BEARDSTOWN, a city of Cass county, Illinois, U.S.A., on the east bank of the Illinois river, about 1 oo miles north of St. Louis. It is served by the Baltimore and Ohio and the Burlington railways and by steamboats. The population in 193o was 6,344. It has important fisheries, the extensive railroad shops and other industries. Laid out in 1827 and named after Thomas Beard, who had settled near by in 182o, it was incorporated as a city in 1896. The old court-house, in which Abraham Lincoln won his "Armstrong murder case" in 1854, is now the city hall.