Rev. G. W. GALE  D.D.

DIED

SEPT. 13, 1861.

AE. 72 YEARS

Buried underneath a stained, faded, and eroded white marble obelisk resting on a plinth that bears his name, is George Washington Gale (December 13, 1789 – September 13, 1861), founder of Knox College and the namesake of Galesburg, Illinois.

Gale was an ordained Presbyterian minister who, though not a gifted speaker, had a following because of his plan to form a manual labor college.  The first subscribers signed up in 1837 in Knox County, Illinois, in what is now the city of Galesburg.

Galesburg was populated with like-minded abolitionists who made Galesburg one of the stops on the Underground Railroad.  Knox College is also famous for hosting the fifth U.S. Senatorial debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

Though is gravestone is faded, his name lives on in the city that bears his name.