Peoria

Peoria, capital of Peoria county, Illinois, on the west bank of the Illinois River, at the outlet of Peoria Lake, 161 miles by rail SW. of Chicago. It is an important railway centre—the Union Dépôt accommodates ten of the railways that meet here—and is connected by steamboat navigation with the Mississippi and by canal with Lake Michigan. It contains a Roman Catholic cathedral, a high school, a medical college, and three hospitals. The streets are wide, and there are ten parks, the largest Jefferson (35 acres). Mines of bituminous coal supply the city's numerous manufactories. These include especially the great distilleries, for which the place is noted, and breweries, foundries, and manufactories of flour, oatmeal, and starch, glucose, pottery, &c. In the lower city are large stockyards. Pop. (1880) 29,259; (1890) 49,758.