MATTOON  , a

city of Coles county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the east central part of the state, about 12 M. south-east of Peoria . Pop . (1890), 6833; (1900), 9622, of whom 430 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 11,456 . It is served by the Illinois Central and Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis railways, which have repair shops here, and by inter-urban electric lines . The city has a public library, a Methodist Episcopal Hospital, and an Old Folks' Home, the last supported by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows . Mattoon is an important shipping point for Indian corn and broom corn, extensively grown in the vicinity, and for fruit and livestock . Among its manufactures are foundry and machine shop products, stoves and bricks; in 1905 the factory product was valued at $1,308,78r, an increase of 71.2% over that in 1900 . The municipality owns the water-works and an electric lighting plant . Mattoon was first settled about 18J5, was named in honour of William Mattoon, an early landowner, was first chartered as a city in 1857, and was re-organized under a general state law in 1879 .