Knox College is a private liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois. It was founded in 1837 and offers more than 60 courses of study. History Knox College was founded as Knox Manual Labor College by Presbyterians and Congregationalists from New York state organized by George Washington Gale, who previously had founded the Oneida Institute. Gale in 1836 released a "Circular and Plan" for the founding of manual labor colleges which described a subscriber- and land purchase-based method of funding. His plan resulted in the founding of at least one school when in 1837 subscribers settled in what became Galesburg and began to build the college. Knox opened to students in 1843 and was one of the earliest colleges to admit Black people and women. Like Gale, many of the founders of Knox College and residents of Galesburg were abolitionists and actively supported the Underground Railroad. Knox has been known by its present name since 1857. The name came about as a compromise among its founders. Though founded by a colony of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, the county where the college stands was already named Knox County, after Henry Knox, the first United States Secretary of War. Arguments have also been made that the college was named for Calvinist leader John Knox. It is not certain for which Knox it was named (if not both). George Candee Gale, a great-great-grandson of two of the founders, explains that Contrary to general belief, Knox was not named for either General Knox or the Scottish Presbyterian Knox, according to my father.... Some wanted the college named for one Knox, some for the other; so they compromised on KNOX. Certainly most of them were pious enough to want the churchman and fighters enough to want the soldier as well. Jonathan Blanchard's presidency led the school out of debt, but ignited a controversy about whether the school was loyal to the Congregational church or the Presbyterians. Gale and Blanchard were forced out of the school as a result. Knox was the site of the fifth debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. The Old Main building is the only extant site of the debates. Two years after the debates, during his presidential campaign, Lincoln was awarded Knox College's first honorary doctorate—a Doctor of Laws degree, announced at the commencement exercises of 5 July 1860. In 1841, a Female Seminary was built. The building burned