Bureau County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 33,244. Its county seat is Princeton. Bureau County is part of the Ottawa, Illinois, Micropolitan Statistical Area, and the Hennepin Canal Parkway State Park is located partly in this county.

History Bureau County was created from a portion of Putnam County in 1837. It is named for brothers Michel and Pierre Bureau, French Canadians who ran a trading post from 1776 until the 1780s near the conjunction of Big Bureau Creek with Illinois River. Their actual surname most likely was Belleau, but the local American Indians had difficulty pronouncing the "l" sound, which was not found in some local languages. Pierre de Beuro, an Indian trader Pioneers of Illinois by Nehemiah Matson, 1882, p. 229Jean Baptiste Point de Sable : the founder of modern Chicago by John F. Swenson, 1999- . Retrieved November 11, 2010. An early settler of this area was Bulbona, a man of mixed French and Native American descent with a Native American wife. Unlike most of the other Native Americans in the area, Bulbona remained after the area was settled by Euro-Americans and ran a trading post, where he sold whiskey among other necessities.

The founders of Princeton, the area's oldest town, were settlers from New England, descendants of the English Puritans who settled New England in the 17th century. They were part of a wave of New England farmers who moved to the Northwest Territory in the early 19th century. Most of them came soon after of the completion of the Erie Canal. When they arrived, they faced virgin forest and wild prairie. These New Englanders laid out farms, constructed roads, erected government buildings and established post routes. They brought with them many of their Yankee New England values, such as a passion for education, establishing many schools, and were staunch abolitionists. They were mostly members of the Congregationalist Church or Episcopalians. Early Bureau County, like much of northern Illinois, was culturally very continuous with early New England culture.

Like so many other areas in the Midwest, this county was on a "line" of the Underground Railroad. There was a "station" at the home of Owen Lovejoy in Princeton, and several other locations in the county.

Geography According to the US Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.5%) is water. Big Bureau Creek is the main body of water.

Adjacent counties

Whiteside County - northwest Lee County - north LaSalle County - east Putnam County - southeast Marshall County - south Stark County - southwest Henry County - west

Major highways

Interstate 80 Interstate 180 U.S. Route 6 U.S. Route 34 Illinois Route 26 Illinois Route 29 Illinois Route 40 Illinois Route 89 Illinois Route 92

Climate and weather

In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Princeton have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in February 1996 and a record high of was recorded in June 1988. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in February to in August.

Demographics

2020 census +Bureau County, Illinois – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 1980Pop 1990Pop 2000Pop 2010 Pop 2020% 1980% 1990% 2000% 2010% 2020White alone (NH)38,08534,38933,19631,47328,51197.37%96.36%93.50%89.98%85.76%Black or African American alone (NH)43501101912590.11%0.14%0.31%0.55%0.78%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)125615363490.32%0.17%0.15%0.18%0.15%Asian alone (NH)521821812202980.13%0.51%0.51%0.63%0.90%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)x included in the Asian category in the 1980 Censusx included in the Asian category in the 1990 Census10621xx0.03%0.02%0.06%Other race alone (NH)0364510.00%0.01%0.02%0.01%0.15%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)x not an option in the 1980 Censusx not an option in the 1990 Census215326960xx0.61%0.93%2.89%Hispanic or Latino (any race)8091,0031,7322,6953,0952.07%2.81%4.88%7.70%9.31%Total39,11435,68835,50334,97833,244 100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%100.00%

As of the 2020 census, the county had a population of 33,244. The median age was 44.8 years. 21.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 22.4% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 95.5 males age 18 and over.

The racial makeup of the county was 88.3% White, 0.8% Black or African American, 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 3.3% from some other race, and 6.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 9.3% of the population.

45.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 55.0% lived in rural areas.

There were 14,179 households in the county, of which 26.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 47.4% were married-couple households, 19.4% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 25.5% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 31.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.

There were 15,616 housing units, of which 9.2% were vacant. Among occupied housing units, 74.8% were owner-occupied and 25.2% were renter-occupied. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.8% and the rental vacancy rate was 7.1%.

2010 census As of the 2010 United States census, there were 34,978 people, 14,262 households, and 9,605 families residing in the county. The population density was . There were 15,720 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 94.2% white, 0.7% Asian, 0.6% black or African American, 0.3% American Indian, 3.0% from other races, and 1.3% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 7.7% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 32.8% were German, 13.8% were Irish, 12.1% were English, 9.2% were American, 8.8% were Italian, 7.6% were Swedish, and 5.8% were Polish.

Of the 14,262 households, 29.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.6% were married couples living together, 9.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 32.7% were non-families, and 28.0% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 2.94. The median age was 42.5 years.

The median income for a household in the county was $45,692 and the median income for a family was $55,217. Males had a median income of $42,327 versus $29,210 for females. The per capita income for the county was $24,103. About 8.6% of families and 11.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 15.3% of those under age 18 and 7.5% of those age 65 or over. Communities

Community Communitytype Population TotalArea WaterArea LandArea Pop.DensityArlington village 169 0.40 0.00 0.40 427.85 Buda village 482 1.01 0.00 1.01 475.35 Bureau Junction village 281 1.51 0.07 1.45 190 Cherry village 435 0.51 0.00 0.51 850 Dalzell (part) village 663 0.83 0.01 0.82 808.54 DePue village 1,633 2.55 0.11 2.45 667.35 Dover village 135 0.29 0.00 0.28 470 Hollowayville village 36 0.05 0.00 0.05 734.69 La Moille village 679 1.16 0.00 1.16 590 Ladd village 1,263 1.21 0.00 1.21 1,000 Malden village 318 0.27 0.00 0.27 1,164.84 Manlius village 298 0.32 0.00 0.32 934.17 Mineral village 206 0.553 0.00 0.553 370 Neponset village 427 1.016 0.00 1.016 420 New Bedford village 76 0.155 0.00 0.155 490 Ohio village 465 0.753 0.00 0.753 620 Princeton (seat) city 7,832 8.24 0.00 8.24 950.49 Seatonville village 321 0.511 0.015 0.496 630 Sheffield village 821 1.169 0.00 1.169 700 Spring Valley city 5,582 7.40 0.04 7.36 750 Tiskilwa village 740 0.517 0.00 0.517 1,400 Walnut village 1,311 0.801 0.00 0.801 1,600 Wyanet village 886 0.946 0.00 0.946 940 Bureau County county 33,244 874 4.5 869 38

Unincorporated communities

Coal Hollow Clarion Kasbeer Limerick Lone Tree Marquette Milo Normandy Ottville Providence Thomas Van Orin Webster Park Whitefield Yorktown Zearing

Townships

Arispie Berlin Bureau Clarion Concord Dover Fairfield Gold Greenville Hall Indiantown Lamoille Leepertown Macon Manlius Milo Mineral Neponset Ohio Princeton Selby Walnut Westfield Wheatland Wyanet

Education K-12 school districts include: - Text list

Annawan Community Unit School District 226 Bureau Valley Community Unit School District 340 Bradford Community Unit School District 1 Depue Community Unit School District 103 Henry-Senachwine Consolidated Unit School District 5 Kewanee Community Unit School District 229 La Moille Community Unit School District 303 Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico Community Unit School District 3 Wethersfield Community Unit School District 230

Secondary school districts include:

Hall High School District 502 LaSalle-Peru Township High School District 120 Mendota Township High School District 280 Ohio Community High School District 505 Princeton High School District 500

Elementary school districts include:

Dalzell School District 98 Dimmick Community Consolidated School District 175 Ladd Community Consolidated School District 94 Malden Community Consolidated School District 84 Mendota Community Consolidated School District 289 Ohio Community Consolidated School District 17 Princeton Elementary School District 115 Spring Valley Community Consolidated School District 99

Notable people Charles W. Brooks, U.S. Senator Warren Giles, executive in Baseball Hall of Fame Virgil Fox, concert organist Kathryn Hays, actress Owen Lovejoy, abolitionist minister and U.S. congressman Rufus Lumry, abolitionist circuit preacher and early Illinois organizer of the Wesleyan Methodist Church Joseph R. Peterson, Illinois state legislator and lawyer Robert Petkoff, actor Eliza Suggs, author and temperance activist Richard Widmark, actor

Politics

As part of Yankee-settled Northern Illinois, Bureau County became powerfully Republican for the century following the Civil War. The only Democrat to carry the county between 1856 and 1988 was Franklin D. Roosevelt during his landslide 1932 victory, although Progressive Theodore Roosevelt did carry the county during the 1912 election. Between 1988 and 2012, the county trended Democratic – Bill Clinton won pluralities in both his elections and Barack Obama won an absolute majority in 2008 and nearly did so in 2012 – however concern with lack of employment opportunities in the Rust Belt led to a powerful swing toward Donald Trump in 2016 for the best GOP result since Ronald Reagan’s 1984 landslide.

See also National Register of Historic Places listings in Bureau County, Illinois

References Specific

General US Census Bureau 2007 TIGER/Line Shapefiles US Board on Geographic Names (GNIS) US National Atlas

External links