Linton, Indiana
Encyclopedia
Linton is a city in Stockton Township
, Greene County
, Indiana
, United States
. The population was 5,774 at the 2000 census. A coal mining
city, it is located southeast of Terre Haute
. The current mayor is Patti Jones.
Linton is part of the Bloomington, Indiana
, Metropolitan Statistical Area
.
, he returned and opened a general store
in Linton in 1837. He would later build a small horse mill
as well as a tannery
, and started a recurring fur trade with the French in Vincennes
. The city itself was officially chartered and named in June 1850, laid out by Hannah E. Osborn and Isaac V. Coddington. In the late 19th century, small underground coal mines began to appear near and almost inside the city and the population expanded rapidly. At the turn of the 20th century, the population was larger than it is today. At one point in the 1920s, there were at least 35 drinking establishments and an equal number of churches.
In the 1920s, small surface mines began to predominate, and their small, unreclaimed hills and strip-pit lakes still surround the city. The lakes have provided a regular, if limited, amount of fishing tourism for decades. Signs of the underground mines remain as well, including tipples on private land and sinkholes that appear regularly on private property, roads and even within the city limits. By the 1940s, the underground mines were gone and the small surface mines had moved on or been consumed by large corporations such as Peabody Coal Company. These mines were the primary employers well into the 1980s.
In 1952, General Electric
built a factory on the southeast side of the city. This factory employed several hundred until the mid-1980s, when General Electric phased out most of their small motors production in the U.S. The building remains empty due to EPA regulations.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 3 square miles (7.8 km²), all of it land.
of 2000, there were 5,774 people, 2,450 households, and 1,526 families residing in the city. The population density
was 1,949.7 people per square mile (753.2/km²). There were 2,792 housing units at an average density of 942.8 per square mile (364.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 98.30% White, 0.09% African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.24% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.24% from other races
, and 0.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.25% of the population.
There were 2,450 households out of which 28.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.7% were married couples
living together, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.7% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.87.
In the city the population was spread out with 22.7% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 25.3% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 22.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 87.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,477, and the median income for a family was $36,138. Males had a median income of $32,213 versus $17,304 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $15,554. About 8.2% of families and 12.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.5% of those under age 18 and 12.8% of those age 65 or over.
meets Woodstock." In 2010, over 12,000 people attended. The festival prides itself in being a free event that offers entertainment for all ages and musical tastes. The festival operates as a non-profit entity that strives to promote the musical arts, economic development, and tourism. It is funded in part by grants from the Indiana Arts Commission and corporate sponsors (DIRECTV
, Linton Family Pharmacy, and Node 1 Technology among others). The Linton Music Festival (LMF) is held annually on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday prior to Labor Day.
), which also houses the city's Phil Harris and Alice Faye
memorabilia collection. Click here to watch the video transformation from the library to the arts center.
since 1905. Events include the largest Independence Day parade in Indiana-bringing over 40,000 people to this city, a week-long visit from a traveling carnival
, local music and entertainment, and fireworks on the Fourth of July.
Stockton Township, Greene County, Indiana
Stockton Township is one of fifteen townships in Greene County, Indiana, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 8,722.-Geography:Stockton Township covers an area of ; of this, or 2.23 percent is water. Lakes in this township include Boy Scout Pond...
, Greene County
Greene County, Indiana
Greene County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana, and determined by the U.S. Census Bureau to include the mean center of U.S. population in 1930. As of 2010, the population was 33,165. The county seat is Bloomfield....
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 5,774 at the 2000 census. A coal mining
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
city, it is located southeast of Terre Haute
Terre Haute, Indiana
Terre Haute is a city and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a population of 170,943. The city is the county seat of Vigo County and...
. The current mayor is Patti Jones.
Linton is part of the Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
, Metropolitan Statistical Area
Bloomington, Indiana metropolitan area
The Bloomington, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of three counties in Indiana, anchored by the city of Bloomington...
.
History
Linton was essentially founded around the entrepreneuring of John W. Wines, who first sold goods in the Linton area, briefly in 1831. Although he would later relocate to Fairplay, IndianaFairplay Township, Greene County, Indiana
Fairplay Township is one of fifteen townships in Greene County, Indiana, USA. As of the 2000 census, its population was 666.-Geography:Fairplay Township covers an area of ; of this, or 1.75 percent is water...
, he returned and opened a general store
General store
A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...
in Linton in 1837. He would later build a small horse mill
Horse mill
A horse mill is a mill that uses a horse as the power source. Any milling process can be powered in this way, but the most frequent use of animal power in horse mills was for grinding grain and pumping water. Other animals used for powering mills include dogs, donkeys and oxen. Engines powered by...
as well as a tannery
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
, and started a recurring fur trade with the French in Vincennes
Vincennes, Indiana
Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. The population was 18,701 at the 2000 census...
. The city itself was officially chartered and named in June 1850, laid out by Hannah E. Osborn and Isaac V. Coddington. In the late 19th century, small underground coal mines began to appear near and almost inside the city and the population expanded rapidly. At the turn of the 20th century, the population was larger than it is today. At one point in the 1920s, there were at least 35 drinking establishments and an equal number of churches.
In the 1920s, small surface mines began to predominate, and their small, unreclaimed hills and strip-pit lakes still surround the city. The lakes have provided a regular, if limited, amount of fishing tourism for decades. Signs of the underground mines remain as well, including tipples on private land and sinkholes that appear regularly on private property, roads and even within the city limits. By the 1940s, the underground mines were gone and the small surface mines had moved on or been consumed by large corporations such as Peabody Coal Company. These mines were the primary employers well into the 1980s.
In 1952, General Electric
General Electric
General Electric Company , or GE, is an American multinational conglomerate corporation incorporated in Schenectady, New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, United States...
built a factory on the southeast side of the city. This factory employed several hundred until the mid-1980s, when General Electric phased out most of their small motors production in the U.S. The building remains empty due to EPA regulations.
Geography
Linton is located at 39°2′11"N 87°9′56"W (39.036271, -87.165537).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 city has a total area of 3 square miles (7.8 km²), all of it land.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
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 5,774 people, 2,450 households, and 1,526 families residing in the city. 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 1,949.7 people per square mile (753.2/km²). There were 2,792 housing units at an average density of 942.8 per square mile (364.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 98.30% White, 0.09% African American, 0.24% Native American, 0.24% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.24% 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 0.87% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.25% of the population.
There were 2,450 households out of which 28.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.7% 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, 10.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.7% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.87.
In the city the population was spread out with 22.7% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 25.3% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 22.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 87.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $26,477, and the median income for a family was $36,138. Males had a median income of $32,213 versus $17,304 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 city was $15,554. About 8.2% of families and 12.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 16.5% of those under age 18 and 12.8% of those age 65 or over.
Notable natives
- Phil HarrisPhil HarrisHarris and Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic...
— musician, actor, and comedian - Dorothy MengeringDorothy MengeringDorothy Marie Mengering , better known to Late Show viewers as Dave's Mom, is the mother of late-night talk show host David Letterman and frequent guest on his show....
— David Letterman's Mom
Linton Music Festival
The tagline for the Linton Music Festival is "MayberryMayberry
Mayberry is a fictional community in North Carolina that was the setting for two American television sitcoms, The Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry R.F.D. Mayberry was also the setting for a 1986 reunion television movie titled Return to Mayberry...
meets Woodstock." In 2010, over 12,000 people attended. The festival prides itself in being a free event that offers entertainment for all ages and musical tastes. The festival operates as a non-profit entity that strives to promote the musical arts, economic development, and tourism. It is funded in part by grants from the Indiana Arts Commission and corporate sponsors (DIRECTV
DirecTV
DirecTV is an American direct broadcast satellite service provider and broadcaster based in El Segundo, California. Its satellite service, launched on June 17, 1994, transmits digital satellite television and audio to households in the United States, Latin America, and the Anglophone Caribbean. ...
, Linton Family Pharmacy, and Node 1 Technology among others). The Linton Music Festival (LMF) is held annually on the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday prior to Labor Day.
Carnegie Heritage and Arts Center of Greene County
The Carnegie Heritage and Arts Center of Greene County is responsible for preserving and maintaining the historic 1908 Margaret Cooper Public Library building (a Carnegie libraryCarnegie library
A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929, including some belonging to public and university library systems...
), which also houses the city's Phil Harris and Alice Faye
Alice Faye
Alice Faye was an American actress and singer, called by The New York Times "one of the few movie stars to walk away from stardom at the peak of her career." She is remembered first for her stardom at 20th Century Fox and, later, as the radio comedy partner of her husband, bandleader and comedian...
memorabilia collection. Click here to watch the video transformation from the library to the arts center.
Freedom Festival
Linton has been celebrating Independence DayIndependence Day (United States)
Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain...
since 1905. Events include the largest Independence Day parade in Indiana-bringing over 40,000 people to this city, a week-long visit from a traveling carnival
Traveling carnival
A traveling carnival is an amusement show that may be made up of amusement rides, food vendors, merchandise vendors, games of chance and skill, thrill acts, animal acts or sideshow curiosities. A traveling carnival is not set up at a permanent location, like an amusement park, but is moved from...
, local music and entertainment, and fireworks on the Fourth of July.