Discreet Biohazard Cleanup Near Bath Historic District Bath, IL

Bath is a village in Mason County in central Illinois, sitting on a low bluff overlooking the Illinois River valley, with the East Branch of the Illinois River and Grand Island along its northwest border.

Bath was first settled in 1828 by John Stewart and John Gillespie, who came from Kentucky.

Abraham Lincoln personally surveyed the land at Bath on November 1, 1836, years before he became president.

A popular local story says Bath got its name from Lincoln quipping that the town's spot on the Illinois River would be a nice place for a bath, though the name may instead have been borrowed from places named after Bath, England.

Bath served as the county seat of Mason County from 1843 to 1851, before the seat moved to Havana.

Bath was incorporated by charter in 1857 and then reincorporated as a village under the general incorporation law in 1876.

Bath is home to the Gatton Mansion at 9805 IL-78, built around 1856 as the home of Major Benjamin Gatton of Kentucky.

Bath Chautauqua Park gives the village access to the Illinois River for fishing and boating.

Bath once had its own high school — Bath-Lynchburg, whose teams were the Ramblers, and the combined Bath Balyki High School (named for Bath, Lynchburg and Kilbourne) — but it was deactivated in 1991 and Bath students now attend school in Havana.

Bath had a population of 279 at the 2020 census, far below its steamboat-era peak of 513 residents in 1860.