page_title: Marseilles, Illinois
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Marseilles, Illinois / History
caption_attribution_description: English: WPA mural in the Marsilles, Il US Post Office
context_page_description: Marseilles is a city in LaSalle County, Illinois, United States. An Illinois River town, the population was 5,094 at the 2010 census, and was estimated to be 4,873 by July 2018. It is part of the Ottawa, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area.
context_section_description: Lovell Kimball arrived at the area along the Illinois River known as the Grand Rapids in 1833 from Watertown, New York. Kimball, aware that the Illinois-Michigan Canal Bill had passed and the canal would eventually reach the rapids, hired a surveyor to lay out a town. Kimball called the town Marseilles in reference to the French city of Marseille as he hoped it would become a similar industrial center in Illinois. Marseilles, pronounced the same as the French city, was officially platted on June 3, 1835; the plat was revised twice for railroad and canal right-of-ways.
caption: 1938 WPA mural, "Industrial Marseilles" by Avery Johnson. in Marseilles Post Office
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