Biohazard Cleanup Near Melrose Quincy, IL

Quincy is a city on the bluffs above the Mississippi River and the county seat of Adams County in western Illinois. It is known as Illinois's 'Gem City.'

The city was settled in 1819, and in 1822 John Wood, its founder, built the first settler's log cabin on the site.

In 1825 Quincy, with fewer than ten inhabitants, was made the county seat of the new Adams County, and both town and county were named in honor of John Quincy Adams.

Quincy was incorporated as a town in 1834, and founder John Wood's 1835 homestead is now preserved by the Quincy and Adams County Historical Society.

On October 13, 1858, Quincy hosted the sixth of the seven Lincoln-Douglas debates in Washington Park, drawing a crowd estimated at 12,000 people; a Lorado Taft bas-relief marking the debate was dedicated in the park in 1936.

In 1838 and 1839, Quincy residents famously sheltered thousands of Mormon refugees who had been driven out of Missouri, until the refugees founded Nauvoo about 45 miles upriver.

Abolitionist Richard Eells built his Quincy home in 1835 and sheltered enslaved people escaping across the river from Missouri on the Underground Railroad.

By 1870 Quincy had become the second-largest city in Illinois, surpassing Peoria, as riverboats and railroads made it a major transportation center.

Quincy's many German immigrants left a lasting mark on the city, preserved today in the South Side German Historic District and the Downtown Quincy Historic District.

Quincy's population was 39,463 at the 2020 census, down from 40,633 in 2010.