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Mattoon

Mattoon is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 18,291 at the 2000 census. Mattoon may be best known today for the Mad Gasser attacks of the 1940s.

History

Early settlers from the South lived in forested areas along the headwaters of the Little Wabash River to the southwest of the present town. They distrusted the prairie, which they saw as the source of fevers.

The history of Mattoon is tied to that of local railroads. In 1853, railroad surveyors from the Illinois Central Railroad and Terre Haute and Alton Railroad found their railroads would cross in the Mattoon area, and a burst of investment and land speculation began. The two railroads raced to the meeting point, on the understanding that the first to arrive would not have to pay to maintain the crossing. Local settlers marked out the plots for sale with pegs, and the village was originally known as "Pegtown."