GALESBURG

A short history of Galesburg

Galesburg was founded by George Washington Gale, a Presbyterian minister from New York state who had formulated the concept of the manual labor college and first implemented it at the Oneida Institute near Utica, New York. In 1836 Gale publicized a subscription- and land purchase-based plan to found manual labor colleges in the Mississippi River valley. Land was purchased for this purpose in Knox County and in 1837 the first subscribers to the college-founding plan arrived and began to settle what became Galesburg.

Populated from the start by abolitionists, Galesburg was home to one of Illinois's first anti-slavery societies and a stop on the Underground Railroad. On October 7, 1858, the city was the site of the fifth Lincoln–Douglas debate. Galesburg was also the home of Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke, who provided hospital care for Union soldiers during the Civil War.

Galesburg is the birthplace of poet Carl Sandburg, artist Dorothea Tanning, and former Major League Baseball star Jim Sundberg. The Illinois Historic Preservation Agency maintains Sandburg's boyhood home as the Carl Sandburg State Historic Site. It includes the cottage where he was born, a modern museum, the rock under which he and his wife Lilian are buried, and a performance venue.

For much of its history, Galesburg was inextricably tied to the railroad industry. Local businessmen were major backers of the first railroad to connect Illinois's then two biggest cities—Chicago and Quincy—as well as a third leg initially terminating across the Mississippi River from Burlington, Iowa, and eventually connecting to it via bridge and thence onward to the Western frontier. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) sited major rail sorting yards here, including the first to use hump sorting. The CB&Q also built a major depot on South Seminary Street that was controversially torn down and replaced by a much smaller station in 1983. The BNSF Railway still uses the yard.

In the late 19th century, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway connected its service through to Chicago, it also laid track through Galesburg and built its own railroad depot. The depot remained in operation until the construction of the Cameron Connector southwest of town enabled Amtrak to reroute the Southwest Chief via the Mendota Subdivision and join the California Zephyr and Illinois Zephyr at the Burlington Northern depot. A series of mergers eventually united both lines under BNSF's ownership, carrying an average of seven freight trains per hour between them. Since the 2004 closure of the Maytag plant, BNSF is once again Galesburg's largest private employer.

Galesburg was home to minor league baseball from 1890 to 1914. The Galesburg Pavers was the last name of the minor league team based there. Galesburg teams played as members of the Eastern Iowa League (1895), Central Interstate League (1890), Illinois-Iowa League (1890), Illinois-Missouri League (1908–1909), and Central Association (1910–1912, 1914).

Baseball Hall of Fame members Grover Cleveland Alexander (1909) and Sam Rice (1912) played for Galesburg. Rice left the Galesburg team in 1912, when his wife, two children, parents, and two sisters were killed in a tornado. Galesburg teams played at Illinois Field (1908–1912, 1914), Lombard College Field (1908–1912, 1914) and Willard Field at Knox College (1890, 1895).

The Carr Mansion at 560 North Prairie Street was the site of a presidential cabinet meeting held in 1899 by U.S. President William McKinley and U.S. Secretary of State John Hay.

Adapted (trimmed) from the Wikipedia article Galesburg, Illinois, revision 1380015800 by its contributors, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.