Mount Vernon.

Mount Vernon. 1. City (1990 pop. 16,988), seat of Jefferson co., SE Ill.; settled 1819, inc. 1872. It is a trade, rail, and industrial center in a farm and coal region. Tools, tires, transformers, coal-mining equipment, and neon signs are manufactured, and there is diversified agriculture. Nearby is a state game farm.

2. City (1990 pop. 67,153), Westchester co., SE N.Y., between the Bronx and Hutchinson rivers and adjacent to the Bronx; settled 1664, inc. 1892. Although primarily a residential suburb of New York City, it has manufactures that include pharmaceuticals and electronic components. Mount Vernon is also notable for being a city with an African-American majority in a predominantly white county. John Peter Zenger was arrested there for libel in 1733. The city itself was not founded until 1851, when a cooperative group bought the land and built a planned community. St. Paul's Church (c.1761), a national historic site, is there.

3. City (1990 pop. 14,550), seat of Knox co., central Ohio, on the Kokosing River; laid out 1805, inc. as a city 1880. It has livestock and dairy farms and manufactures diesel engines, steel, turbines, and glass.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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