thumb|right|Topology of Hicks Dome in Hardin and Pope counties

Hardin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 3,649, making it the least populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Elizabethtown. Hardin County is located in the part of the state known as Little Egypt. Hardin County was named for Hardin County, Kentucky, which was named in honor of Colonel John Hardin, an officer in the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War.

History

Hardin County was formed in 1839 from Pope County. Additional area was later added from Gallatin County. Hardin County was named for Hardin County, Kentucky, which was named in honor of Colonel John Hardin, an officer in the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War. Hardin was murdered by Shawnee Indians while he was on a peace mission in 1792 for President George Washington, in what is now Shelby County, Ohio. In the 1790s and early 1800s, the Hardin County area, especially Cave-In-Rock, was notorious as a stronghold used by outlaws, bandits, river pirates, and counterfeiters.

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File:Hardin County Illinois 1839.png|Hardin County between 1839 and 1847

File:Hardin County Illinois 1847.png|Hardin in 1847, when it was enlarged to its current size

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Geography

thumb|upright|[[Fluorite mineral specimen from Hardin County]]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (2.2%) is water.

In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Elizabethtown have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in January 1994 and a record high of was recorded in August 2007. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in October to in May.

|align-fn=center

|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census<br />1790-1960 1900-1990<br />1990-2000 2010-2017

!Pop 1990

!Pop 2000

!Pop 2010

!style="background-color: #ffffb3;" | Pop 2020

!% 1980

!% 1990

!% 2000

!% 2010

!style="background-color: #ffffb3;" |% 2020

|-

|White alone (NH)

|5,356

|5,044

|4,554

|4,171

|style='background: #ffffe6; |3,374

|99.50%

|97.21%

|94.88%

|96.55%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |92.46%

|-

|Black or African American alone (NH)

|2

|84

|132

|13

|style='background: #ffffe6; |11

|0.04%

|1.62%

|2.75%

|0.30%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.30%

|-

|Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)

|4

|16

|2

|26

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0

|0.07%

|0.31%

|0.04%

|0.60%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.00%

|-

|Asian alone (NH)

|6

|13

|24

|22

|style='background: #ffffe6; |17

|0.11%

|0.25%

|0.50%

|0.51%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.47%

|-

|Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)

|x

|x

|6

|5

|style='background: #ffffe6; |2

|x

|x

|0.13%

|0.12%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.05%

|-

|Other race alone (NH)

|2

|2

|0

|0

|style='background: #ffffe6; |4

|0.04%

|0.04%

|0.00%

|0.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |0.11%

|-

|Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)

|x

|x

|31

|27

|style='background: #ffffe6; |176

|x

|x

|0.65%

|0.63%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |4.82%

|-

|Hispanic or Latino (any race)

|13

|30

|51

|56

|style='background: #ffffe6; |65

|0.24%

|0.58%

|1.06%

|1.30%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |1.78%

|-

|Total

|5,383

|5,189

|4,800

|4,320

|style='background: #ffffe6; |3,649

|100.00%

|100.00%

|100.00%

|100.00%

|style='background: #ffffe6; |100.00%

|}

2020 census

As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 3,649, the median age was 52.2 years, 18.2% of residents were under the age of 18, and 29.2% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 98.5 males age 18 and over.

As of the 2020 census, the racial makeup of the county was 93.6% White, 0.4% Black or African American, <0.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 0.5% from some other race, and 5.0% from two or more races; Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 1.8% of the population.

As of the 2020 census, <0.1% of residents lived in urban areas, while 100.0% lived in rural areas.

As of the 2020 census, there were 1,701 households in the county, of which 22.9% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 41.0% were married-couple households, 23.8% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 28.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present, while about 37.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. There were 2,196 housing units, of which 22.5% were vacant; among occupied housing units, 77.5% were owner-occupied and 22.5% were renter-occupied, with a homeowner vacancy rate of 2.3% and a rental vacancy rate of 9.3%. The population density was . There were 2,488 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 97.3% white, 0.6% American Indian, 0.5% Asian, 0.3% black or African American, 0.1% Pacific islander, 0.3% from other races, and 0.8% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 1.3% of the population.

Of the 1,915&nbsp;households, 26.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.9% were married couples living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 35.6% were non-families, and 31.7% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.78. The median age was 46.3 years.

Communities

City

  • Rosiclare

Villages

  • Cave-In-Rock
  • Elizabethtown

Unincorporated communities

  • Cadiz
  • Eichorn
  • Finneyville
  • Gross
  • Hicks
  • Karbers Ridge
  • Lamb
  • Loves Corner
  • Peters Creek
  • Rock Creek
  • Saline Landing
  • Shetlerville
  • Sparks Hill

Precincts

  • Cave-In-Rock Precinct
  • East Rosiclare Precinct
  • McFarlan Precinct
  • Monroe Precinct
  • Rock Precinct
  • Rosiclare Precinct
  • Stone Church Precinct
  • West Rosiclare Precinct

Ghost towns

  • Battery Rock
  • Chambers Creek

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In its early history, Hardin County was opposed to the “Yankee” Republican Party and its Civil War against the South – with whom it was closely allied both culturally and economically. It did not vote for a Republican presidential candidate until Theodore Roosevelt’s 1904 landslide.

Since 1904, however, Hardin County has turned powerfully Republican. Like the nearby counties of Johnson, Massac and Pope, it managed to remain loyal to William Howard Taft during the 1912 election when the Republican Party was mortally divided. Hardin County would next be carried by a Democratic presidential candidate in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1932 landslide victory, and not after that until Lyndon Johnson in 1964. The county did trend Democratic in the following three decades, actually voting more Democratic than the nation at-large between 1972 and 1996. Nonetheless, since 2000 Hardin County has followed the same political trajectory as Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia and Appalachian regions of adjacent states, whereby the Democratic Party's liberal views on social issues have produced dramatic swings to the Republican Party amongst its almost entirely Southern white population. The past six Presidential elections have observed a swing totalling 79 percentage points to the GOP, with Hillary Clinton in 2016 receiving barely half the proportion of the worst-performing Democrat from before 2010.

See also

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Hardin County, Illinois.
  • 38th parallel structures, of which Hicks Dome is the easternmost member.

References

  • History of Hardin County