Galena, Illinois
County: Jo Daviess
Location: Roadside park, north side of US 30 8.5
miles east of Galena; Roadside Park north side of US 20 & I84
Erected: 06/15/1964 Erected by:
Illinois Department of Transportation and The Illinois State
Historical Society
Prior to 1820, Indians and occasional white traders occupied
LaPointe, the name given to the present site of Galena. The
settlement grew rapidly in 1823 and 1824 as each boat deposited new
arrivals on the banks of the Fever (now Galena) River. The town was
laid out in 1826, and the name changed to Galena (Latin for sulphide
of lead). Terror reigned in the region during the Black Hawk War in
1832, but the suppression of the Indians cleared the way for
unrestricted white settlement. As supply center for the mines and
shipping point for the growing river commerce, Galena became a
thriving city when Chicago was still a swamp village. Galena's zenith
arrived in the 1840's, and residents lavished money on elaborate
houses, many of which still stand today. By the 1850's the surface
lead deposits were depleted; the Galena River, once over 300 feet
wide, began to gather silt; and the railroads started to take the
river commerce. Ulysses S. Grant arrived here in 1860 to work in his
father's leather store. A year later this still obscure clerk marched
off to the Civil War; in 1865, he returned in tiumph to a gift
mansion donated by his Galena neighbors. Grant was so prominet that
he overshadowed the town's eight other Civil War generals. In 1869,
after his election as President of the United States, Grant appointed
his Galena friends John A. Rawlins, Secretary of War; Elihu B.
Washburne, Secretary of State; Ely S. Parker, Commissioner of Indian
Affairs.
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