Pekin, Illinois Pekin Tazewell County Courthouse in Pekin Location of Pekin inside Illinois Location of Pekin inside Illinois Wikimedia Commons: Pekin, Illinois Pekin / pi k n/ is a town/city in and the governmental center of county of Tazewell County in the U.S.
Located on the Illinois River, Pekin is the biggest city of Tazewell County and part of the Peoria urbane area. As of the 2010 census, its populace is 34,094. A small portion of the town/city limits extend into Peoria County.
Pekin is the 13th-most crowded city in Illinois outside of the Chicago Metropolitan Area.
It is the most crowded municipality in the United States with the name Pekin.
Pekin's Mineral Springs Park is positioned near Pekin Hospital and the Miller Senior Center.
The town/city is also home to a high-rise residentiary facility of the United Auto Workers; the 1,538 megawatt, coal-fired Powerton Power Station (currently owned and directed by NRG Energy), the home of the Pekin Federal Correctional Institution; and the command posts of a county-wide insurance company, Pekin Insurance.
2 Pekin Marigold Festival 8 Mayors of the City of Pekin They assembled a winter refuge in what is now the southeast quarter of section 1 of Pekin Township.
Pekin and the Pekin region has a rich Native American heritage.
South of Pekin on the Mackinaw River was the site of Chief Lebourse Sulky's Village in 1812.
Government and protected white pioneer in the Pekin region during the Black Hawk War.
Other European-American pioneer joined him, living near Chief Shabbona's large Indian village of about 100 wigwams, populated primarily by Pottawatomi, which was situated along Gravel Ridge, on the easterly shore of what is today Pekin Lake in northwest Pekin.
Following the Black Hawk War, the State of Illinois re-negotiated treaties with the Native American tribes in the state in order to extinguish their claims and remove all Indians from the state.
After a county surveyor laid out a "town site" in 1829, an auction of the town plat and site was held in Springfield, Illinois.
Nathan Cromwell titled many of the town/city streets after the wives and daughters of early Pekin settlers.
Bates' history of Pekin encompassed in the 1870 Pekin City Directory, that Cromwell was assisted by his wife Ann Eliza in the naming of the streets.
Cromwell titled the town "Pekin" because she thought that "Pekin" (the French name for Beijing, China was known as "Peking" outside China) was on the exact opposite side of the world from the town she founded.
However, this is not as improbable as it sounds-in the late 1700s and early 1800s, China and the United States were often thought to be on the exact opposite sides of the world and suburbs were often titled after locations in China-another example is Canton, Ohio, titled in 1805.
"Peking" was sometimes romanised as "Pekin" at this time, supported by a several other US suburbs founded around this time titled "Pekin" (example Pekin, Ohio). Pekin is known as the site where Lincoln and other ambitious politicians hit a deal in the 1840s.
The pact is called the Pekin Agreement in Lincoln biographies.
Although Illinois was a "free" state, pro-slavery sentiment was dominant throughout southern and central Illinois, which had been largely settled by Southerners, some of whom were slaveholders before the state was admitted to the union.
Cities with pro-slavery sentiment encompassed Peoria and Pekin (see Charles L.
Dancey's "Pekin, KKK, blacks: It goes back to Copperheads, Union League," Peoria Journal Star, 13 April 1989).
According to the 1949 Pekin "Centenary," p.
"Pekin was a pro-slave town/city for years.
Some of the initial settlers had been slave-owners themselves, and the overwhelming sentiment in Pekin was Democratic.
Chiefly due to an influx of German immigrants after the Revolutions of 1848, abolitionist sentiment began to flourish in Pekin.
Among Pekin's abolitionist leaders was Dr.
Other Pekin abolitionists were the brothers Samuel and Hugh Woodrow.
(Catherine Street in Pekin is titled for Samuel's wife, and Amanda Street is titled for Hugh's wife.) During the Civil War, the inhabitants of Pekin were divided between the pro-slavery element, who favored the Confederacy, and the abolitionist and pro-Union element.
Early in the war, the secessionist "Knights of the Golden Circle" openly supported secession and standardized in Pekin.
The 1949 Pekin Centenary, p.
15, says the Knights were "aggressive and unprincipled," and "those who believed in the Union spoke often in whispers in Pekin streets and were wary and often afraid." Cheever and 10 other men gathered at 331 Court Street in Pekin on 25 June 1862 to establish the first council of the Union League of America, to promote patriotism and loyalty to the Union in the Civil War and the abolition of slavery.
The anti-slavery Germans of Pekin took an active part in the Union League in their city.
It had various members in Pekin and other Illinois cities. It was amid this reconstructionthat dominant Klansmen took over ownership of the town/city newspaper, the Pekin Daily Times; they used it as an organ of Klan propaganda.
On the other hand, some Pekin church pastors participated in the civil rights marches of the 1960s, and U.S.
Senator Everett Dirksen from Pekin was integral to achieving passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. of 16 blacks." The federal prison fitness has an institution in Pekin.
Pekin Marigold Festival The Marigold Festival was started in 1973 to honor one of Pekin's "favorite sons", Senator Everett Dirksen.
While unsuccessful in the nationwide flower contest, Dirksen's hometown of Pekin became known as the "Marigold Capital of the World". The Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce annually appoints a festival committee, yet most of the work is done by more than 1,000 volunteers.
Today the goal of the festival is to encourage improve pride, displayed through marigold plantings and additional affairs such as a Medallion Hunt, 5 kilometer run/walk, Carnival, Art in the Park, Friday Night Family Fest, and live music. These affairs bring the citizens of Pekin together and highlight region businesses.
They include small-town churches and Boy Scout Troops, Kiwanis Club of Pekin, Pekin Community High School JROTC Boosters, Pekin Community High School show choir "Noteables", small-town firefighters, Pekin Lions Club, the Salvation Army, and United Way of Pekin. Over the years the Marigold Festival has grown to attract more than 100,000 citizens annually.
Other celebrations in the small-town region include the Washington Cherry Festival, Morton Pumpkin Festival, Tremont Turkey Festival, and East Peoria Festival of Lights.
Pekin is the governmental center of county of Tazewell County, Illinois.
Originally under an aldermanic form of government, the town/city switched to the commission form in 1911 (see Pekin Sesquicentennial 1824 1974, A History, p.
(See Pekin) The Pekin Park District was established in 1902 and still operates, controlled by a 7-member Board of Commissioners propel by the public. The town/city has an Illinois Secretary of State Drivers Services Facility; the next nearest is in Peoria.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons operates the Federal Correctional Institution, Pekin. The United States Postal Service operates the Pekin Post Office. The Pekin Municipal Airport is a city-owned public-use facility positioned four nautical miles (4.6 mi, 7.4 km) south of Pekin's central company district. Pekin Community High School District 303 includes Pekin and some close-by areas.
The district's high school is Pekin Community High School (PCHS).
The school squads were known as the Pekin Chinks from the 1930s until 1980 when the school administration changed the nickname to the Dragons. The team mascots were a male and female student dressed as Chinese persons wearing stereotypical Chinese attire.
Pekin lies on the Illinois River, and its John T.
Mc - Naughton Bridge joins the town/city to a small region of territory the town/city has took in in Peoria County.
Nearby suburbs include North Pekin, Marquette Heights, Creve Coeur, Groveland, Tremont, Morton, Washington, Lincoln, East Peoria, Peoria, Bartonville, Mapleton, Manito, Delavan, Dillon, Green Valley, Hopedale, and South Pekin.
The town/city is served by a daily newspaper, the Pekin Daily Times.
Laurie Barra 2011-2015 First female mayor in Pekin history Pekin Lettes Springfield, Illinois: Illinois State Journal Company.
"Pekin, Illinois: History".
"Pekin wasn't always a welcoming place".
Pekin, Illinois | Pekin Daily Times: Local History Room of the Pekin Public Library.
Pekin Daily Times.
Pekin, Illinois.
"Pekin Marigold Festival".
Pekin, Illinois: Pekin Area Chamber of Commerce.
Pekin, Illinois: Pekin Park District.
"FCI Pekin Contact Information." The Bates Historical Map of Pekin.
Pekin Sesquicentennial: A History, 1824-1974.
Pekin Chamber of Commerce.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pekin, Illinois.
City of Pekin Municipalities and communities of Tazewell County, Illinois, United States Municipalities and communities of Peoria County, Illinois, United States
Categories:
Cities in Tazewell County, Illinois - County seats in Illinois - Pekin, Illinois - Cities in Peoria County, Illinois - Populated places established in 1829 - 1829 establishments in Illinois
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