Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Saybrook, IL

Saybrook is a village in southeastern McLean County in central Illinois, part of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area, about 27 miles east of Bloomington.

Locals know Saybrook by the nickname 'City of Shade and Water.'

Saybrook was laid out on March 4, 1856, by Isaac M. Polk, on one of the smallest original town plats in McLean County: a simple square of just four blocks, each containing eight lots.

The name Saybrook was adopted in 1865 and is believed to honor Old Saybrook, Connecticut, the hometown of some of its settlers.

Saybrook was incorporated on May 29, 1866.

Settlers were drawn to the area decades before the town existed: Jonathan Cheney built a cabin nearby in 1825, and in 1833 Robert Cunningham built a water-driven mill on the Sangamon River; the woodland along the river became known as Cheney's Grove, which gave the township its name.

Saybrook's citizens quite literally bent a railroad to reach their town: Cheney's Grove Township voted $50,000 in bonds and the town added $10,000, and the line that would become the Lake Erie and Western was deflected to pass through Saybrook, with the tracks arriving in November 1871.

When the railroad reached Saybrook, the thrifty reception committee knocked the neck off a bottle of champagne rather than smashing it, so the contents could be consumed later.

With the railroad established, Saybrook grew rapidly and became the largest grain shipping point in eastern McLean County, reaching 879 residents by 1900.

Saybrook is the uppermost community on the Sangamon River, which at that point is little more than a small creek flowing through the southwest part of the village.