Hartford is a village in Madison County

Madison County, Illinois

Madison County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. Madison County is part of the Metro-East region of the St. Louis Metro Area. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 269,282, which is an increase of 4.0% from 258,941 in 2000. The county seat is Edwardsville, home to...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, near the mouth of the Missouri River

Missouri River

The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

. The population was 1,545 at the 2000 census. Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1803-1804 here, near what has been designated the Lewis and Clark State Historic Site

Lewis and Clark State Historic Site

The Lewis and Clark State Historic Site opened in 2002 and is owned and operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The site, located in Hartford, Illinois, commemorates Camp River Dubois, the camp of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from December 1803 to May 1804...

.

Hartford is the birthplace of actor Clint Walker

Clint Walker

Norman Eugene Walker, known as Clint Walker , is an American actor best known for his cowboy role as "Cheyenne Bodie" in the TV Western series, Cheyenne.-Life and career:...

, known for the television series Cheyenne and for the movies The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments (1956 film)

The Ten Commandments is a 1956 American epic film that dramatized the biblical story of the Exodus, in which the Hebrew-born Moses, an adopted Egyptian prince, becomes the deliverer of the Hebrew slaves. The film, released by Paramount Pictures in VistaVision on October 5, 1956, was directed by...

and The Dirty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen is a 1967 film directed by Robert Aldrich and released by MGM. It was filmed in England and features an ensemble cast, including Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Telly Savalas, and Robert Webber. The film is based on E. M...

.

Geography

Hartford is located at 38°49′28"N 90°5′33"W (38.824498, -90.092509).

The village is located approximately 15 miles north of downtown St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 on the Mississippi River. The confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers is just south of the village limits while the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers is approximately 35 miles upstream.

According to the United States Census Bureau

United States Census Bureau

The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the village has a total area of 3.9 square miles (10.1 km²), of which, 3.9 square miles (10.1 km²) of it is land and 0.26% is water.

Underground Gas Plume

An estimated 4 million gallons of gasoline have seeped into the ground under Hartford. The area has numerous refineries that have occupied the area for many years. The village recently (as of July 21, 2008) filed suit against numerous parties over the underground gas plume.

Chemetco, Inc

The former copper smelter, Chemetco

Chemetco

Chemetco was formerly one of the largest United States refiners of copper from recycled or residual sources.Its maximum output of 120,000 tons per year was approximately half of the entire U.S...

, operated here for around 30 years ending in 2001. The corporation was found guilty of Clean Water Act offences after its sustained pollution of Long Lake, a tributary of the Mississippi River, over a ten year period. This only ended after the detection by EPA inspectors of a secret hazardous waste pipe in September 1996. This site is not technically located within the village limits of Hartford, but south of town, near Mitchell, IL.

Demographics

As of the census

Census

A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 1,545 people, 650 households, and 434 families residing in the village. The population density

Population density

Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 396.4 people per square mile (153.0/km²). There were 710 housing units at an average density of 182.1 per square mile (70.3/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 98.45% White, 0.13% African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.32% Asian, 0.06% Pacific Islander, 0.32% from other races

Race (United States Census)

Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 0.52% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.71% of the population.

There were 650 households out of which 27.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 52.9% were married couples

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 11.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.1% were non-families. 28.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 2.89.

In the village the population was spread out with 23.3% under the age of 18, 7.5% from 18 to 24, 28.9% from 25 to 44, 23.6% from 45 to 64, and 16.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females there were 101.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.6 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $33,828, and the median income for a family was $40,652. Males had a median income of $31,694 versus $20,156 for females. The per capita income

Per capita income

Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the village was $16,160. About 10.3% of families and 13.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.8% of those under age 18 and 4.6% of those age 65 or over.

External links

• "Chemetco: One polluter, three perspectives" - Original case study of the sustained criminal pollution of Long Lake by Chemetco