Midlothian, IL USDA Eligibility

Midlothian (/mɪdˈloʊθiən/) is a village in Bremen Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a southwestern suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census the population was 14,325.

Like many southwest suburbs of Chicago in the 1800s and early 1900s, the area now known as the Village of Midlothian consisted of a few area farmers being surrounded by large and small endeavors alike as the industrial age began its exponential expansion process in the Bremen Township in Cook County, Illinois community. By 1854, the sprawling landscape comprising the township of Bremen had a trail of railroad track carrying both passengers and commodities between Chicago and Joliet on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad. It had been a somewhat brutal battle for the Illinois Central Railroad over the decades, with Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln working hard to establish the presence of the Illinois Central Railroad on a State level until Douglas moved to the federal level. By 1850, Douglas was busy working on federally mandated development of transportation plans into law at a federal level for the benefit of the Illinois Central Railroad.

Explosions were not uncommon in gunpowder factories and storage facilities and 12 years later in 1906, an explosion leveled the DuPont facility. Although there is currently no clear evidence as to the precise location of the facility, apparently the shock-waves from the explosion traveled a decent enough distance in which the windows of the Midlothian Country Club were shattered, according to a report on November 8, 1906, in the Charlotte News. It also appears the Associated Press distributed the geographical location of the facility to be situated in Tinley Park, however a 1900 Homesteader’s Map shows the DuPont property to be closer to what would become Oak Forest in 1947 rather than Tinley Park. Eventually the northern portion of the DuPont Farm and Ammunition Storage property was eventually annexed by the Village of Midlothian, while the rest of the DuPont property was acquired by Cook County, Illinois and developed into what is now the Midlothian Meadows Forest Preserve (part of the Cook County Forest Preserve system)

Despite land speculation and sporadic development growing from the direction of what would become the Village of Robbins in 1917, dirt roads continued to act as an uncontrollable barrier to a variety of economic activities, such as delivering goods and services. While rain of any slight measure was a nuisance, it didn’t take much to render the roadways virtually unusable by the wagons being pulled by horses. The extremely and extraordinarily wealthy members of the Midlothian Country Club found such a method of transportation enough of an inconvenience, a group of individuals decided to petition the State of Illinois for a charter to form the Midlothian – Blue Island Railroad and to lay tracks from Blue Island straight to the front lawn of the country club.

The initial charter approved a separate track to begin in Blue Island, Illinois and ending on the Midlothian Country Club grounds. However, the Midlothian – Blue Island Railroad negotiated with the Chicago-Rock Island Railroad to build either the longest spur track or the Shortest Railroad in the World, as it became known as. Rather than laying new rails all the way from Blue Island, they would use Rexford Crossing as a turn around point and then lay track a short distance away to the country club. As part of the arrangement, a station was erected in place of what constituted Rexford Crossing and the station was renamed to “Midlothian.” Although it is unclear who exactly paid for the construction, ownership of the building was eventually acquired by the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific while the stockholders of the Midlothian – Blue Island Railroad retained ownership of the rails and all of the rights and responsibilities associated with such ownership. All rail cars and engines were purchased by the Midlothian – Blue Island Railroad and not the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific. Although the club would not be annexed to Midlothian for a few decades, the Midlothian train station was located within the vicinity of the original boundaries for the village and eventually considered a part of the downtown area of Midlothian, which meant some of the tracks were to be governed by the municipal codes of the village. Bremen Township and Cook County may have had property-related laws the company was supposed to adhere to, but even more telling is the absence of the company in a number of Railway and Warehouse Commission annual reports. By 1927, the Village of Midlothian was incorporated and at the end of the summer season in 1928, the Midlothian – Blue Island Railroad tracks were removed, thereby ending any potential track maintenance issues or conflicts with the village.