Waterloo, Illinois

City: Waterloo

County: Monroe

State: Illinois

Lat/Long: 38.3333, -90.1333

The city of Waterloo is located in southwestern Illinois, twenty-two miles south of East St. Louis. It was laid out in 1818 and combined the two smaller, pre-existing communities of Bellefontaine and Peterstown. A U.S. Post Office was established in October of the same year. Waterloo was made the county seat of Monroe County in 1825 and was incorporated in 1849. The city was named for the Belgian village where Napoleon was defeated in 1815. Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in Waterloo on behalf of the Whig Party during the campaign of 1840.

Webster’s New Geographical Dictionary (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 1988), 1322; Edward Callary, Place Names of Illinois (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009), 367; “An Act to Incorporate the Town of Waterloo, in Monroe County,” 12 February 1849, Laws of Illinois (1849), 226-29; The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln, 25 August 1840, http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Results.aspx?type=CalendarDay&day=1840-08-25.