Origins of the Potawatomi tribe, taken in 1859 Farmer Jonathan Tharp, who came from
Ohio, was the first non-
native American resident of what would become Pekin, building a
log cabin in 1824 on a ridge above the
Illinois River at a site near the present foot of Broadway Drive. Franklin School was later erected near this site. Other settlers soon joined him, including his father Jacob Tharp who arrived from Ohio in 1825. They lived near Chief
Shabbona's large Indian village of about 100
wigwams, populated primarily by
Potawatomi, which was situated along Gravel Ridge, on the eastern shore of what is today Pekin Lake in northwest Pekin. The county surveyor, William Hodge, measured and laid out a "town site" in 1827. In 1829, the plat was taken to Springfield and auctioned; the town site was awarded to Major Isaac Perkins, Gideon Hawley, William Haines and Major Nathan Cromwell. Major Cromwell's wife, Mrs. Ann Eliza Cromwell, selected the name of Pekin. It has been stated that Mrs. Cromwell named the town "Pekin" because she thought
Peking was on the exact opposite side of the world from the town she founded. In the 1800s, China and the United States were thought to be
antipodes, or locations that were exactly opposite of each other on the globe. As such, towns were sometimes named after their supposedly antipodal locations. Another example is nearby
Canton, Illinois. "Peking" was often
romanized as "Pekin", as in other towns founded during the 1800s (such as
Pekin, Ohio). Nathan Cromwell named many of the city streets after the wives and daughters of early Pekin settlers. It was long held, as first expressed by W.H. Bates in the 1870 Pekin City Directory, that Cromwell was assisted by his wife Ann Eliza in the naming of the streets.
19th century Pekin's first post office opened on February 20, 1832. In July 1834, Pekin suffered a
cholera outbreak. Several early settlers died in the outbreak and were buried in the old Tharp cemetery.
Pre-Civil War Pekin was the residence of
Nance Costley, known to history as the first
enslaved person to be freed with the help of
Abraham Lincoln. She was auctioned off to Nathan Cromwell in 1827 and brought to Pekin. Her original case was part of a Probate Court hearing regarding the estate when he died in 1836. David Bailey, a local merchant of abolitionist leanings, sought the help of an attorney friend after he (and Nance) lost the case. Abraham Lincoln argued the case in 1841 at the Illinois Supreme Court, citing the Illinois Constitution and
Northwest Ordinance. Justice Breese determined that Nance was a free person and reversed the Circuit Court ruling, stating that "it is a presumption of law, in the State of Illinois, that every person is free, without regard to color," and "the sale of a free person is illegal". After her freedom was legally secured, she remained in Pekin with her husband and children. In William H. Bates' 1870 Pekin City Directory, Nance was included in an entry of notable citizens:"With the arrival of Major Cromwell ... came a slave. That slave still lives in Pekin and is now known, as she has been known for nearly half a century ... (as) 'Black Nancy.' She came here a chattel. ... But she has outlived the age of barbarism, and now, in her still vigorous old age, she sees her race disenthralled; the chains that bound them forever broken, their equality before the law everywhere recognized and her children enjoying the elective franchise."Lincoln attended the Whig Convention that was held in Pekin on May 1, 1843. He was among several local Whig politicians who wanted to serve in the U.S. Congress. To keep from splitting the Whig vote, the competitors agreed to support each other for one term each in Congress. Lincoln ran and was elected to the 30th United States Congress in 1846, and retired at the end of the term. This single term in Congress was Lincoln's only experience in Washington before he was elected president. Although Illinois was a "free" state, pro-slavery sentiment was predominant 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 included Peoria and Pekin. According to the 1949 Pekin "Centenary," p. 15, "Pekin was a pro-slave city for years. Some of the original settlers had been slave-owners themselves, and the overwhelming sentiment in Pekin was Democratic.
Stephen A. Douglas, not Abraham Lincoln, was the local hero, although Lincoln was well-liked, and had some German following." Nonetheless, there was abolitionist sentiment in Pekin. Among Pekin's abolitionist leaders was Dr. Daniel Cheever, who performed
Underground Railroad activities in his office at the corner of Capitol and Court streets (in addition to his property in
Delavan which was an Underground Railroad depot) and the brothers Samuel and Hugh Woodrow. (Catherine Street in Pekin is named for Samuel's wife, and Amanda Street is named for Hugh's wife). The sentiment was bolstered by the German immigrants that arrived in the area after the
Revolutions of 1848; while there were small groups that supported slavery, finding them would prove difficult as the German community disapproved of the idea.
Civil War 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 slavery 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." As a response to the Knights' influence, Dr. Cheever and 10 other men gathered at 331 Court Street in Pekin on June 25, 1862, to establish the first council of the
Union League of America. In the 1850 Tazewell County census, nearly 14% of Pekin's population was listed as originating from "Germany" (272 individuals of the 1,891 listed). In the 1860 Tazewell County census, the portion of Pekin that originated from Germany increased to 22% (774 individuals of the 3,467 listed). The 1860 census also changed the designation from "Germany" to the various states of the German Confederation- revealing that 31% of the German immigrants came from Hanover, with Darmstadt trailing behind at 22% of the population. Several German citizens of Pekin held status in the town. Frederick P. Siebens, who came to Pekin in 1868, was stockholder and director of T. & H. Smith Company (a blacksmith, woodworking, and wagon building plant). He was also listed as a foreman blacksmith in the 1887 Pekin City Directory. John Herget moved to the United States from Hesse-Darmstadt, then returned to Germany and brought his family back with him to Pekin in 1869. He became a stockholder in Farmers National Bank and was Mayor of Pekin in 1873 and 1874. John's younger brother, George Herget, was the President of the Globe Distilling Company, the Pekin Electric Light Company, and the Pekin Steam Coopering Company. He settled in Pekin in 1853 after traveling from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The historic
Carl Herget mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Aeilt Van Boening was the city's representative for the
Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company of St. Louis. He moved to Pekin in 1867 to be with his brothers, who had settled there in 1866. Van Boening was also listed as a proprietor for City Truck Line in the 1887 Pekin City Directory. George Herget and Habbe Vander Velde were among those on the "Roll of Honor" in the 1908 Pekin City Directory. Those who were listed were in the 1861 Pekin City Directory and lived continuously or retained citizenship in Pekin since. The list describes those listed to "represent all the varied trades and professions which were essential to the building up of our beautiful city". In 1852, a short-lived German language newspaper
Per Wachteram Illinois was published. Circa 1875, John Hoffman started a German weekly called the
Pekin Freie Press. This publication was sold to Albert Weiss, then to Jacob Schmidt in 1914. During
World War I, this newspaper was changed to English language and renamed it
Free Press; it was published until 1934. In August 1924, the Pekin Klan hosted one of the largest "monster rallies" ever held in Illinois, with an estimated attendance of 25,000 to 45,000. The Klan owned the paper from September 1923 to June 1925; they sold off the paper within a few years, coinciding with their decline in membership. The city had an identity and reputation as a
sundown town; it was known to be hostile to black residents and few settled there. 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. The
Effingham Daily News published an article on Peoria attorney
Joe Billy McDade on December 16, 1967, that addressed the sundown town policy, in which McDade alleged that Pekin posted a sign its border that read, "Nigger, don't let the sun set on you in Pekin." The article further states, "There must be a thousand Negroes in Peoria who could have known that is NOT true." In 2011, Laurie Barra became the first female mayor of Pekin. ==Geography==