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  • In January 1680, Sieur de La Salle (Robert de LaSalle) and 33 fellow explorers landed their canoes on the eastern bank of the Illinois River. They built a winter refuge in the southeast quarter of section one of Pekin Township. Pekin, historically, has a rich American Indian heritage. It was the site of Lebourse Sulky's Village in 1812. Sulky oversaw a mixed village of the Potawatomi, Kickapoo and Ojibwa people. He fought with Tecumseh in the War of 1812, as did most of the other chiefs of the Illinois Valley area. Later, this area was the site of Chief Shabbona's village during the Black Hawk War. Farmer Jonathan Tharp was the first non-Indian resident, building a log cabin in 1824. For some time after the arrival of white settlers, there continued to be a quite large Indian Village, populated primarily by Potawatomi, along the ridge of what is today Pekin Lake. After a county surveyor laid out a "Town Site," an auction of this town plat and site was held in Springfield, Illinois. The village site was awarded to Major Isaac Perkins, Gideon Hawley, William Haines and Major Nathan Cromwell, the last of whose wife named the City of Pekin after Beijing, China, which was at that time spelled "Peking" or "Pekin," spellings still common in German and French. A fine short history of the city is on-line at http://www.villageprofile.com/illinois/pekin/03his/index.html A group of 11 men gathered on June 25, 1862, in Pekin to establish the first council of the Union League of America, to promote patriotism and loyalty to the Union. Its members hoped to counter Northern disillusionment with President Lincoln's military policies after early Union defeats in the Civil War. Although closely allied with the Republican Party, the League sought to enroll all Union supporters, regardless of party. By December, 1863, it claimed 140,000 members in Illinois and almost one million nationwide. The Union League movement focused on providing medical supplies, training nurses, and advocating equality for slaves. As the War gradually turned in favor of the North, the Union Leagues shifted to political endorsements, favoring radical Republicans who advocated full equality and voting rights for African Americans. The Union League played a prominent role in Lincoln’s closely contested re-election in 1864. By the end of the War Between the States, the Union League of America movement grew to two million members. The clubs still continue today, for example, The Union League Club of Chicago has been credited with establishing many of the city’s major cultural organizations, including: The Art Institute of Chicago, Orchestra Hall, the Auditorium Theater and the Field Museum. After the Civil War, The Union League Club of New York founded the Metropolitan Museum of Art, built the Statue of Liberty and Grant's Tomb. Everett McKinley Dirksen (January 4, 1896 – September 7, 1969) was born to German immigrant parents in Pekin where he grew up on a small farm. He dropped out of the University of Minnesota to serve in the Army during World War I. His political career began in 1927, when he was elected to the Pekin city council. Dirksen was also legendary for his fondness for the marigold. When political discussions became tense, Dirksen would lighten the atmosphere by taking up his perennial campaign to have the marigold named the national flower. Although unsuccessful at that, in 1972 his home town of Pekin started holding an annual Marigold Festival in his memory, and now considers itself the Marigold Capital of the World. He is buried in Glendale Memorial Cemetery in Pekin, and the city is home to an official research facility bearing his name that was formerly housed in the Pekin Public Library. Pekin is included in the list of historic sundown towns; in recent years, the area, while still quite peaceful relative to city size, has had an increased drug problem involving methamphetamine usage in certain low-income apartment complexes in east Pekin. Pekin Community High School teams were officially known as the Pekin Chinks until 1981 when the mascot was changed to the Pekin Dragons (an earlier attempt was made by a visit of the NAACP to change the name from Chinks during the 1974-1975 school year, this was voted down by the student council; the event received national attention). Pekin has a large park with a lagoon, Mineral Springs Park, which is located near Pekin Hospital and a senior center. Pekin is home to a high-rise residential facility of the United Auto Workers. It is the home of the minimum-security Pekin Federal Correctional Institute. East Court Village is a popular shopping and dining mall complex. Pekin has a large cinema complex near its northern border with North Pekin on Edgewater Drive/Illinois Route 98. The Pekin area makes up one of the vicariates, or regions, of the Peoria Catholic Diocese. There is a large Catholic church and a well-regarded affiliated parochial school, both having the name St. Joseph and currently headed by Father Timothy Nolan, in downtown; they are near a few banks, two other large churches and historic James Field. Recently, the former mayor of Pekin, Lyn Howard, was convicted of illegal gambling on a city credit card, causing the council to appoint political scholar and researcher Doctor Frank Mackaman, Ph.D., as interim mayor. Mackaman, former director of the Dirksen Center and known for his colorful collection of bow ties, agreed to serve one term. Pekin Grade School District 108 and Pekin Community High School District 303 are studying whether to consolidate, according to District 108's superintendent, Dr. Paula Davis, and District 108's superintendent, Dr. Don White. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekin%2C_Illinois

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