Galesburg

Town and administrative headquarters of Knox County, west-central Illinois; population (2000) 33,700. It serves as a trading centre for the region's livestock and grain. Coal mining, once very important, still contributes to the economy. Mowers, marine paints and accessories, electrical appliances, doors and gates, and fencing are some of the goods manufactured here.

Presbyterian minister George Washington Gale chose the town as the site for what became Knox College (1837). An Abraham Lincoln–Stephen Arnold Douglas debate on slavery was held on the college campus in 1858. Galesburg served as a station on the Underground Railroad (a network for escaped slaves). The US poet Carl Sandburg was born in the town in 1878; his birthplace is now a State Historic Site.