Illinois Trivia & Tidbits - Page 12

Looking for Illinois trivia? Try our list Illinois little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Cairo (pop. 3,632), at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi River, is named after the Egyptian city of the same name, though residents pronounce the town “kay-ro.”

first appeared: 12/15/2002

Former first lady and now U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodman Clinton was a Girl Scout and member of a Methodist youth group while growing up in Park Ridge (pop. 37,775).

first appeared: 12/8/2002

On his sixth attempt, Chicago adventurer Steve Fossett made aviation history July 2 as the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world.

first appeared: 12/1/2002

In 1836, New Philadelphia in Pike County became the first town founded by an African-American. “Free Frank” McWorter, a Virginia slave, saved $800, bought his freedom, and mapped the town, which survived until 1885 when the railroad bypassed it.

first appeared: 11/24/2002

In 2000, Tom Day of Berwyn founded Bugles Across America, a nationwide network of volunteer musicians who play Taps at veterans’ funerals.

first appeared: 11/17/2002

Northwestern Corp. in Morris (pop. 11,928) is the nation’s oldest vending machine manufacturer, cranking out “silent salesmen” since 1909 when founder Emerson Bolen marketed a match vendor that dispensed one lighted match and nipped the end of a cigar.

first appeared: 11/10/2002

Collinsville (pop. 24,707) dubs itself the “Horseradish Capital of the World,” growing two-thirds of the nation’s crop.

first appeared: 11/3/2002

A skull, coffin, and tombstone are hazards in the 9-hole miniature golf course in the basement of Ahlgrim’s Funeral Home in Palatine. Games are free but are pre-empted by funerals.

first appeared: 10/27/2002

The state grows 70 percent of the nation’s pumpkins for commercial processing or pie pumpkins.

first appeared: 10/20/2002

Jane Addams, founder of Hull House for the needy in 1888 in Chicago, was born Sept. 6, 1860, in Cedarville (pop. 719).

first appeared: 10/13/2002

Opened in 1895, Good’s furniture store in Kewanee (pop. 12,944) continues to expand and now includes a bed and breakfast, restaurant, and barbershop.

first appeared: 10/6/2002

Established in 1837, the Fairview Dutch Reformed Church in Fairview (pop. 493) is the oldest Reformed congregation west of the Allegheny Mountains.

first appeared: 9/29/2002

Completed in 1848, the 97-mile Illinois & Michigan Canal linked the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River watershed, bringing people and prosperity to Chicago.

first appeared: 9/22/2002

Oak Hill Cemetery in Lewistown (pop. 2,522) is one of fiction’s most famous cemeteries as the setting for Spoon River Anthology by hometown poet Edgar Lee Masters. In the 1914 classic, the dead relate episodes from their lives.

first appeared: 9/15/2002

Since 1876, corn has been planted at the Morrow Plots at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the oldest agricultural research field in the country.

first appeared: 9/8/2002

Construction began in 1890 on the Hennepin Canal to link the upper Illinois River with the Mississippi. When it was finally completed in 1907, railway shipping costs had decreased and barge sizes had increased, making the canal nearly obsolete.

first appeared: 9/1/2002

Based in Hoffman Estates, Den Danske Pioneer is the nation’s oldest Danish-American newspaper, published since 1872.

first appeared: 8/25/2002

Cyclists can pedal through a 543-foot-long tunnel and across 21 trestles on the 45-mile Tunnel Hill State Trail in Johnson County.

first appeared: 8/18/2002

Built in 1862, the M.J. Hogan Grain Elevator and Visitor Center in Seneca (pop. 2,053) is the last grain elevator on the Illinois & Michigan Canal.

first appeared: 8/11/2002

Organized in 1871, the Union Fire Department in Millstadt (pop. 2,794) is the state’s oldest volunteer fire department.

first appeared: 8/4/2002

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