CLAIMS OF COLLEGES TO PUBLIC FAVOR- KNOX COLLEGE. AN ADDRESS BY REV. GEORGE W. GALE, PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND MORAL PHILOSOPHY IN KNOX COLLEGE, ILLINOIS, DELIVERED AT THEIR ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT, JULY 23, 1847

Galesburg: Southwick Davis, Printer, 1847. 15, [1 blank] pp. Disbound, lightly foxed, Good+.

This is probably the earliest Galesburg imprint; it is Southwick Davis's first, according to OCLC. Terry Tanner, amending Byrd 1088, states: "No press is known to have been active in Galesburg in 1846." [Tanner, Some Corrections and Emendations to Cecil K. Byrd's A Bibliography of Illinois Imprints.]
"This imprint preceded the appearance of a newspaper in Galesburg by almost two years...The West appealed to Gale as a place to enlarge his manual-labor theories of education and at the same time to found a religious community. He was the moving spirit in organizing a company which purchased over 10,000 acres and settled it with religious-minded families from New York and Vermont, beginning in 1836. Galesburg and Knox College grew from this settlement" [Byrd]. Gale founded, not only Galesburg and Knox College, but also, according to Wikipedia, the Oneida Community. Galesburg would serve as a stop along the Underground Railroad. Here Gale explains the importance of higher education in a republican society.
Byrd 1182. OCLC 84180049 [3- Harvard, Huntington, Pitt. Theol. Seminary], 925279220 [2- Yale, AAS] as of February 2023].