Peoria, Illinois

Rare card · No. 57276

Peoria ( pee-OR-ee-ə) is a city in Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. Located on the Illinois River, the city had a population of 113,150 as of the 2020 census, making it the eighth-most populous city in Illinois. It is the principal city of the Peoria metropolitan area in Central Illinois, consisting of Fulton, Marshall, Peoria, Stark, Tazewell, and Woodford counties and had a combined population of 402,391 in 2020. Established in 1691 by the French explorer Henri de Tonti, Peoria is the oldest permanent European settlement in Illinois, according to the Illinois State Archaeological Survey. The city received its current name when the County of Peoria was organized in 1825 and was named after the Peoria people, a member of the Illinois Confederation. On October 16, 1854, Abraham Lincoln made his Peoria speech against the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Before the onset of Prohibition in 1920, Peoria was a major center of the American whiskey industry, with more than a dozen...

Read on Wikipedia · Image CC BY-SA 2.5