GALESBURG, a city of western Illinois, U.S.A., 163m. S.W. of Chicago; the county seat of Knox county. It is on Federal highways 34 and 124, has a municipal airport, and is served by the Burlington, the Rock Island, and the Santa Fe railways. The population was 23,834 in 1920 (84% native white), and was, in 1930, 28,830 by the Federal census. It is the general trade cen tre of a rich agricultural region, and one of the leading horse and mule markets in the country; the largest division headquarters of the Burlington Route; an important manufacturing centre; and the seat of Knox college (founded in 1837 ; co-educational since 1849). Clay, coal, sand and gravel abound within a few miles of Galesburg. The Burlington employs more than 3,00o per sons in its machine and repair shops, steel-car factories, icing stations, coal chutes, store department, hump switching-yards, tie-treating plant and other departments. It has its own water supply, from three beautiful artificial lakes near the city. There are some 6o other manufacturing establishments in the city, mak ing a great variety of products, notably paving brick, butter, oil burners, engines and boilers, farm gates and many other agricul tural necessities. The aggregate factory output within the city limits in 1925 was valued at Galesburg and Knox college were founded by a colonization society, formed by the Rev. George Washington Gale (1789 1862 ), a Presbyterian preacher of Whitestown, N.Y., to promote Christian education and to counteract the pro-slavery influences in Illinois. The society bought from the United States, at $1.25 per acre, half a township in the "Military Tract" of western Illinois, where lands had been set aside for the veterans of the War of 1812. The members individually then bought the land, from them selves as a society, at $5.00 per acre, thus creating a fund for establishing the college and for other public purposes. The first settlers arrived in 1836, and the college was chartered in 1837, as Knox Manual Labor college. The city was incorporated in 1857. It was an important "station" on the "Underground Railroad."