Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near West Beardstown Beardstown, IL

Beardstown is a city in Cass County, Illinois, located on the banks of the Illinois River in the west-central part of the state.

Beardstown was first settled in 1819 by Thomas Beard, who built a log cabin at the edge of the Illinois River, traded with local Native Americans, and ran a ferry; the town was laid out in 1827 and incorporated as a city in 1896.

During the Black Hawk War of 1832, Beardstown served as a supply base for Illinois troops.

The old Cass County courthouse in Beardstown was the site of Abraham Lincoln's famous Almanac Trial, in which he defended William "Duff" Armstrong by using a farmer's almanac to destroy the credibility of the prosecution's key witness; Norman Rockwell later painted the scene, and a Lincoln Museum now occupies the courthouse's second floor.

Beardstown became nationally famous in the 1990s for the Beardstown Ladies, an investment club of 16 older women whose book, The Beardstown Ladies' Common-Sense Investment Guide, sold over 800,000 copies, before an audit showed their celebrated 23.4% stock returns had actually been about 9% once club fees were removed.

The 2020 census counted 5,951 people in Beardstown, down from a peak of 7,111 in 1920.

Beardstown had 2,133 households in the 2020 census, and it is one of the youngest communities in the region, with a median age of just 33.7 years.

A large pork slaughterhouse now run by JBS, and previously owned by Kraft and Cargill, is a major employer in Beardstown and has drawn a substantial immigrant workforce to the city.

By the 2020 census, Hispanic or Latino residents made up about 40% of Beardstown's population, one of the highest shares for any city in downstate Illinois.

Beardstown's position on the Illinois River supports two grain terminals where farm products are loaded onto barges, and hunting, fishing, and river recreation add to the local economy.