Alton

Alton, city in Madison County, in southwestern Illinois, on the Mississippi River, near its confluence with the Missouri River. Flour has been milled in the area since 1831, and the city's large glassmaking industry dates from 1873. Other manufactures include ammunition, refined oil, glass, paper, clothing, plastics, and steel products.

White settlement of the area began in 1817, when Rufus Easton, a judge and politician, platted the city near the site of the first camp of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; he named it for his son Alton. The city was incorporated in 1837. The abolitionist Elijah P. Lovejoy was killed in Alton in 1837 while trying to defend his newspaper printing presses from proslavery mobs, and in 1858 the city was the site of the last debate on slavery between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, then candidates for the United States Senate. The state's first penitentiary (partly preserved as a museum) was in Alton; during the American Civil War (1861-1865) it housed thousands of Confederate prisoners. Alton was badly damaged by the great floods of 1993. Population 34,171 (1980); 32,905 (1990); 30,496 (2000); 29,433 (2005 estimate).