Carrier Mills, formerly Carrier's Mills and Morrilsville, also known as Catskin, is a village in Saline County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,655 at the 2010 census. Carrier Mills was named after George Washington Carrier's saw and grist mills, and was one of the early Cairo and Vincennes Railroad boomtowns. Founded as a mill town, and then a coal mining community, Carrier Mills has slowly lost 44% of its population since the 1920 census high of 3,000 due to the shuttering of the local coal industry. The village has primarily become a bedroom community, located seven miles (11 km) southwest of Harrisburg, which is the village's main source of employment, entertainment, and shopping. It is the third largest community in the Harrisburg Micropolitan Statistical Area outside of Eldorado and Harrisburg, and included in the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky Tri-State Area. Carrier Mills also has a large African American population at 15%, compared to its neighbors, due to migration from the nearby community of Lakeview, the oldest African American settlement in the state of Illinois.
The village is host to the annual Catskin Days Fair and Parade, a multi-day fall festival event in October commemorating the rich history and culture of the village.
The first settler in the village now known as Carrier Mills was Hampton Pankey. He was also one of the earliest settlers in Saline County. Pankey was living in the area in 1804 or 1805 and he registered his land deed in 1814, the earliest date that was available to register them. In about 1811 the settlers began building blockhouses for protection from American Indians.
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