Tuscola is the largest city and the county seat of Douglas County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,636 at the 2020 census.
History
The city of Tuscola's name came from an unknown Native American tribe's word for "flat plain."
The founding Supervisor of Tuscola township was O. C. Hackett, who was elected in 1868. Hackett was elected Supervisor with a majority of only one vote over W. B. Ervin. O. C. Hackett was the grandson of noted Kentucky frontiersman and Boonsborough resident Peter Hackett. O. C. planted Hackett's Grove, a sassafras grove situated on Section 31, Township 16, Range 9, on the east side of the township. This grove is traversed by a branch of Scattering Fork of the Embarrass River, long known as Hackett's Run. According to the History of Douglas County (1884), the grove had been owned by the Hacketts long before Douglas County came into existence. Family legend holds that Abraham Lincoln stayed at the Hackett farm during the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858.
From the 1890s to the 1940s, Tuscola had a sizeable number of African-American citizens, including Arthur Anderson, the "most graceful walker" at the 1898 Colored Folks Cake Walk in Tuscola; his partner Cozy Chavous; the musician Cecil "Pete" Bridgewater, father of internationally known musicians Cecil Bridgewater and Ronnie Bridgewater; the educator and musician Ruth Calimese, daughter of automobile worker "Big Jim" Calimese; musician Solomon "Sol" Chavous; mail carrier and war veteran Bruce Hayden (father of distinguished violinist Bruce Hayden Jr.); Lemuel and Nettie Riley; football star and garage owner Tommy Wright; and dozens of other people. Tuscola had two churches with mainly black congregations, the African Methodist Episcopal Church on North Niles, and the White Horse Riders church on Houghton Street. Unlike the neighboring town of Arcola, Tuscola did not have the ordinance, common in small Illinois towns at the time, that an African-American person could not be on the streets after sundown. The black and white people of Tuscola got along well. However, between 1922 and 1924 two large Ku Klux Klan gatherings were held in Tuscola. The 1924 rally consisted of nearly 2,000 Klan cars, a hundred marching Klansmen, burning crosses, and a naturalization ceremony in Tuscola's Ervin Park.
Geography
thumb|Tuscola, Illinois, post office
According to the 2021 census gazetteer files, Tuscola has a total area of , of which (or 99.66%) is land and (or 0.34%) is water.
Climate
Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 census, Tuscola had a population of 4,636. There were 1,157 families residing in the city. The population density was .
The median age was 38.8 years. 23.9% of residents were under the age of 18 and 17.4% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 93.4 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.3 males age 18 and over.
There were 1,973 households in Tuscola, of which 29.8% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 46.0% were married-couple households, 17.7% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 29.0% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 32.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.