Westfield, Illinois
Encyclopedia
Westfield is a town in Clark County, 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,...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 678 at the 2000 census. Reflecting the city's economic decline, much of the downtown area consists of boarded-up and abandoned buildings.

Geography

Westfield is located at 39°27′20"N 87°59′49"W (39.455583, -87.996935).

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 1 square miles (2.6 km²), all of it land.

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 678 people, 277 households, and 195 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 675.3 people per square mile (261.8/km²). There were 313 housing units at an average density of 311.7 per square mile (120.8/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 97.94% White, 0.44% African American, 0.88% Native American, 0.29% Asian, and 0.44% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.29% of the population.

There were 277 households out of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.0% 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, 6.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.6% were non-families. 27.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.98.

In the village the population was spread out with 27.0% under the age of 18, 6.6% from 18 to 24, 27.9% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 97.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.6 males.

The median income for a household in the village was $31,953, and the median income for a family was $37,941. Males had a median income of $28,750 versus $24,375 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 $14,103. About 6.2% of families and 11.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.5% of those under age 18 and 8.2% of those age 65 or over.

Schools
Westfield is part of the Casey-Westfield School District. The district has three buildings all in the city of Casey, IL. Monroe Elementary (K-6), Roosevelt Jr. High School (7-8), and Casey-Westfield High School (9-12).

Churches
Westfield is served by two churches. The Westfield United Methodist Church is the result of the merger of the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren (EUB) Church in 1968. The new church uses the building built by the EUB church in 1918 at the corner of Madison and Elm Streets. The Westfield Baptist Church has moved into the former Methodist Church building at the corner of State and Fulton Streets. The original wood frame Baptist Church building has been converted to a private home.

History

Westfield College operated here from 1865 until 1914. The school was founded by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ
Church of the United Brethren in Christ
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ is an evangelical Christian denomination based in Huntington, Indiana. It is a Protestant denomination of episcopal structure, Arminian theology, with roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities of 18th century Pennsylvania, as well as close...

in 1861 as a seminary, then was incorporated as a coeducational college in 1865. The peak enrollment was160, in 1909. However, enrollment declined sharply thereafter, and financial problems forced the school to close in 1914. The building was used as the Westfield Township high school until it was destroyed by fire in 1917.

External links

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