Oswego, Illinois
| Oswego | |
| Village | |
 Downtown Oswego
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| Official name: Village of Oswego | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Illinois |
| Counties | Kendall |
| Townships | Oswego (Kendall), Bristol (Kendall) |
| Elevation | 577 ft (176 m) |
| Coordinates | 41°41′26″N 88°20′30″W / 41.69056°N 88.34167°WCoordinates: 41°41′26″N 88°20′30″W / 41.69056°N 88.34167°W |
| Area | 15.63 sq mi (40 km2) |
| - land | 15.53 sq mi (40 km2) |
| - water | 0.11 sq mi (0 km2) |
| Population | 30,355 (2010) |
| Density | 2,025/sq mi (782/km2) |
| Settled | 1833 |
| Incorporated | 1852 |
| Village President | Gail Johnson |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Postal code | 60543 |
| Area code | 630/331 |
 Location in the Chicago metropolitan area
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Website: www |
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Oswego /ɒsˈwiːɡoʊ/ is a village in Kendall County, Illinois, United States. The village population, according to the 2010 census, is 30,355. Its population has more than doubled since the 2000 census count of 13,326. With that growth, Oswego is the largest municipality located completely within Kendall County.
Oswego is known to some Chicago area residents for the town dragstrip, open from 1955 until 1979, where muscle cars were raced by drivers from all over the Midwest. The drag days are celebrated today even though the strip has been closed for decades.
In 1833, William Smith Wilson, his wife Rebecca, and his brother-in-law Daniel Pearce moved to the area now known as Oswego. The land was officially owned by the local Potowatomi, Ottawa, and Chippewa tribes, but the United States government removed the Native Americans when the government started surveying the land along the Fox River in Kendall County. In 1842, the federal government placed the land for sale at an established price of $1.25 an acre.
After the sale of the land, Lewis Brinsmaid Judson and Levi F. Arnold from New York laid out the village and named it Hudson. However, when a post office was established, its location was given as Lodi. Confusion over the official name of the area led to a decision in January 1837, when the citizens gathered and voted Oswego as the permanent name of the village by a single vote. The ford across the Fox River in the town allowed Oswego to grow economically and as a town, eventually incorporated in 1852 with its village boundaries at the time being Harrison Street to the northwest, Jefferson Street to the northeast, Monroe Street to the southeast, and Benton Street to the southwest. At the advent of the automobile, Oswego continued to see growth as it became a hub for three different state highways (Illinois Route 25, Illinois Route 71, and Illinois Route 31).
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Wikipedia