Illiopolis

COUNTY: Sangamon

POPULATION: 891

PRESIDENT: Sam L. Rogers

MAJOR HIGHWAYS: Interstate 72

HISTORY: Illiopolis supposedly meant “city of Illinois” when someone in the early days tried to have the state capital moved to this spot on the prairie because it is the geographical center. The first log buildings were there until a prairie fire erased everything, after which the wild tall grassland remained untouched for nearly 20 more years until the railroad was built across it in 1853 and 1854. That railroad came 25 miles east from Springfield, which had grown rapidly after the capital was moved there, and it went on 15 more miles to Decatur, which was the seat of Macon County.

At about that same time, two more improvements in technology began to make it possible for farmers to raise good crops in the flat black prairie soil. John Deere had moved out of his blacksmith shop 150 miles north of here and into a factory on the Mississippi River where he was producing lots of his polished steel plows — the only ones that worked in the sticky black dirt Illiopolis sits on. Illiopolis now sits in the midst of very rich lands which produce huge crops of soybeans and corn. This land now costs as much as $4,000 per acre.

Illiopolis in 1900 was a country village straddling the railroad and strung beside it, ½ mile long and two to four blocks wide. It centered on the railroad depot, grain elevators, stockyard, post office, general stores, a hardware store and mortuary combination, a lumberyard, blacksmith shops, livery stables, two small hotels, three churches and a school, with a tile yard just outside of town. Even after the concrete highway (U.S. 36) was built through it in the 1920s, bringing filling stations and two automobile dealerships, the village only stretched longer but remained little changed until 1942.

Three months after the United States found itself at suddenly at war with Japan and Germany, Illiopolis was deluged by an economic and social upheaval that brought quick changes and reshaped the community. About 20,000 acres of farmland, an area 4 miles wide and about 8 miles long which touched the west end of the village, suddenly became U.S. government land on which the Sangamon Ordnance Plant was built to load explosive charges into ammunition. Without any warning, all people living on that land, most of whom were farmers, were given the months of March and April to move everything they owned off it while construction crew overran everything. By October, the “war plant” was operating and Illiopolis was a boomtown where every spot to park a trailer on a lawn or lot was filled. Garages had become bedrooms, and every spare bedroom was rented, sometimes in shifts. There were really two ordnance plants, employing many hundreds of civilians, and each was managed by a staff of Army people. Two “staff areas,” with 20 identical houses in each, were built for them about a mile on each side of the village.

After the war, the dismantling of “the plant” was also quite an operation, as all of that land and everything on it was sold back either to original owners or to war veterans. Most “war plant people” departed, but new businesses and more new people arrived. The government had built a huge water supply and the many war plant buildings left attracted chemical companies and the DeKalb Agricultural Association with its large seed corn and chicken businesses.

Illiopolis today involves many more people than the 1,100 listed on the road sign. The corporation limits have expanded to include new housing areas, so that the village is now 1½ miles long, but still four blocks wide. As in other country towns, some people commute to cities to work, but probably as many people drive from cities and towns to near Illiopolis.

ON THE WEB: www.illiopolis.com