CAIRO, Ill., city, port of entry and county seat of Alexander County, situated at the junc tion of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, in the southernmost part of the State, with Ken tucky on the east and Missouri on the west, 150 miles southeast of Saint Louis, on the nois Central, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and Saint Louis and other railroads. The city was first settled in 1838 by William Bird and was incorporated as a city in 1857. It was ex pected to become a great commercial centre. Cairo has a commission government, adminis tered by a mayor and four commissioners. It has a large transit trade in agriculture and lumber, and affords a good market for the produce and trade of the Mississippi Valley. The industries include sewing-machine factory, box factories, handle factory, flour mills, wagon works, foundries, etc. The United States census of manufactures for 1914 re ported 61 industrial establishments of factory grade, employing 1,769 persons, of whom 1,522 were wage earners, receiving annually $853, 000 in wages. The capital invested aggregated $3,474,000, and the year's production was valued at $4,584,000; of this, $1,538,000 was the value added by manufacture. The city has four
banks with a combined capital of $4,806,690. A United States custom house is located in Cairo and it has a free public library, court house, United States Marine Hospital, Saint Mary's Infirmary and Bondurant Hospital. The Federal government during the Civil War used the town as a depot for military supplies. For many years, until levees were built, the city suffered from frequent floods which greatly im peded its progress, the most disastrous of which occurred in 1858. In 1913 $250,000 was appro priated by the State for the repair of levees within the city, limits; it is the (cEden" of Dickens"Martin Chuzzlewit.' The city is growing in wealth and population, has many fine churches and an excellent system of edu cation with six white schools, five colored schools and two parochial schools. The value of its taxable property is $11,000,000. Pop. (1910) 14,540; (1916) 17,000.