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  St. Charles is a city in Kane and DuPage counties of Illinois, United States, and is roughly 40 miles west of Chicago on Illinois Route 64. According to a 2004 census estimate, the city has a total population of 32,134. The official city slogan is Pride of the Fox, after the Fox River that runs through the center of town. St. Charles is part of a tri-city area along with Geneva and Batavia, all far-western suburbs of similar size and relative socioeco
Early history
After the Black Hawk War in 1832 opened the Fox River valley to white settlement, Evan Shelby and William Franklin staked the first claim in what is now St. Charles in 1833. They came back in 1834 with their families from Indiana, and were joined by over a dozen other families later that year. The township was initially known as Charleston, but this name was already taken by the city of Charleston, Illinois so the name of Saint Charles (suggested by S. S. Jones, a lawyer) was adopted in 1839. St. Charles became incorporated as a city in 1874. Several "stations" of the slavery-era Underground Railroad were in St. Charles homes, complete with tunnels and false doorways; there was also an open abolitionist group called the Kane County Anti-Slavery Society, founded in 1842, with about 180 members. Transportation History
St. Charles was a very isolated place early on in its existence. The village was located three days away from Chicago, and the Fox River was not navigable for large boats. By the 1850s, St. Charles had begun construction of a plank road to Sycamore but turned down an offer by the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad to construct a line through the town, which was eventually built in nearby Elgin. Lack of regional connections in the early years kept the town relatively small. St. Charles was without a railroad until 1871 when a branch line from Geneva was constructed, and was without a direct connection to Chicago until the 1880s with the coming of the Chicago Great Western Railway. Streetcar lines along the Fox River between Elgin and Aurora were built through the city in 1896. A direct automobile route to Chicago, which eventually became Route 64, was constructed in 1920.
Immigration History
St. Charles was also the place of settlement for diverse groups of European immigrants, including those from Ireland and Sweden during the 1840s and '50s, and later, groups from Belgium and Lithuania.
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Financing Your Home >Lenders Want to Say Yes
If you wish to buy a home but consider yourself incapable of getting credit, you may be living in the past in terms of assessing your financial situation. Lenders have become more flexible in underwriting mortgage loans.
A recent survey of mortgage lenders revealed some interesting trends. Ninety-six percent of those surveyed had cut their standard down payment requirements for moderate-income buyers, and 93% said they are more lenient regarding debt-to-income-ratios. Ninety-four percent of those surveyed said they now have more flexible approaches to credit histories, and look at rent and utility payments more than credit cards. Seventy-nine percent of lenders say they have relaxed employment criteria. They now look more at your capacity to generate a stable flow of income rather than requiring a long history at one job.
There are more lenders today, and they are in fierce competition with each other. The home loan industry has created entire markets that cater to those with less-than-perfect credit.
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From 1974 to 1996, what was the world's tallest habitable building?
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The Sears Towers, headquarters for Sears, Roebuck & Co., with 110 stories and 1,454 feet high. |
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