Gibson City, Illinois

History

The site of Gibson City was purchased and platted by Jonathan B. Lott in 1869. In 1870, Lott built a home and a post office there, and several stores and a grain elevator were constructed. Lott named the place Gibson after the maiden name of his wife, Margaret Gibson Lott, and City was added later by the post office department. Both the Gilman, Clinton and Springfield Railroad and the Chicago and Paducah Railroad reached the town in 1871, allowing its population to grow. Gibson City was incorporated as a village in 1872. A third railroad, the LaFayette, Muncie and Bloomington Railroad, was built through Gibson City in 1874. In the same year, one of the railroads signed a contract that paid Augustana College, located in Paxton at the time, a commission of $1 per acre on all railroad land sold to Swedish settlers.

In 1883, a fire in the town caused $50,000 ($1,000,000 in 2007 dollars) in property damage.

Geography

Gibson City is located at 40°27′56″N 88°22′29″W (40.465653, -88.374711).

According to the 2010 census, Gibson City has a total area of 2.349 square miles (6.08 km²), of which 2.32 square miles (6.01 km²) (or 98.77%) is land and 0.029 square miles (0.08 km²) (or 1.23%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 3,373 people, 1,469 households, and 928 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,604.0 people per square mile (620.2/km²). There were 1,565 housing units at an average density of 744.2 per square mile (287.7/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 98.13% White, 0.59% African American, 0.53% Asian, 0.03% from other races, and 0.71% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.65% of the population.

There were 1,469 households out of which 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 51.3% were married couples living together, 8.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% were non-families. 33.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 20.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.85.

In the city, the population was spread out with 23.2% under the age of 18, 6.8% from 18 to 24, 24.9% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 22.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 83.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.1 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $33,638, and the median income for a family was $41,047. Males had a median income of $33,938 versus $20,083 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,926. About 8.9% of families and 9.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.9% of those under age 18 and 4.6% of those age 65 or over.

Transportation

Illinois State Highways 9, 47, and 54 intersect on the edge of Gibson City.

Gibson City Courier

The town's weekly newspaper is the Gibson City Courier. It was announced in early December 2015 that the paper would no longer be published beginning in 2016 along with its sister publication The Advertiser. According to the paper in a Dec 2nd article "Declining advertising and circulation revenue have made continued publication an unprofitable venture was the cause". The Gibson City Courier was published by The Pantagraph out of Bloomington, IL.

Paxton Record

The Paxton Record, based in nearby Paxton, serves the Gibson City area via its weekly newspaper and on its website.

WGCY

WGCY is an FM station licensed to Gibson City broadcasting at a frequency of 106.3 mHz. Its programming consists of easy listening music and local high school sports.

Notable people