Johnson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 12,582. Its county seat is Vienna. It is located in the southern portion of Illinois known locally as "Little Egypt".
History
Johnson County was organized in 1812 out of Randolph County. It was named for Richard M. Johnson, who was then a U.S. Congressman from Kentucky. In 1813, Johnson commanded a Kentucky regiment at the Battle of the Thames, after which he claimed to have killed Tecumseh in hand-to-hand combat. Johnson went on to become Vice President of the United States.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of, of which is land and is water.
Climate and weather
In recent years, average temperatures in the county seat of Vienna have ranged from a low of in January to a high of in July, although a record low of was recorded in January 1977 and a record high of was recorded in August 2007. Average monthly precipitation ranged from in October to in May.
As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 12,582 people, 4,584 households, and 3,270 families residing in the county. The population density was. There were 5,598 housing units at an average density of. The racial makeup of the county was 89.0% white, 8.0% black or African American, 0.2% Asian, 0.2% American Indian, 1.6% from other races, and 1.0% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 3.0% of the population. In terms of ancestry, 17.6% were German, 11.5% were Irish, 10.9% were English, and 6.5% were American. Of the 4,584 households, 28.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.2% were married couplesliving together, 8.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 28.7% were non-families, and 25.3% of all households were made up of individuals. The average household size was 2.41 and the average family size was 2.85. The median age was 42.2 years. The median income for a household in the county was $41,619 and the median income for a family was $47,423. Males had a median income of $48,047 versus $30,904 for females. The per capita income for the county was $16,402, the lowest of all 102 counties in Illinois and 57th in the U.S.. About 11.1% of families and 13.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.0% of those under age 18 and 10.7% of those age 65 or over.
In its early days Johnson County, being strongly Southern in its culture, was fiercely Democratic. In fact, in the 1860 Presidential election the county gave Illinois native and Northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas a higher proportion of its votes than any other county in the United States. However, during the Civil War, under the influence of Congressman John Logan, this region of dubious initial loyalty was to provide a number of Union soldiers rivalled on a per capita basis only by a few fiercely Unionist counties in Appalachia. This level of Union service has meant that despite its historic hostility towards Yankee culture, Johnson County has been powerfully Republican ever since the Civil War. Douglas in 1860 remains the last Democrat to win a majority of the county's vote: the solitary Democratic victory since was by Bill Clinton in 1992 and was due to Ross Perot taking many votes from Republican incumbent George Bush senior. In 2016, as was typical of the rural Upland South, Hillary Clinton fared extremely badly in Johnson County: despite the long-time Republican traditions of the county, her vote percentage was the lowest by any Democrat in the county's history, but was very typical of her performance in the region due to opposition to the Democratic Party's liberal tolerant views on social issues like homosexuality.
