DECATUR, a city in the central part of Illinois, U.S.A., on the Sangamon river ; the county seat of Macon county. It is on Federal highways 36 and 51, and is served by the Baltimore and Ohio, the Illinois Central, the Illinois Traction (electric), the Pennsylvania and the Wabash railways. The area is 6,10o acres. The population was 43,818 in 1920 (91.4% native white), and was in 1930 by the Federal census of that year. Decatur is a pleasant city, of diversified manufacturing industries, in a rich agricultural region underlain with coal. It has a commission form of government. The assessed valuation of property in 1927 was Bank debits in 1926 amounted to $240,327,000. There are parks in and near the city covering 729ac., in one of which the original county court-house (of logs) is preserved. Lake Decatur (12m. long), constructed in 1922-23 to assure an ample and dependable supply of water, provides fishing, boating and bathing. There are two coal mines within the city. The fac tory output in 1927 was valued at $51,797,095. Corn products (starch, syrup, hominy, meal, flour, oil, feed, sugar, gums and soap) are the most important manufactures, and the corn milling plants have a grinding capacity of over 50,000 bushels a day. Others of importance are brass plumbing goods, soda fountain and office fixtures, mal leable iron, grey iron, structural steel and sheet steel. The Wabash has its principal repair shops here, also its hospital for em ployes. The James Millikin university (opened 1903) has an endowment of over $1,250,000. Decatur was founded in 1829 and incorporated in 1836, and was named after Stephen Decatur, one of the first settlers. It was the first Illinois home of Abraham Lincoln, and the Grand Army of the Republic was organized here on April 6, 1866.