Published: October 23, 2009 11:01 pm      

A royal name for Mt. Vernon

By RORYE O’CONNOR

rorye.oconnor@register-news.com

MT. VERNON— Everybody knows Mt. Vernon is the “King City,” but nobody’s absolutely, positively, 100 percent certain when or why that came to be.

Glenn Littrell, sales representative at King City Chrysler, said he chose the name for the business years ago.

“I said, ‘Let’s call it King City Chrysler,’ and they said, ‘Well, why?” and I said, “Well, because we’re the King City, and Centralia is the Queen City. That’s what Mt. Vernon is,” he said.

The nickname has been well-established since the early 1900s, according to archived materials from the Jefferson County Historical Society Museum library.

In 1888, a tornado tore through southern Mt. Vernon, killing 24 people, injuring 80 others and destroying 300 buildings. In 1904, after rebuilding efforts, Mt. Vernon News Editor J.V. Baugh wrote that a “spirit of enterprise” had created the prosperous “’King City’ of Southern Illinois.”

The Mt. Vernon city Web site, mtvernon.com, echoes that entreprenurial sentiment in its explanation of the reason for the royal nickname.

“By 1893, they were well on their way. That year an opera house, boasted as being the finest in Southern Illinois, opened. In 1904, the Carnegie Library opened. It was these accomplishments and others that gained Mt. Vernon the nickname ‘King City,’” the Web site explains.

However, it seems as though the “King City” moniker could have origins in events years before the tornado struck in 1888. During a famine in Northern Illinois in the early 1800s, farmers would flock to the grain-rich region at the convergence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in Southern Illinois, according to information from the Jefferson County Historical Society Museum library.

Because of the abundance in the area, the region came to be known as “Little Egypt,” with Mt. Vernon as the King City and Centralia as the region’s Queen City.

Today, several businesses, clubs and churches in the area bear the King City name. From King City Chrysler, King City Saddle Club and the Kity City Theater Company to the King City Dirt Riders, plenty of local entrepreneurs have embraced the name behind the lore.

Littrell said he was unsure where the King City name came from, despite choosing the name for the Chrysler dealership.

“It started years ago,” he said.