Carrier Mills

History

The first settler in the village now known as Carrier Mills was Hampton Pankey. He was also one of the earliest settlers in Saline County. Pankey was living in the area in 1804 or 1805 and he registered his land deed in 1814, the earliest date that was available to register them. In about 1811 the settlers began building blockhouses for protection from American Indians. A blockhouse was built on his land around this time. One of his sons was John Pankey, who was one of the founding fathers of Harrisburg. Long before the founding of Carrier Mills, the nearby community of Lakeview had become one of the earliest settled areas in present-day Saline County. Established around 1818, Lakeview developed into what is recognized as one of the oldest documented African American settlement in Illinois. By 1870, two years before the village's survey, the community had grown to an estimated population of 101. By 1880 Lakeview had a population on 128, making it larger than neighboring Morrillsville (now Carrier Mills), which recorded a population of 105 that year. The village was surveyed by Benjamin D Lewis and platted in November 1872 for William Housely as Morrillsville, named after H. L. Morrill, the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad superintendent who sealed a real estate deal with mill owner G. W. Carrier. It was commonly known as, and eventually renamed, Carrier's Mills after inventor G. Washington Carrier ("Uncle Wash") who helped found the town when he built an elaborate steam powered saw mill and a grist mill just to the south of town on the Saline River watershed, near the old Tuller Mansion farming and property site. Carrier's Mills was the farthest north cypress trees grew at the time, which made lumber milling in the town profitable. Carrier was the first of many to set…

Geography

According to the 2010 census, Carrier Mills has a total area of , of which (or 99.1%) is land and (or 0.9%) is water. Carrier Mills sits upon a heavily undermined hillside that overlooks a shallow flatland to the south, where its sister community of Lakeview was built in a region of swampy land drained by the South Fork of the Saline River. In the distance, two ridges of the Shawnee Hills can be seen from town in a distinct blue haze. The village is split into two distinct sections with Washington Street being the only main east–west oriented avenue connecting them. In between the two sections is the elevated New York Central Railroad bed, now the Tunnel Hill State Trail, on a large swath of grass, and the now defunct streetcar bypass on Carline Street, splitting the village in a southwest to northeast angle. Downtown is located in the southwest corner, the largest section of the village to the northwest, and East End to the southeast, US Route 45 borders the southern edge, giving Carrier Mills its distinctive 'L' shape.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,073
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,823
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  2,531
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,422
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,372
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,370
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  2,199
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,067

Most recent

• M 2.58 — 2025-08-09
  2 km ESE of Cynthiana, Indiana
• M 2.53 — 2024-03-05
  6 km ENE of Pinckneyville, Illinois
• M 3.07 — 2023-12-18
  5 km WNW of Waltonville, Illinois
• M 2.59 — 2023-08-23
  3 km ENE of Wilson City, Missouri
• M 2.52 — 2023-06-03
  7 km N of Nebo, Kentucky
• M 2.52 — 2022-05-17
  6 km NNW of Mount Vernon, Illinois