Introduction
The Village of Colfax resides in McLean County in Illinois. Bloomington-Normal is 26.0 miles away and the two major ways from getting to Bloomington-Normal from Colfax is going onto Route 9 or Route 165. The current population is 1,061 people. The surrounding towns of Colfax are Anchor, Cooksville, Arrowsmith, and Saybrook. Colfax is the largest town out of all four of these surrounding towns. Colfax is also the place where all of the surrounding towns go to school. Ridgeview is the name of the school and the Elementary, Junior High, and High School all attend classes in the same building. Colfax also has its own bank and contains four churches.
http://www.colfaxillinois.com/
History
Founding:
Colfax, Illinois was founded in 1880 by James E Wood. James was born in Indiana and came to McLean County as a State Missionary for the Christian Church. He stayed here and became a farmer and banker. The first train arrived in Colfax on July 4, 1880 For two years, the train only extended from Kankakee, Illinois to Colfax and the railroad soon became apart of the Illinois Central system.
First Coal Mines:
In 1886, a company was put together to open the first two coal mines in Colfax. The first coal mine was the shaft just west of town. Frank Seymour and Sons were paid fourteen dollars a foot to sink the shaft. They ran into problems with water, cave-ins, and also the time it took to dig through the limestone to each the coal. Miners were brought in, and the first coal was taken in June of 1888. Financial trouble and change in ownership soon became a problem. The company began to open the second shaft on the east of town and it began in December of 1891, but they didn't start digging in it until June of 1894.
Growth of the Town:
Once Colfax was founded back in 1880, the town grew rapidly. In 1892, a tile factory was built in the northeast corner of town. Eventually, the title factory became a small park. A cigar factory was built around the same time as the tile factory. By 1888, Colfax created their very own newspaper called the Colfax Leader. Four churches began soon after the town was founded: Christian, Methodist, and Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic. All of the churches are still being used today. After the mines closed, Colfax became a prosperous grain-growing area. Colfax's population started out in 1880 with 105 citizens. In 1900, Colfax was reached its peak of people with 1,158 citizens. Population has declined by fourteen percent by 2000.
Ridgeview School http://www.ridgeview19.org/
In 1948, the districts of Colfax, Cooksville, and Anchor came together and consolidated to form one district. The basketball coach at the time, Coach Paul Orr, came up with the new name of the district. He called it Octavia. The Colfax High School building was built in 1904, but it was used as the Octavia High School in 1953. In 1989, the school district of Saybrook-Arrowsmith joined the Octavia District and renamed the school Ridgeview High School. The school's colors are navy blue, silver, and white and their mascot is the Mustang.
Ridgeview Jr./Sr. High School
Address: 202 E Wood St.
Colfax, IL 61728
Phone: (309) 723-2951
Local Businesses
There are four places to eat in the small town of Colfax. There is Colfax Lanes which is a small bowling alley on Main Street, The Colfax Bar which is located across the street for the bowling alley, Casey's which is the gas station in town, also located on Main Street. They serve pizza, chicken, and delicious cheesy potato bites. The last restaurant has only been in town for a couple months.
The Colfax Bar is located on Main Street. It is very easy to find because there is a huge sign out front and there are a lot of people standing outside. They serve alcohol, and just your simple bar food, like burgers, fries, wings, all that good stuff.
Colfax also has a laundromat, which is located on Center Street, is a very useful business . The Ridgeview National Art Honor Society students help paint a wonderful mural inside the laundry mat. Right next door is the local chiropractor. If you ever need you back adjusted, you should definitely check it out.
We also have a grocery store called GD Grocery Store. It is quite small, but the have almost everything you would find at a regular store. Colfax also has a flower shop, which gets very busy around the homecoming and prom season, a post office, a public library, an auto repair company, and police station, and fire department, a school, an insurance representative, a hair salon, and we have our very own bank. The bank also has an ATM across the street and it is very convenient if you need to grab some cash, but if you don't have an account with the bank, you have to pay a $2.50 fee for using it.
What is it like living in Colfax?
Living in Colfax is quit peaceful, most of the time. Since Colfax is such a small town, you can hear almost everything that happens. There has been a person that has been breaking into cars a night and stealing things from the car. This has been going on for a couple months so everyone that has been a victim of this has posted on social media about their experiences. This has helped the community by alerting everyone of the thief ad getting them stopped. The police are no involved in the case and no one has been able to identify the thief. When you live in a small town, everyone knows everyone. Everyone in Colfax is super friendly. Teresa Craig has lived in Colfax for 16 years. "Living in a small town is nice. It is very easy to get involved within the community". Mrs. Craig is the co-president of the Music Boosters at Ridgeview High School for six years. She is also a coach of the Marching Mustangs Colorguard. "I also like to get involved with school activities. All of my children have gone or are still in school at Ridgeview. I love doing anything I can to help my children in anyway that I can. Getting involved with boosters has been a great way to help out my children and also getting to be close to them while they were in the music program". Mrs. Craig also went on to say how living in a small town is also a burden. "Even though living in a small town has it's advantages, it also has some disadvantages. Colfax is in the middle of nowhere, so driving in the winter is a huge problem. Country roads don't get plowed that well in the winter, so accident rates are high where we live". Colfax maybe a small town, but we have a lot to offer. There really isn't much to do for fun in Colfax for younger people. We have two parks, a swimming pool, and a basketball court and tennis court. Mostly, all of the younger kids drive to Bloomington to have fun like going to the mall, or going to see a movie. The good part about living in Colfax is that your children will be safe. We have the Colfax police patrolling the streets from morning until late at night to make sure the village of Colfax stays safe.
Resources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colfax,_Illinois
http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id255.html
