Knox College - Gale Yearbook (Galesburg, IL)

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OLD GLORY AND OLD MAIN CCZLQ I 5 ,ga Volume XLIV

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Copyright, 1 9 3 4 Q EUGENE C. MERDIAN Editor JOHN MONTGOMERY Bufineu Md12dg6f O

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This tablet on Old Main, rommnnurating lb: , , H Y debale, was urwriled al the tbirly-eighth anni- versary celebration in 1896. OVQWOV ' In July, 1857, the corner stone was laid for a new building on the campus of Knox College. It was the first large building erected there and the largest building then and for many years after in the growing village of Galesburg. But it was only a building, new, unused, unmarked. On October 7, 1858, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas met in the fifth of their joint debates on a platform erected against the east side of the building. That afternoon those new walls echoed words which are forever significant in the record of human freedom. From that day Old Main became increasingly a landmark, a monument, and a shrine. For more than thirty years it was Knox College and practically all there was of Knox College. Within its walls students recited, studied in the library, worked in the laboratories, went daily to prayers in the old chapel. Other buildings have been added to it, but Old Main is still the center, epitome of the past and guarantor of the future. Thar the crumbling walls have been replaced during the past year, thereby insuring its continuance for another century, is not only a material strengthening of the College, but a proof of the abiding faith in what is permanent here and an evidenceof the great hope that flowers here for the years to COITIC. To nothing else could this Gale be more Httingly inscribed than to Old Main and to no one else could praise and gratitude be offered more deservedly than to those who have made the restoration of Old Main possible, and particularly to that devoted woman, the great friend of the College, whose courage and faith have lighted the way.