Bloomington

Bloomington, capital of McLean county, Illinois, 126 miles SSW. of Chicago, is an important railway centre, and has a brisk trade and large railway-works, with foundries, furnaces, and coal-mines. There is a Wesleyan university in the town; and near it is the Illinois Normal University (450 students), in connection with which there is a state laboratory of natural history. Bloomington has a court-house built of Illinois marble, a Roman Catholic academy, and the Major College for women. Pop. (1860) 7075; (1890) 20,485.—There is another Bloomington, a post-village lying between the branches of the White River, 60 miles SSW. of Indianapolis, in Indiana, seat of the Indiana University. Pop. 4018.