Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Princeton, IL

Princeton is a city in and the county seat of Bureau County in north-central Illinois, with a population of 7,832 at the 2020 census.

Census Bureau survey figures put Princeton at about 3,621 households in recent years, averaging just over two people per household.

Princeton was settled in the early 1830s entirely by New Englanders, including the Hampshire Colony from Northampton, Massachusetts, who arrived in 1831 as one of the first organized transplant colonies in northern Illinois.

Local tradition says Princeton got its name by drawing it from a hat, reportedly at the suggestion of a trustee fond of his New Jersey roots.

Princeton was incorporated as a city in 1884 and is part of the Ottawa Micropolitan Statistical Area.

Princeton was an important stop on the Underground Railroad, most famously at the home of abolitionist minister and later U.S. Congressman Owen Lovejoy, who sheltered escaped slaves before the Civil War.

The Owen Lovejoy Homestead on Princeton's eastern edge is a National Historic Landmark, designated in 1997, and is now operated by the city as a museum.

Lovejoy served as pastor of Princeton's Congregational church from the late 1830s to 1856 and was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, who gave a noted speech at Bryan Woods in Princeton on July 4, 1856.

Princeton boosters note that the first high school in the state of Illinois was built in Princeton between 1866 and 1868, holding its first commencement in 1870.

The town's annual Homestead Festival began in 1971 as a celebration of the restoration of the Owen Lovejoy Homestead and now anchors a weekend of events including the Homestead Parade.