Fast Facts
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Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat of Sangamon County with a population of 116,482 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2006). Over 200,000 residents live in the Springfield Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Sangamon County and adjacent Menard County. Present day Springfield was first settled in the late 1810s, around the time Illinois became a state. One of the city's most important and prominent past residents is Abraham Lincoln, who moved from Indiana to the area in 1831 and lived in Springfield itself from 1837 until 1861. In 1908 a large race riot erupted in the city which culminated with the lynching of two African American residents and led to the founding of the NAACP. The event cast a negative shadow over the town's image.
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