1830's
The Rev. George Washington Gale founds the Oneida Institute in Whitesboro, New York, one of the earliest and most widely known of the "manual labor" schools. Here are educated a large number of young men who become important agitators for several "reforms" of that day, especially against slavery. Lane Theological Seminary and Oberlin College are to a large extent colonized during the middle 1830s by students from Gale's school. 1834
Gale becomes interested in establishing a manual labor college in the west, i.e., Illinois, the "Old Northwest Territory." Direction of the Oneida Institute in New York passes from Gale to the Rev. Beriah Green, a notorious abolitionist. 1835
In January 1835, New School Presbyterian and Congregational clergymen and laymen in central and eastern New York become interested in Gale's reports. A purchasing committee is sent west and buys about 10,000 acres in Knox County, Illinois. 1836
January 7, a Board of Trustees for the College is elected and accepts the report of the purchasing committee. On June 2, the first colonists arrive in a wagon train and settle temporarily at Log City, three miles north-west of the present site of Galesburg. 1837
The Knox College charter is granted on February 15 by the Illinois legislature at Vandalia; among the legislators is Abraham Lincoln. Also in the year, Elijah P. Lovejoy's call for the organization of a State Anti-Slavery Society receives more endorsements from the new settlement of Galesburg than from any other community in the state except one. 1838
The first Academy building (below) is erected in Galesburg, at the corner of Main and Cherry Streets. 
1841
The Rev. Hiram H. Kellogg, an educator from Clinton, New York, and one of the original promoters of the College, is selected as its first President. Gale is elected recording secretary of the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society; William Holyoke, a Knox trustee, is elected president; another Knox trustee, Matthew Chambers, is treasurer. 1843
President Kellogg goes to Europe to secure funds and books for Knox. He also serves as one of nine delegates from the United States to the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London. 1844-45
"East Bricks" and "West Bricks" are built, primarily to accommodate student housing, though for some time they served class room purposes also. Old Main would later be built between the two student residences. 1845
The Rev. Jonathan Blanchard, nationally famous antislavery orator, becomes President of the College. 1846
The first class is graduated, the services being conducted in the colony church (below), which was completed just in time for the commencement exercises.  Knox's first graduating class consists of nine men: William Bush practiced medicine and was a newspaper reporter, before spending most of his professional career in the law; Southwick Davis was an editor and farmer and first president of the Knox Alumni Association; Henry Hitchcock was a professor at Knox until 1872; William Holyoke was pastor of Farmington Congregational Church and a Knox trustee for fifty years; Leonard Francis, Charles Martin, Sanford Richardson and Edwin Smith were clergyman; Asa Olney was a physician. 1847
The Adelphi Literary Society, which had been organized the previous spring, obtains a charter. Its chapter house is on Public Square. 1848
Blanchard serves as presidential elector on the antislavery Free Soil Party ticket. 1849
A rift appears in the College's Board of Trustees. The cleavage, though denominational, had been aggravated by Blanchard's anti-slavery radicalism. The conflict is allayed by a compromise in the spring, in which the Congregationalist and Presbyterian denominations agreed that neither would have a majority on the Board of Trustees. Some historians blame the controversy for impeding Knox's growth during the 19th century. At the same time, the compromise ensures that Knox is a non-denominational institution. The Gnothautii Society is organized. This organization and the Adelphi Society, during their long histories, not only promoted forensic and literary activities, but also built up large and useful libraries, and conducted courses for the general public. 1850
The "Female Collegiate Department" is organized. The Knox Alumni Society is formed. 1851
Milton L. Comstock (left), in mathematics and Albert Hurd (right) in natural sciences, join the Faculty. They, along with George Churchill (standing), principal of the Knox Academy, the College's preparatory school, who joined the faculty in 1855, were dubbed "The Great Triumvirate." These three distinguished scholars formed the core of the faculty during the latter half of the 19th century. 1850-55
The first railroad line is built into Galesburg. Knox College land becomes the site of the depots, shops, and yards for the Chicago-Burlington-Quincy line, a predecessor to the Burlington-Northern Railroad, and now part of the Burlington-Northern Santa Fe system. Blanchard, the president of Knox, is reputed to have tried—unsuccessfully—to block the railroad from running through town on Sunday. 1855
First Congregational Church is organized. Dr. Edward Beecher is its first minister. Plans are made for the construction of the building later called Beecher Chapel. Hiram Revels, the first Black United States Senator, attends the Knox Academy—the College's preparatory school. Following the Civil War, Revels was elected to fill the Senate seat from Mississippi once held by Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. After Reconstruction, however, Blacks in the South were widely disenfranchised, and Revels was voted out of office. He later became the founding president of Alcorn State College, now Alcorn University, a historically Black state college in Mississippi. 1857
Old Main and Whiting Hall are completed with funds brought by the railroad boom. The controversy between Congregationalists and Presbyterians over control of the College threatens to disrupt it. 1858
Dr. Harvey Curtis, supported by the Presbyterian party in the Board of Trustees, is named President of Knox, succeeding Jonathan Blanchard, who later becomes president of Wheaton College in Illinois.  On October 7, 1858 the Lincoln-Douglas debate is held at the east side of Old Main—one of a series of debates in the race for the U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. The crowd at Knox is estimated at more than 10,000. It is the first debate in which Lincoln—perhaps appealing to a decidedly anti-slavery audience—framed his opposition to slavery in moral language. Although Lincoln receives more votes, at the time senators were elected by the state legislature—which chooses Stephen Douglas instead. 1860
Lincoln, during his successful campaign for President, receives an honorary degree from Knox College. It is the first honorary doctorate conferred by Knox and Lincoln's first educational degree of any kind. Writing to Lincoln shortly after the trustees' action, a Knox trustee advises the President: "You will therefore consider yourself a 'scholar' as well as a 'gentleman' and deport yourself accordingly..." 1861-65
The Civil War seriously affects Knox College. A member of the class of 1863 recalls: "Most of the men went to the War, leaving only five to complete the course. Ten girls did their best by stepping into the vacant places, and men and women recited together in College and Seminary for the first time." 1861
The L. M. I. (Ladies Moral Improvement) Society is organized. This is a literary society, comparable to Adelphi and Gnothautii. Its name conveys the opinion of the day as to the purpose for sending women to college. 1863
The Rev. William S. Curtis, formerly a teacher of moral philosophy at Hamilton College and the University of Michigan, is selected president, following the death of Harvey Curtis (no relation). 1867
Head of the Female Seminary, Lydia Howard, resigns, in protest of efforts by President Curtis to maintain separate classes for men and women. The day after Howard's resignation, a Saturday, students call for Curtis to resign. The following Monday, students boycott classes. Curtis resigns the next day. Lydia Howard would later become the first president of Wellesley College. 1868
Dr. John P. Gulliver is inaugurated as fifth President of Knox. 1870
Women are admitted, by action of the trustees, to the full college course, but their classes are separately given except in the senior year, and six years is allowed them to finish work for degrees.  Barnabas Root (left) completes a bachelor's degree at Knox. He is Knox's first "international" student and first Black male graduate, and one of the first Black college graduates in Illinois. Born Fahma Yahny in West Africa, Root also earned a divinity degree at Chicago Theological Seminary and later was a physician and medical missionary in Africa.
1872
President Gulliver resigns. During the following three years Professor Albert Hurd is acting President. Sisters Helen and Maude Tenney, from Mercer County, Illinois, are Knox's first Black female graduates. 1873
The Inter-State Oratorical Contest is instituted by the Adelphi Society at Knox. Oratorical contests drew as much interest as athletic events. 1875
Dr. Newton Bateman becomes President of Knox College. Bateman later served as Superintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Illinois. 1876
Gen. David D. Colton, of the Gnothautii Society, establishes the Colton Prize for Excellence in Debating—making it the College's oldest student award. 1877
The first gymnasium is constructed on the Knox College campus — built by the students themselves. The College Bulletin reported: "During the present year a building for Gymnastic Exercises and Physical Training has been erected." It served for 28 years. 1878
The Knox Student (campus newspaper) begins publication. 1884
Knox Cadet Corps is established. 1885
William F. Bentley is named director of the Conservatory of Music, a position he will hold for a half-century. 1887
Knox marks its semi-centennial. In the Seminary, Academy, and Commercial Department there are 535 students. 1888
First publication of the College yearbook, The Gale. 1888-89
Astronomical Observatory is completed, just south of Old Main. 1889
The Illinois Athletic Association is organized under Knox auspices. 1890
Alumni Hall (below) cornerstone is laid on October 8 by Benjamin Harrison, President of the United States. 
1891
"Laboratory" makes its first appearance in the College catalog. Previously, starting in the 1850's, science facilities were described in terms of "collections" (e.g., botanical specimens) housed in "cabinets." 1892
John Huston Finley (right), an 1887 Knox graduate, becomes seventh President of the College—the first who is not a clergyman. The science curriculum is expanded. Finley would later become Editor of the New York Times. 1894
Founders Day is celebrated for the first time, marking the anniversary of the day—February 15, 1837—when the Illinois legislature granted Knox's charter. 1895
Beecher Chapel comes to Knox College, partly as a donation of the Central Congregational Church. 1896
The first Lincoln-Douglas Debate celebration is held. 1899
U.S. President McKinley and his cabinet visit campus for a Lincoln-Douglas Debate celebration. 1900 to present Credits: Annals of Knox College, 1830-1899, by Hermann Muelder (1905-1988), Knox College Historian, Professor of History, author of Fighters for Freedom, and Missionaries and Muckrakers.
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