Morris, Illinois

Morris is the Grundy County seat and has a large hospital and modern schools. It is home to the Morris Community High School Redskins, who have won three state championships in football.[6] There are many small parks, ball diamonds, tennis courts, two golf courses, an outdoor swimming pool, an indoor olympic-sized pool as well as the Gebhard Woods State Park and the William G. Stratton State Park for boat launching on the Illinois River and a skatepark located near White Oak elementary school. Morris Community High School is known to be located on an abandoned mining network that stems for approximately five miles (8 kilometres).[7] Morris is home to the Grundy County Speedway, and the city also hosts the annual Grundy County Fair and Grundy County Corn Festival.

Downtown Morris during the Grundy County Corn Festival

Morris is located in northeast Grundy County along U.S. Route 6 and Illinois Route 47 and on the north side of the Illinois River[8][9] at an elevation of 515 feet (157 m).[1]

According to the 2010 census, Morris has a total area of 9.804 square miles (25.39 km²), of which 9.44 square miles (24.45 km²) (or 96.29%) is land and 0.364 square miles (0.94 km²) (or 3.71%) is water.[10]

Grundy County Speedway shortly before a race in September 2020.

As of the census[4] of 2000, there were 11,928 people, 4,831 households, and 3,067 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,734.0 people per square mile (669.4/km²). There were 5,084 housing units at an average density of 739.1 per square mile (285.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 86.7% White, 4.3% African American, 0.3% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 6.7% from other races, and 2.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 15.5% of the population.

There were 5,084 households, out of which 31.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.8% were married couples living together, 9.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.5% were non-families. 31.0% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 3.03.

In the city, the population was spread out, with 25.0% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 29.6% from 25 to 44, 20.4% from 45 to 64, and 16.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $62,563 and the median income for a family was $54,987. Males had a median income of $44,071 versus $25,206 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,256. About 5.0% of families and 6.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.2% of those under age 18 and 6.7% of those age 65 or over.

The Allen Paper Car Wheel Works were based on East North Street in Morris, which supplied the Pullman Palace Car Company in Chicago from 1867 to 1890 with composite wheels for their railway carriages.[15][16] By the 1920s, the paper mill had become one of the largest employers in Morris, producing cardboard boxes of various shapes, sizes, and colors that were shipped throughout the US.[17]

The Lyondell Chemical Company is located about five miles (8 km) from the city center. The plant, located just off U.S. Route 6 heading eastbound away from Morris, employs many Morris residents. In addition to the chemical plant, three nuclear power plants are located within a 15-mile (24 km) radius of the center of Morris. The closest nuclear plant is only three miles (5 km) away, called the Dresden Nuclear Power Station. The LaSalle Nuclear Station is 14–15 miles (23–24 km) away, and Braidwood Generating Station is about 13 miles (21 km) away. All of the stations are owned by Exelon Corp. Among the stations, Dresden Generating Station generates energy for Chicago and surrounding areas.[18]

In early 1960, the world's first electronic switching system was installed at the Morris central office.[19] The system was a milestone in telephone switching history, an experiment whose planning started in the early 1950s, and led to the largest sustained research and development program toward a single goal in the Bell System.[20] After conversion of the existing manual telephone system using telephone operators for completing telephone calls, with an automatic electromechanical crossbar switching system starting in ca. 1958, a few hundred subscribers received dial service from June 1960 through January 1962 from the first mostly electronic system, that used cold-cathode electron tubes, instead of mechanical relays and switches.[21] For telephone subscribers, the most notable characteristic of what is usually called the Morris System was the use of electronic tone ringers which used up to eight different tones produced by a tweeter, rather than the traditional bell ringer.

Media related to Morris, Illinois at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website