CENTRALIA, a city of southern Illinois, U.S.A., about 6om. E. of Saint Louis, in Marion and Clinton counties. It is on Federal highway 51, and is served by the Burlington, the Illinois Central and the Missouri-Illinois railways. The population was 12,491 in 5920, and was 12,583 in 1930 by the Federal census. It is in a fertile fruit-growing and dairying region, and there are coal mines and oil and gas wells in the vicinity. The city has a large wholesale trade. Two of the railroads have division repair shops here, and there are several other manufacturing industries. Cen tralia was founded in 1853 by the Illinois Central railroad com pany, and was chartered as a city in