Du, Page and Kane Counties, 35 miles W of the Loop. The city of Aurora, the economic anchor of the Fox River Valley location, has a population of over 110,000. https://pastelink.net/5sguehju began in 1834 (included in 1845), when Joseph and Samuel Mc, Carty came from New York looking for a river site to construct a mill.
The river functioned as a power source for mills and early factories even as regular floods destroyed services, bridges, and dams. In 1854 a second town integrated west of the river, and three years later, the separate municipalities joined. To ease political tensions between the 2, civic workplaces were located on an island in the river; ward limits ended at the river, and the mayor was chosen from alternate sides till 1913.
Pullman Sleeping Car, 1940 Following the facility of textile mills and gristmills, Aurora ended up being a manufacturing center, mainly of heavy-machine building devices. In 1856 the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad situated its railcar building and construction and repair work stores in Aurora to become the town's biggest employer until the 1960s. These businesses lay mostly on the east side and provided work for four generations of European immigrants.
The combination of these 3 factorsa extremely industrialized town, a large river that divided it, and the Burlington's shopsaccount for much of the characteristics of Aurora's political, economic, and social history. Aurora's character formed early. Philosophically, the town was inclusive and tolerant, inviting a range of European immigrants and honestly supporting abolitionist activity prior to the Civil War.
Socially, the town was progressive in its mindset towards education, religion, well-being, and females, for example, developing the first complimentary public school district in Illinois in 1851 and a high school for ladies in 1855, supporting 20 congregations (including two African American churches) representing 9 denominations in 1887, and establishing a YWCA in 1893 which is still in operation today.
Couple of labor issues impacted Aurora. With the closing of many factories in the 1980s, the town's joblessness rate reached 16 percent. In reaction, Aurora started downtown redevelopment and border annexations, welcoming riverboat gambling establishments, mixed-use organization parks, and property neighborhoods to create 20,000 tasks. In 2000 Aurora's population was 32 percent Hispanic and 11 percent black.