The New Student's Reference Work/Peoria, Ill.

Peo′ria, Ill., a large and enterprising city on Illinois River, 62 miles north of Springfield and 160 southwest of Chicago. It is an important railway center, the union depot being used by ten of the railway lines that meet at this point, and is connected by steamboat navigation with the Mississippi. It contains among other prominent buildings, a courthouse, postoffice, public library, Roman Catholic cathedral and a Congregational church. Its charitable institutions include three homes for the aged, three hospitals and other institutions. Besides an unexcelled system of public schools, it has several parochial schools, a German school under the patronage of the German Turners, Spalding Institute (R. C.) for boys, founded by Bishop J. L. Spalding, Sacred Heart Academy (R. C.) for girls and Bradley Polytechnic Institute, founded by Mrs. Lydia Bradley in 1897, endowed with $2,000,000 by her and affiliated with Chicago University. Peoria manufactures whiskey, agricultural implements, automobiles, wire fences and other products. It has several meatpacking houses, and takes first rank in its distillery products. Its distilleries number ten and consume 60,000 bushels of corn daily. Peoria is per capita the richest city in the United States. Population 66,950.