Beardstown
City
Country	United States
State	Illinois
County	Cass
Coordinates	40°0′44″N 90°25′43″W / 40.01222, -90.42861
Area	3.5 sq mi (9 km²)
- land	3.5 sq mi (9 km²)
Population	5,766 (2000)
Density	1,692.1 /sq mi (653 /km²)
Timezone	CST (UTC-6)
- summer (DST)	CDT (UTC-5)
Postal code	62618
Area code	217
Location of Beardstown within Illinois
Wikimedia Commons: Beardstown, Illinois

Beardstown is a city in Cass County, Illinois, United States. The population was 5,766 at the 2000 census.

Beardstown was the birthplace of the jazz vibraphone pioneer Red Norvo.

Geography

Beardstown is located at 40°0′44″N, 90°25′43″W (40.012189, -90.428711).^[1]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.5 square miles (9.0 km²), of which, 3.4 square miles (8.8 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.2 km²) of it (1.73%) is water.

Demographics

As of the census^[2] of 2000, there were 5,766 people, 2,172 households, and 1,437 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,692.1 people per square mile (652.9/km²). There were 2,339 housing units at an average density of 686.4/sq mi (264.8/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 90.76% White, 0.87% African American, 0.23% Native American, 0.33% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 7.01% from other races, and 0.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.90% of the population.

There were 2,172 households out of which 32.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.1% were married couples living together, 11.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.8% were non-families. 28.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.11.

In the city the population was spread out with 26.1% under the age of 18, 9.8% from 18 to 24, 29.2% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 15.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 99.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $29,104, and the median income for a family was $31,951. Males had a median income of $25,481 versus $20,054 for females. The per capita income for the city was $13,777. About 17.0% of families and 19.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 24.7% of those under age 18 and 8.1% of those age 65 or over.

History

Beardstown was first settled by a man named Thomas Beard in 1819. His son was Edward "Red" Beard, a noted gambler and saloon keeper of the Old West who was killed in a gunfight in Kansas in 1873 by "Rowdy Joe" Lowe. Thomas Beard erected a log cabin at the edge of the Illinois River, from which he traded with the local American Indians and ran a ferry. Later he built a two-story brick building which was used for 85 years as a store and inn. This inn is alleged to have sheltered Abraham Lincoln on his visits to Beardstown, but that is legend and unconfirmed. The building was demolished and replaced by a post office.

The Beardstown Ladies Fraud

From 1984-1993, a group of 16 late aged women were picking stocks in the Dow Jones and over the course of nine years were claiming returning of 23.4% on their stocks. Once they went public with the amazing returns, they gained national recognition for their success. The Beardstown Ladies, with an average age of 70 (1994), were asked to appear on "The Donahue Show", CBS's "Morning Show", NBC's "The Today Show", and ABC's "Good Morning America". For six straight years they were honored by the National Association of Investors Corp's "All-Star Investment Clubs". In 1993, they produced their first home video for investors called, "The Beardstown Ladies: Cooking Up Profits on Wall Street". By 1994, they wrote their first book, "The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide", which sold over 800,000 copies by 1998 and was a NY Times best seller. The Beardstown Ladies become a global phenomenon and TV stations from Germany, Brazil, and Japan were interviewing them and taping their monthly meetings in Beardstown. Although their success was beyond anything this small town of Beardstown (Pop. 5,766) had ever seen, the seeds of scandal were planted in 1998. In late 1998, a Chicago magazine noticed that the group's returns included the fees the women paid every month. Without them, the returns dwindled to just 9%, underperforming the Dow. An article in the Wall Street Journal led the ladies to hire an outside auditor, which proved they had indeed misstated their returns. (WSJ, 05/2006). Time magazine stated that they should be jailed for fraud and misrepresentation, but later found to be (jokingly) stating that remark. Currently, The Beardstown Ladies are still buying stocks, most of which are underperforming in the Dow and their books can bought from Amazon.com for mere pennies. [1]

Registered historic places

• Beardstown Grand Opera House

See also

• Beardstown Ladies

References

External links

• Beardstown, Illinois is at coordinates 40°00′44″N 90°25′43″W / 40.012189, -90.428711 (Beardstown, Illinois)Coordinates: 40°00′44″N 90°25′43″W / 40.012189, -90.428711 (Beardstown, Illinois)
• Beardstown Community Pages
• Beardstown Community Pages
• Beardstown Houston Memorial Library
• Beardstown High School Alumni Pages

[1]

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