Hodgkins, Illinois

Geobox|Settlement
name = Hodgkins
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category = Village
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country = United States
state = Illinois
region = Cook
region_type = County
district =
district_type = Township
municipality =
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lat_d = 41
lat_m = 45
lat_s = 51
lat_NS = N
long_d = 87
long_m = 51
long_s = 34
long_EW = W
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area_imperial = 2.6
area_land_imperial = 2.6
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population = 2134
population_date = 2000
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population_density_imperial = 829.7
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leader_type = Village president
timezone = CST
utc_offset = -6
timezone_DST = CDT
utc_offset_DST = -5
postal_code = 60525
area_code = 708

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map_caption = Location of Hodgkins within Illinois
map_background = Illinois - background map.png map_locator = Illinois2
commons = Hodgkins, Illinois
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Hodgkins is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,134 at the 2000 census.

An enormous United Parcel Service sorting facility, known as CACH, is located partly in Hodgkins, and partly in nearby Willow Springs on the outskirts of Chicago. CACH employs over 9,000 people [http://www.winwinpartner.com/Human%20Resources/ssUPS.html] , and is the "largest package sorting center in the world." [http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/features/2005oct/freight.html]

Geography

Hodgkins is located at coor dms|41|45|51|N|87|51|34|W|city (41.764181, -87.859384)GR|1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.6 square miles (6.8 km²), of which, 2.6 square miles (6.7 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.2 km²) of it (2.65%) is water. It is located just over 3 miles from Chicago's western city limits.

Government

Hodgkins is in Illinois' 3rd congressional district.

History

The first visitors to present-day Hodgkins, explorers Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet, paddled down the Des Plaines River in 1673, passing through the area, making their camp in present-day Summit. Settlement in the area, however, was somewhat stagnant until the early 1800s. It was at this time, around 1836, that Irish and Italian immigrants came to the area to work on the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The construction and eventual operation of the canal was responsible for the formation of many villages presently located along it's banks, including Hodgkins. The I&M Canal is still in existence, located about one-mile south of Hodgkins. The canal and its adjacent land, now known as the I&M Canal National Heritage Corridor, was designated a National Heritage Corridor by Congress in 1984. The I&M Canal National Heritage Corridor is rich in historic sites, nature preserves and wildlife, and stretches from Chicago to La Salle-Peru, Illinois.

The Village of Hodgkins was originally known as Gary, a name locals claim was derived from "Garibaldi", in recognition of the large number of Italian laborers working in an area grain mill. After several name changes, the Village of Hodgkins was incorporated in 1896. Jefferson Hodgkins, the president of the Kimball and Cobb Stone company, which was also the first business to locate in the village, was the man for whom Hodgkins was named. Modesto Lenzi, the somewhat dubious "King of Gary", became the village's first president that same year.

In the 1950s and 1960s Hodgkins began to attract motor freight terminals. The village's location relative to expressways and the availability of high, flat, and dry land made it a natural distribution and transfer point between Chicago and the rest of the nation. Hodgkins grew substantially during these two decades; however, by the late 1970s, the motor freight industry began to decline.

In 1985 and 1986 Hodgkins created a Enterprise Zone and a TIF District and attracted developers who built a major local shopping center (1992), The Quarry Mall, on land vacated by the declining Motor Freight (Trucking) Companies. Several Auto Dealerships, Restaurants, a Movie Theater and an Off Track Betting (OTB) establishment were also attracted to the development.

McCook-Hodgkins Enterprise Zone

In 1985 Hodgkins joined with the Village of McCook to create the McCook-Hodgkins Enterprise Zone. The next year saw the creation of a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) District within the Enterprise Zone. Both of these tools allowed the Village to offer incentives to new businesses desiring to locate within the Village. As a result of these programs, commercial business began to replace motor freight as Hodgkins mechanism of growth. The crown jewel of the Enterprise Zone is the United Parcel Service (UPS) package sorting facility built in 1991.

Jefferson Hodgkins

Today, many hear the word Hodgkins and associate it with a disease. However, the village's name comes from a local landowner and businessman, Jefferson Hodgkins.

The Kimball and Cobb Stone Quarry, organized in 1888, was the first major business in the area that would later become the Village of Hodgkins. The establishment of this business was the first concrete step in permanent settlement of the Village. The president of the Kimball and Cobb Stone Quarry was Jefferson Hodgkins, the man for whom the village was named. The secretary of the company was Frederic Cobb, the man whose name was given to Cobb Street.

Hodgkins, a quarryman and crushed stone contractor, was born in Lemoine, Maine on October 27 1843. Hodgkins went through the public schools of Lemoine. After leaving school at the age of 17, he became a sailor. Hodgkins spent eight years in this vocation, sailing out of both New York and Boston, except for one year when he served as a private in Company C 26th Me. Volunteers during the Civil War.

Hodgkins worked for the federal government in surveying projects in 1869 and 1870. He came to Chicago in 1872 and became superintendent of the Chicago Dredging and Dock Company for several years, later contracting business for himself. It was in 1885, while president of the Brownell Improvement Company, that Hodgkins organized the Kimball and Cobb Stone Company. Three years later, he bought the company and consolidated it with his own. The newly merged improvement company owned stone quarries, manufactured crushed stone and contracted primarily railway work.

Hodgkins was active socially and in politics. In addition to other posts, Hodgkins served as aide de-camps on Illinois Governor Joseph W. Fifer's staff, holding the rank of Colonel.

It is unclear exactly how Hodgkins' name came to replace Gary as the village's moniker. Throughout its history, Hodgkins has been known by several different names. In the years before settlers began to arrive, the Pottawatomie Indians lived in the area near the Des Plaines River. From 1836 transient workers were brought to the area to work on the I&M Canal; however, it wasn't until 1860, when the United States Government deeded property to a local settler, Hurls Polk, that the name "Polk" was given to the area. When the Santa Fe Depot was built in 1887 the name of the stop was "Novak". By 1890, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad listed the stop in present-day Hodgkins as "Gary". this designation would stick until July 1 1896 when the Village of Hodgkins was incorporated.

Hodgkins today

The Village of Hodgkins maintains its own Police Department, Public Works Department, and Water Department, which purchases Lake Michigan water from McCook. At one time Hodgkins had its own Fire Department, but discontiuned that service in 1970, and the Village is now part of the Plesantview Fire Protection District. Hodgkins is part of La Grange School District 105. High school students attend Lyons Township High School District 204. The Hodgkins Park District offers a large community center and schedules a myriad of activities all year long. The Hodgkins Public Library is a full-service facility within the Suburban Library System. The Village of Hodgkins currently employs 25 full- and part-time employees.

Past presidents

This list of past presidents of the Village of Hodgkins comes from the village's publication, "100 Years of Progress", published for the Village's Centennial celebration in 1996.

*Modesto Lenzi 1896-1909
*L.E. Thatcher 1909-?
*Jacob Wenz 1915-1921
*Gustav Maves 1921-1923
*Jacob Wenz 1923-1925
*William Wenz 1925-1929
*Gustav Maves 1929-1933
*James Mance 1933-1935
*Irving Eiserman 1935-1945
*Abe Eiserman 1945-1966
*Sidney Eiserman 1966-1968
*Leon Cook 1968-1979
*Noel B. Cummings 1979-Present

References

External links

* [http://hkshome.northstarnet.org/ Hodgkins Community Home Page]
* [http://www.villageofhodgkins.org Village of Hodgkins Official Webpage]
* [http://www.hodgkinspd.org Hodgkins Police Department]
* [http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/592.html Chicago History.org Hodgkins]
* [http://www.chicagoportage.org/synopsis.htm The Chicago Portage]
* [http://www.rootsweb.com The French in Illinois]