Decatur, IL news and local guide

Decatur is named for the War of 1812 naval hero Stephen Decatur. It was the first Illinois home of Abraham Lincoln, whose family settled just west of town in 1830, and a historical marker says that at 21 Lincoln gave his first political speech there, defending the state's Whig leaders. As a lawyer on the 8th Judicial Circuit he often stopped in Decatur and argued five cases in the log courthouse at Main and Main streets, which now stands at the Macon County Historical Museum. His cousin John Hanks lived in Decatur. On May 9 and 10, 1860, the Illinois Republican State Convention met in Decatur and gave Lincoln his first endorsement for president as "the Railsplitter Candidate."

More about Decatur

The Potawatomi Trail of Death passed through Decatur in 1838. On April 6, 1866, Post No. 1 of the Grand Army of the Republic, the fraternal organization of Union veterans of the Civil War, was founded in Decatur. In 1900 Robert R. Montgomery, a Decatur businessman, invented the first modern fly swatter and received a patent for his "Fly-Killer." Sources Wikipedia: Decatur, Illinois