History of Stanfordville, (Dutchess County) New York United States of America

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George Washington Gale, educator, was born in Stanford, Duchess county, N.Y., Dec. 3, 1789; son of Josiah and Rachael (Mead) Gale; and a grandson of Joseph Gale, a native of Yorkshire, England, who settled in Stamford, Conn., about 1730. He was graduated from Union college, Schenectady, N.Y., in 1814, and studied at Princeton theological seminary, 1814-15 and 1818. He was licensed to preach by the Hudson Presbytery, Sept. 6, 1816, and supplied vacant pulpits in Duchess, Putnam and Greene counties, and was employed for a time by the Female missionary society of western New York, located in Utica, as a missionary in Jefferson and Oswego counties. He was ordained by the Presbytery of St. Lawrence, Oct. 26, 1819, and was installed pastor at Adams, N.Y., resigning on account of broken health in 1823. He took up his residence on a farm in the village of Western, Oneida county, N.Y., in 1827, where he taught a class of students, giving them board and tuition for a few hours' work each day on the farm. This led to establishing the Oneida institute at Whitesboro, N.Y., a manual labor institution of learning for young men desiring an education, as a preparation for the ministry. He remained as principal of the school and superintendent of the farm and workshops until 1834, when he resigned and planned and organized an association of colonists intending to organize a village and farming community in the west. In 1835 a tract of land was purchased in Knox county, Ill., with money provided by the association. Out of the tract, a village plot and college farm were reserved, and the remainder was sold by the acre to settlers at four times the first cost; all profits and unsold land forming an endowment for the college. Emigration began in 1836, and in 1837 Knox college was chartered, a school opened, a Presbyterian church organized, and Galesburg was named in his honor. He was a member of the faculty of Knox college, and devoted the remainder of his life to the college and the church. He was married to Harriet, daughter of the Hon. Charles Selden of Troy, N.Y., in 1820. He received the honorary degree of D.D. from Union college in 1857. He died at Galesburg, Ill., Sept. 13, 1861.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Stanfordville, (Dutchess County) New York

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