Editing Cairo, Illinois (section)

===Beginnings===
[[File:Embarkation of General McClernand's Brigade at Cairo.jpg|thumb|right|Embarkation of [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] troops from Cairo on January 10, 1862]]
Cairo was named after the Egyptian city of the same name because its location at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers was reminiscent of the [[Nile Delta]].<ref name="knowles">{{cite news |last1=Knowles |first1=Daniel |title=America is uniquely ill-suited to handle a falling population |url=https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/04/18/america-is-uniquely-ill-suited-to-handle-a-falling-population |access-date=19 April 2024 |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=April 18, 2024}}</ref>

The first municipal charter for Cairo and the Bank of Cairo were issued in 1818, but without any settlement and without any depositors.<ref name="britannica.com">{{Cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/88546/Cairo |title = Cairo &#124; Illinois, United States| date=October 25, 2023 }}</ref> A second and successful effort to establish a town was made by the Cairo City and Canal Company in 1836–37, with a large levee built to encircle the site.<ref name="britannica.com" /> However, this effort collapsed in 1840, with few settlers remaining.<ref name="britannica.com" />

[[Charles Dickens]] visited Cairo in 1842, and was unimpressed.<ref name="britannica.com" /> The city would serve as his prototype for the nightmare City of Eden in his novel ''[[Martin Chuzzlewit]]''.<ref name="britannica.com" /> In 1846, 10,000 acres in Cairo were purchased by the trustees of the Cairo City Property Trust, a group of investors including writer [[John Neal]]<ref>{{Cite book |publisher=Printed by B. Thurston |location=Portland [Me.] |title=The past, present and future of the city of Cairo, in North America |author=Cairo City Property (Cairo, Ill.) |date=1858 |page=99 |oclc=13619400|ol=271527M |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OJYUAAAAYAAJ}}</ref> who planned to make it the terminus of the projected [[Illinois Central Railroad]], which finally arrived there in 1855.

Cairo had been growing as an important river port for [[steamboat]]s, which traveled all the way south to New Orleans. The city had been designated as a port of delivery by Act of Congress in 1854.

A new city charter was written in 1857,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Papers Of Abraham Lincoln |url=https://papersofabrahamlincoln.org/places/x4014254 |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=papersofabrahamlincoln.org}}</ref> and Cairo flourished as trade with [[Chicago]] to the north spurred development. By 1860, the population exceeded 2,000.

{{CSS image crop|Image=The Photographic History of The Civil War Volume 01 Page 188.jpg|bSize=220|cWidth=190|cHeight=205|oTop=20|oLeft=7|Location=left|Description=General Grant's headquarters.}}
During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], Admiral [[Andrew Hull Foote]] made Cairo the naval station for the [[Mississippi River Squadron]] on September 6, 1861. Since Cairo had no land available for base facilities, the navy yard repair shop machinery was afloat aboard wharf-boats, old steamers, tugs, flat-boats, and rafts.<ref>{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Francis Trevelyan |title =The Photographic History of The Civil War |publisher =Castle Books |volume =Six: The Navies |date =1957 |location =New York |pages =213–215 }}</ref> In January 1862, General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] occupied the city, and had [[Fort Defiance (Illinois)|Fort Defiance]] constructed to protect the confluence. Cairo became an important Union supply base and training center for the remainder of the war.<ref name="britannica.com" />

Military occupation caused much of the city's trade to be diverted by railroad to Chicago. Cairo failed to regain this important trade after the war, as more railroads converged on Chicago and it developed at a rapid pace, attracting stockyards, meat processing, and heavy industries. Instead, agriculture, lumber, and sawmills now dominated the Cairo economy.<ref name="britannica.com" />