ABSTRACT
The geographic space that is now Illinois was settled four to five thousand years ago. Since then people have used this space for hunting, warring, cultivating crops, building rail and highway systems, mining fossil fuels, acculturating millions of foreign migrants, and clustering into cities. In addition, Illinois absorbed millions of European migrants between 1800 and 1920. The impact of these mainly poor, unskilled families was felt in the deteriorating urban neighborhoods of Chicago and in smaller cities. The coal industry and a new apple and peach industry in southern Illinois are reflected in its greater population density. Illinois was booming, and by 1860 only one region in the east-central area had fewer than 10 people per sq mi. The median value of housing was more than forty thousand dollars in the urban and rural regions of the central, eastern, and northeastern counties and in two southern counties. Most of western, south-central, and southern Illinois—rural and small-town counties—had median housing values.
