Place:Pana, Christian, Illinois, United States

Watchers
NamePana
TypeCity
Coordinates39.387°N 89.081°W
Located inChristian, Illinois, United States
Also located inPana (township), Christian, Illinois, United States    
Contained Places
Cemetery
Linwood Cemetery
Mound Cemetery
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Pana is a city in Christian County, Illinois, United States. A small portion is in Shelby County. The population was 5,199 at the 2020 census.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The area around Pana was first organized as Stone Coal Precinct in 1845. The county's precincts became townships in 1856, and Stone Coal Precinct became Pana Township, Christian County, Illinois. In 1857, the village of Pana was incorporated. The name "Pana" is derived from the American Indian tribe, the Pawnee. It developed at the intersection of east–west and north–south railroads, and had supplies of fuel and water for the steam engines of the railroad.

This became a center of coal mining in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In April 1899 what is known as the Pana riot broke out after a violent confrontation between black and white miners. Initially a white man was killed (by a policeman, it was later discovered), and white union miners attacked black replacement workers who had been recruited from Alabama. Six additional people were killed: one white (likely also shot by a white man) and five blacks; in addition, six more black miners were wounded. While the immediate violence was quelled, blacks felt tremendous hostility. Rather than return to Alabama and the Jim Crow South, from where they had been recruited, 211 of the nearly 300 African Americans remaining in town moved west to Weir, Kansas, to work at another mine.

It came to be known as the City of Roses, a nickname coined by local newsmen, the Jordan Brothers. Many major florists and growers set up shop here. At one time, there were 109 greenhouses in Pana.

Kitchell Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. The Louis Jehle House, added to the National Register in 1995, is also located in Pana.

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