highschool facing north toward downtown.

1 Geography
2 History
- 2.1 Local School History
3 Downtown Demolition
4 Lakeview: A link to African American culture
5 Demographics
6 External links

[edit] Geography

Carrier Mills is located at 37°41′13″N, 88°37′45″W (37.686923, -88.629149)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 3.2 km² (1.2 mi²). 3.2 km² (1.2 mi²) of it is land and 0.81% is water.

[edit] History

Home of the Catskin Days and The Wildcats, Carrier Mills is located seven miles southwest of Harrisburg, Illinois, where most of the town's citizens do their business and shopping. It was platted in November 1872 for William Housely as Morrillsville, named after Mr Morrill the Railroad superintendent that sealed a real-estate deal with Mill owner G. W. Carrier. It was commonly known and eventually renamed Carrier Mills after inventor, G. Washington Carrier ("Uncle Wash") who helped found the town when he built his several elaborate grain mills just the the south of town. The mills were used for the making of lumber to construct the business and homes in the town. Carrier and Morrill closed a real-estate deal to build a train depot there. The town was platted adjacent and north of the newly completed Cairo-Vincennes railroad. In 1873 the first postmaster was appointed to Carrier Mills (the name the railroad had assigned to the new stop). The Village was incorporated in 1894, and with the advent of the railroad and coal mines, the tiny village amidst timber and farms grew quickly. Today in legal documents its name remains Morrillsville. In March, 1908 a series of fires swept through its downtown, forcing them to rebuild in brick.

Coal mining also had a great influence on Carrier Mills. Some dozen coal mines privately and publicly owned ran around the town. During the towns heyday some 2,500 people bustled around the busy streets. After the coal mines closed around the state the population dwindled down to nearly 1500 according to the 2000 census. The entire county has suffered dearly from the closing of the coal mines, making Carrier Mills a near ghost town.

[edit] Local School History

Carrier Mills High School, erected 1940.

Location of the first school in Carrier Mills was a large two story wooden structure with a bell tower near the old Sahara Coal Company preparation plant (now abandoned), just northwest of the village build in the early 1820s. The little structure was made of logs and had a chimney of clay. School year began in August and ended in October because of the extreme cold. A typical school in 1850 was a subscription school - a fee of $2.50 was charged for a two-month period. From the Civil War period until 1875, the only formal school was located near Salem.

In 1887, the first school building in Carrier Mills Village was purchased for the purpose of being a perscription school at the corner of Walnut and Main St. The first major public school in the town was opened in 1903 on Furlong St. The first regcognized two year high school course was started in 1915. In 1917 the high school becaume a registered three-year high school until 1926 when it was changed to a community high school fully accredited by the state of Illinois.

Circa 1940, the Carrier Mills Public School building burned down after a disastrous fire starting during a Boy Scout meeting in the basement. A much larger second school was rebuilt a year later as a grade school around the frame of the first burnt school.

On Feb. 4, 1938, the present building was built and occupied, with the gymnasium and auditorium added in 1940. The current enlarged gym was built in 1950-1. At the beginning of 1963 the small town of Stonefort joined the Carrier Mills school district and they became the Carrier Mills-Stonefort Unit 2 School District.

The old grade school was torned down and replaced in 2002 with a newer building.

[edit] Downtown Demolition

The Oak Street business district facade, a prominent landmark in the city is being torn down.

Main Street has been reduced to just a few buildings. At one time every Empty lot in this photo had a building. Notice the suspect remains of Trolley Tracks peeking just under the concrete.

The traditional downtown business district in Carrier Mills stretched from Route 45 down Main Street to Washington Street, and down Oak and Railroad streets between Main Street and Mill Street, but As of July, 2006 most of the Carrier Mills downtown was deemed condemned and demolished by the city. Citizens of Carrier Mills said it was better to see empty lots than rotten buildings. Most citizens found it sad that it had to come to such a conclusion. The future of Carrier Mills looks bleak.

The business district has been in a slow decline at least 25 years. No single big event can be tied to the decline of downtown Carrier Mills. Will Scarlet Mine closed in 1987. Sahara's mines closed in 1993, putting hundreds out of work. Each of those closures reverberated through the local economy. Sahara had a reputation for buying locally -- when their purchasing ceased it was a big blow to local businesses. But the Carrier Mills downtown area was on a slow downhill slide before the big mine closures.

In its hayday, Carrier Mills was home to several hotels, two theaters, two banks, several stores and markets. Nearly all have been slowly torn or burned down over the past 20 years. This last sweep has been the icing on the cake and quickly finished the job that the private owners would have done eventually.

There were small stores on Friend, Main, East End and Washington streets -- in some instances a small store could be found every few blocks. The small grocery stores gradually shut down as people became more apt to own cars and were therefore more mobile -- something that contributed generally to the decline of small towns like Carrier Mills.

A new building ordinance was set in July for future plans of construction in the vacant downtown area. According to Mayor Louis Shaw, "What we're concerned about is when you walk into town, it doesn't look like a farm." Something that seems to have already started to take place with the demolition of these buildings.

[edit] Lakeview: A link to African American culture

Carrier Mills also has a great African American history and influence. Free blacks founded the small early pioneer settlement of Lakeview a mile south of Carrier Mills shortly after the War of 1812. The History of Saline County (1997) states that "LakeView, a colored community south of town (Carrier Mills), is an older settlement than Carrier Mills. It is the oldest black settlement in Illinois. It was first named Pond Settlement because of the swamp land that surrounded it. According to local tradition free blacks living in the Pond Settlement helped runaway slaves and indentured servants escape from the saline works and the Old Slave House near Equality, Illinois.

Lakeview had its own school and grocery store along with many homes. In 1850, a Union Church was established near Carrier Mills in Saline Co., Ill. Most members were either Baptist or Methodist. An African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized at the home of Irvin Allen, who built a one-room log church building on his property. After the church burned they rebuilt and moved the church to Carrier Mills where it sits today. This congregation is now Baber Chapel AME Church. The Lakeview cemetery has become a state historical landmark. The area of Lakeview is still a nearly 100% black area. After the closing of the Lakeview school in the 1950's, many people moved to the east side of Carrier Mills. There was much felt tension between the whites and blacks in the town.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 1,886 people, 798 households, and 501 families residing in the village. The population density was 587.2/km² (1,522.9/mi²). There were 942 housing units at an average density of 293.3/km² (760.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the village was 84.84% White, 12.94% African American, 0.32% Native American, 0.16% Asian, 0.48% from other races, and 1.27% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.90% of the population.

There were 798 households out of which 25.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 47.6% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.2% were non-families. 34.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.84.

In the village the population was spread out with 21.2% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 22.6% from 45 to 64, and 24.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 84.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.2 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $25,493, and the median income for a family was $35,037. Males had a median income of $31,458 versus $16,756 for females. The per capita income for the village was $14,314. About 13.2% of families and 17.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.4% of those under age 18 and 16.7% of those age 65 or over.