Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Charleston, IL

Charleston is a city in east-central Illinois and the county seat of Coles County, first settled by Benjamin Parker in 1826 and established in 1831, though it was not incorporated until 1865.

The city was named for Charles Morton, its first postmaster — even though it was founded by Benjamin Parker.

Charleston's population was 17,286 at the 2020 census, down sharply from 21,838 in 2010, and the city had 7,012 households.

Charleston is home to Eastern Illinois University, founded in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, which today enrolls roughly 8,100 undergraduate and graduate students.

When Charleston won the state normal school in 1895 over its neighbor and rival Mattoon, the Mattoon Gazette announced the news under the derisive headline 'Charleston Gets It: The New Reform School Located at Catfishville.'

The fourth of the famous Lincoln–Douglas debates was held in Charleston on September 18, 1858; the site is now the Coles County fairgrounds, and the city preserves the story at its Lincoln Douglas Debate Museum.

Abraham Lincoln was a frequent visitor to Charleston — his father Thomas Lincoln farmed on Goosenest Prairie south of town from 1831, and Thomas Lincoln's restored log cabin is open to the public today as the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, about 8 miles south of the city.

At the height of the Civil War, downtown Charleston erupted in the Charleston Riot of March 28, 1864, a clash between Union soldiers and Copperheads that left six soldiers, two Copperheads, and one bystander dead.

A tornado tore through Charleston on May 26, 1917, killing 38 people and destroying 220 homes.

The first Jimmy John's sandwich shop anywhere was opened in Charleston in 1983 by founder Jimmy John Liautaud, near the corner of Fourth Street and Lincoln Avenue close to the EIU campus.