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Kankakee

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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a city and the county-seat of Kankakee county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the N.E. part of the state, on the Kankakee river, 56 M. S. of Chicago. Pop. (1900), 13,595, of whom 3346 were foreign-born; (estimated 1906), 16,337. Kankakee is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis, the Illinois Central, and the Chicago, Indiana & Southern (controlled by the New York Central) railways. It is the seat of the Eastern Hospital for the Insane (1879) a state institution; St Joseph's Seminary (Roman Catholic) and a Conservatory of Music. At Bourbonnais Grove, 3 m. N. of Kankakee is St Viateur's College (founded 1868), a well-known Roman Catholic divinity school, and Notre Dame Academy, another Catholic institution. The city has a public library and four large parks; in Court House Square there is a monument erected by popular subscription in honour of the soldiers from Kankakee county who died in the Civil War. There are rock quarries here, and the city manufactures sewing machines, musical instruments, especially pianos, foundry and machine shop products, agricultural implements and furniture. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $2,089,143, an increase of 222% since 1900. Kankakee is also a shipping point for agricultural products. It was first settled in 1832; was platted as the town of Bourbonnais in 1853, when Kankakee county was first organized; was chartered as the city of Kankakee in 1855, and was re-chartered in 1892.