24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Virden, IL

Virden is a city straddling Macoupin and Sangamon counties - in the 2000 census, 96.8 percent of its residents lived in Macoupin County and 3.2 percent in Sangamon County.

Virden was established in 1852 and named after John Virden, who had maintained a popular stagecoach stand about two miles south of where the town was built.

Virden sits atop a large seam of coal, and after the Chicago and Alton Railroad was completed in the 1850s its coal could be shipped long distances for a profit, so the town prospered and grew as a coal-mining town.

Virden's population peaked at 4,682 in 1920, during the height of the coal era.

Virden was the scene of the Battle of Virden on October 12, 1898, when armed security guards escorting a trainload of strikebreaking miners opened fire on striking union miners - of the thirteen men killed, six were security guards.

Labor organizer Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones played a major role in the 1898 Virden strike, and the battle is credited with helping establish the eight-hour workday for hourly mine workers.

The Chicago-Virden Coal Company capitulated about a month after the battle, accepting unionization of its mines and the union wage scale it had refused to pay.

A granite-and-bronze memorial in Virden's town square commemorates the battle, listing the names of those killed and topped by a bronze portrait of Mother Jones, who is buried in the Union Miners Cemetery in nearby Mount Olive alongside miners who died in the conflict.

Virden had 3,231 residents at the 2020 census, living in 1,399 households.

Virden is split between two metropolitan areas - its Macoupin County portion belongs to Greater St. Louis, while its Sangamon County portion belongs to the Springfield metropolitan area.