Pekin, Illinois
city and county seat of Tazewell County, Illinois, United States
Pekin ( PEE-kin) is located in, and is the county seat of, Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. It is located along the Illinois River in Central Illinois. The population was 31,731 at the 2020 census. Pekin is the largest city in Tazewell County and the second-most populous city in the Peoria metropolitan area. A small portion of the city limits extend into Peoria County.
Mineral Springs Park in Pekin is located near Pekin Hospital and the Miller Senior Center. The city is home to a high-rise residential facility operated by the United Auto Workers; the Federal Correctional Institution, Pekin; and the headquarters of the regional insurance provider Pekin Insurance.
History
Origins
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.
“Pekin, Illinois” enters the record as city and county seat of Tazewell County, Illinois, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pekin, Illinois and city can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Pekin, Illinois” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Pekin, Illinois and city provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q578328. VIAF identifies the subject as 130199335. The Library of Congress control number is n81125518. Authority coordinates are 40.568, -89.626. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1824 and 1825.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Pekin, Illinois”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Pekin, Illinois primary sources, Pekin, Illinois archive and Pekin research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Pekin, Illinois”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Pekin, Illinois” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.