Kicking off Our Town 2024: Looking back on Hoopeston’s history

HOOPESTON, Ill. (WCIA) — This week kicks off WCIA’s summer-long Our Town series. We are taking the evening shows on the road every other Friday and traveling across Central Illinois to tell the stories of what makes our area unique.

We start the 2024 season in Hoopeston with a look back on their history.

Thomas Sweeney, an archivist in town, loves everything the small town in Vermilion County has to offer. That includes the people, friendly atmosphere and the history.

“Hoopeston is named after Thomas Hoopes who had donated 80 acres here where two railroads were coming,” he explained.

Hoopeston got its start in 1874 and has gotten through a few challenges along the way.

“There was a huge fire in 1937 which burned down the bank, the opera house, most of the block,” Sweeney said.

But, as always, the town has persevered and stuck together.

“There’s a community effort that constantly comes up where people do things for others,” Sweeney described. “Like to save the pool, to get the lights in the park, to make Hoopeston the family-centered place that it is.”

One of the main things bringing the town together is the cornjerker. As Sweeney described, the cornjerker is a person who would yank the corn off the stalk, and then throw it into a wagon. It’s how many people made their livelihood.

Sweeney said the term originated in the 1920s when a sports writer made fun of the athletes for being late to games. They were busy working in the fields!

The cornjerker has evolved over the years, to what it is better known as today.

“A corn jerker is an ear of corn with arms and legs. It was created back in 1965 by our industrial arts teacher,” Kevin Root, the business teacher at the high school, said.

Eventually, his class even raised money to get the first mascot.

“Kids, little kids, come up to it and hug it all the time and want to give it high fives. It’s just great seeing their faces light up,” Root said.

Plus — it’s one of a kind. The school has the rights to the name and image. They’re the only ones in the country with the cornjerker name!

“It’s unique, makes people laugh…seeing a mascot that’s an ear of corn that’s smiling,” Root went on to say.

Between looking back on the town’s bustling past, and diving into what it looks like now, Our Town Hoopeston is proving it will always come together to create a community anyone would want to live in.

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