Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Henry, IL

Henry is a city in Marshall County in north-central Illinois, sitting on high bluffs on the west bank of the Illinois River, about 35 miles north of Peoria.

Henry was first surveyed and laid out in 1834 and named for General James D. Henry, who led Illinois volunteers in the Black Hawk War of 1832; the city was incorporated in 1854.

Henry's slogan is "Best Town in Illinois by a Dam Site," a pun on its distinction as the site of the first lock and dam built on the Illinois River, completed in 1870 at a cost of $400,000.

The original lock and dam was demolished in 1928, but sections of its brick walls survive along the riverfront, where anglers now fish for channel catfish, bluegill, and crappie.

In the mid-1800s Henry was a busy river port, shipping grain, livestock, fish, and even winter ice downriver to Chicago restaurants.

Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech in Henry's Central Park shortly after the city was established, an occasion now commemorated by a historical marker in the park.

Geologists named a statewide glacial sand-and-gravel deposit the Henry Formation after the city, taking the name from an exposure in a former gravel pit along Illinois Route 29 just north of town.

Henry had 2,320 residents at the 2020 census, living in 989 households; the city's population peaked at 2,740 in 1980.

Students in Henry attend Henry-Senachwine High School, whose teams are the Mallards, in Henry-Senachwine Consolidated Unit School District 5.

Henry hosts the Marshall-Putnam County Fair, a summer fair that has run for well over a century and is known for its tractor pull.