 About 10.1% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 14.2% of those under age 18 and 9.2% of those age 65 or over.Typically for German-settled western Central Illinois, Cass County opposed the Civil War and became solidly Democratic for the next six decades.Only hatred of Woodrow Wilson’s policies towards Germany following World War I drove the county into Republican hands in the 1920 landslide.