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.

Bates in the 1870 Pekin City Directory, that Cromwell was assisted by his wife Ann Eliza in the naming of the streets.

Pekin was the residence of Nance Costley, known to history as the first enslaved person to be freed with the help of Abraham Lincoln.

David Bailey, a local merchant of abolitionist leanings, sought the help of an attorney friend after he (and Nance) lost the case.

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.

Early in the war, the secessionist "Knights of the Golden Circle" openly supported secession and slavery in Pekin.

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.

Its members hoped to counter Northern disillusionment with President Lincoln's military policies after early Union defeats in the American Civil War.

[29] In the 1860 Tazewell County census, the portion of Pekin that originated from Germany increased to 22% (774 individuals of the 3,467 listed).

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).

[33] 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.

[38] George Herget and Habbe Vander Velde were among those on the "Roll of Honor" in the 1908 Pekin City Directory.

[41] Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church conducted some services in German for the older members in this section of town.

[13] In an early 20th-century revival, the Ku Klux Klan recruited new members as a fraternal organization, opposing new immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, and becoming influential in rapidly industrializing urban areas in the Midwest and West, as well as in the South.

[42] 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.

[41] It was during this period that leading Klansmen took over ownership of the city newspaper, the Pekin Daily Times; they used it as an organ of Klan viewpoints.

[47][48] 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.

Nearby towns include North Pekin, Marquette Heights, Creve Coeur, Groveland, Tremont, Morton, Washington, Lincoln, East Peoria, Peoria, Bartonville, Mapleton, Manito, Delavan, Dillon, Green Valley, Hopedale, and South Pekin.

It crossed Broadway Street in the eastern part of town, with the southern half of the mine existing underneath the Parkway Golf Course and Coal Miner's Park at S6 T24N R4W.

While unsuccessful in the national flower contest, Dirksen's hometown of Pekin became known as the "Marigold Capital of the World".

In 1896, the city council agreed to make the library free and appointed a nine-member board of trustees.

[78] In 1900, board member Mary Gaither wrote to Andrew Carnegie, a philanthropist who was funding libraries for communities all over the country.

[80] A larger building was constructed in September 1974 and was the original home of the Dirksen Congressional Center (which later separated from the library and built its own facility in 2002).

[81] In 1973, President Richard Nixon traveled to Pekin at the request of Senator Dirksen's widow to dedicate the cornerstone of the new library.

Candidates may start circulating nomination papers (available from the County Clerk's office) in September, but must file them in mid-December.

After the local community lost in an attempt to save the original school building, demolition began in 2012[99] and was finished in 2014.

They had a large task before them to revitalize the newspaper: "When the first issue of the Times appeared [in 1873] there was no subscription list, as the paper had changed hands so often that its reputation was well nigh gone and the outlook was extremely discouraging.

But by much hard work, natural ability and perseverance, our subject soon placed the paper on a solid basis, and as a newsy and literary production it ranked among the leading weeklies of the northwest".

[101] The Pekin Times remained a weekly publication until January 3, 1881, when Irwin turned the paper into a five-column daily.

From September 1923 to June 1925, the paper was owned by Oscar W. Friedrich, a Ku Klux Klan Grand Titan.