as a town. Eight days later, five individuals were elected as the first trustees. Incorporation was approved by the county board of trustees on October 2, and the first meeting of trustees occurred the next day. The 15th Illinois General Assembly (1836–37) codified the trustee election process. A steamboat was selected as the town seal on May 22, 1837. A state law governing local jurisdictions resulted in the town holding its first elections for mayor and aldermen on May 24, 1841, to replace the board of trustees. Charles S. Hempstead was elected the first mayor, with 185 of the 356 votes cast. The first US census of the town was also held that year, recording 1,900 inhabitants. Indigenous peoples of the Americas traded galena with French traders as early as 1692. Julien Dubuque mined the ore in Iowa from 1788 until 1810. From 1807 until 1834, the United States government controlled leases, after which the lands were put up for sale. In 1839, David Dale Owen made a geologic survey of the region. The Ordovician Galena limestone contained most of the galena ore, and peak productivity occurred between 1840 and 1850. By 1845 Galena was producing nearly 27,000 tons of lead ore annually, and Jo Daviess County was producing 80 percent of the lead in the United States. In 1852, the region produced 87 percent of the American output, and 10 percent of the world's, with pollutants from Galena's industry found as far away as Lake Matoaka in Tidewater Virginia. Once one of the most important cities in the state, Galena was a hub on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and St. Paul. Due to erosion, the Galena River is now inaccessible to steamboats. Galena received national attention in the 1860s as the home of Ulysses S. Grant. Decline Following a sharp decline in the demand for lead (which had been the city's chief income source during the early 19th century), Galena's population has dropped from 14,000 in the mid-19th century, to 3,396 in the early 21st century. Today Galena's official flag was adopted in 1976 to symbolize mining, agriculture, steamboats, and the nine American Civil War generals who lived in the city. Until the late 1980s, Galena was a small rural farming community. In 1990, local industries included a Kraft Foods cheese plant, Lemfco Foundry, John Westwick's foundry, and Microswitch, Inc. In the 1980s, Galena Mayor Frank Einsweiler