Decatur, Illinois has long had a proud tradition of workers and craftsmen who produced coal, water pumps, gloves, automobiles, clothing, corn meal, and many other products.Though it is home to Caterpillar's second largest plant and serves as world headquarters for Archer Daniels Midland, a global processor of corn and soybeans, Decatur is much more than jobs and factories. If Illinois is the Heartland, then Decatur is the Heart of the Heartland. Decatur is the site of Abraham Lincoln's fir...

Decatur has a long history of patriotic service, both on and off the field of battle. Decatur volunteers participated in six major campaigns including the Black Hawk War (1832), the Mexican War (1846�1848), the Civil War (1861�1865), the Spanish-American War (1898), World War I (1917�1918), and World War II (1941�1945). Their record of distinguished service includes the presence of five generals and six Congressional Medal of Honor winners in the Civil War. The Grand Army of the Republic (...

Macon County occupies nearly 600 square miles of fertile farmland in the geographic center of Illinois. Abraham Lincoln made his first Illinois home here, on a pleasant bluff overlooking the Sangamon River, near presentday Harristown. On May 10, 1860, he was first nominated for the presidency in Decatur, the county seat. During the World War I era, Macon County boasted over a dozen hamlets and villages, including Warrensburg and Maroa, which both enjoyed opera houses and busy train station...