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Farmer City is a city in DeWitt County, Illinois, United States. The population was 2,037 at the 2010 census. Farmer City is part of Blue Ridge Community Unit School District 18 sharing facilities with nearby Mansfield and Bellflower, Illinois. Farmer City facilities include the District Unit Office, the Ruth M. Schneider Elementary School (K-3) and Blue Ridge High School. Blue Ridge received a bronze in the U.S. News and World Report Best High Schools list. ==History== The Kickapoo and Potawatomi Native American tribes lived on the prairie and woodlands around Salt Creek and other local streams. The westwards push of traders and adventurers led to settlers around 1825. Dennis Hurley is believed to be the first white settler in the area; build a cabin, the area became known as Hurley's Grove with other families settling the area. Founding families were the Kirbys, McCords, Clearwaters, Watsons, Johnson, Webb, Blalach, Weedmans, Coveys, Cummings and Huddlestons. Hurley's Grove was just south of present day Farmer City, with increased population by 1837, becoming part of DeWitt County in 1839. The area to the south of Hurley's Grove solidified as a permanent settlement, within the wooded areas safety. North of the primary area became known as Mt. Pleasant. Subdivision of the land divided the area into 14 blocks, with a central public square; the first residence built was that of Nathan Clearwater, and William McFall opened a store in 1837. Mail delivery was established in 1837, but with another Mt. Pleasant in the state, the name changed to Santa Anna. Dewitt County was part of the Eighth Judicial District in the early 1850s, and lawyer Abraham Lincoln traveled in the area many times on his circuit; he was well respected by county residents. C. H. Moore House in nearby Clinton is the former residence of Lincoln's co-counsel in various cases. The settlement grew in population and physical size, with the center of activity moving northward. The area became connected in 1870 by rail, prospering; that year's census listed 1276 people in the township, and 537 in Mt. Pleasant. The necessity of an official name arose in 1869, with Farmer City chosen after much discussion and debate. The business district was destroyed in 1879 by a major fire, but the town was rebuilt. The rebuilding process had to be rebooted after an 1894 fire destroyed the new business district. The early years of the next century saw Farmer City grow into a bustling community. A newspaper, the ''Public Reaper'', first printed on November 27, 1879. City fathers helped usher the area into a modern era, with utilities such as a water tower (1920). The new business district was joined by schools, churches, and fine homes. Interstate 74 was completed in the early 1970s. In 1980, an extensive study of the dialect of Farmer City was completed, making the city well known in the field of sociolinguistics.〔Sound Change in Farmer City: A Sociolinguistic Study Based on Acoustic Data, Timothy Habick, Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois, Urbana. 1980. Habick, Timothy. (1991). "Burnouts versus rednecks: effects of group membership on the phonemic system," in Penelope Eckert, ed., New Ways of Analyzing Sound Change (San Diego: Academic Press), 185-212.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Farmer City, Illinois」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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