Reading old newspapers can provide interesting information about a community and its residents. The Weekly Evening Mail of Galesburg on June 10, 1897, published news on these subjects as well as many others.

There were fifty six young people graduating from Knox College on June 10^th. It was a larger class than usual. The exercises were held in the Auditorium on North Broad Street. The Stage was decorated with potted plants. Royal purple and old gold fabric was draped from the boxes on each side of the theater.

The ceremony began at 8:00 am with the Honorable Newton Bateman presiding. The graduates were seated on the stage: Young ladies in white dresses and male graduates in regulation black suits. A number of the students presented orations which they had written?

At 3:30 in the afternoon people began gathering on the Public Square to witness the cornerstone laying of Central Congregational Church. The program consisted of an invocation, three addresses, a history of the church by Dr. J.M. Sturtevant of Knox College, enumeration of the articles to be placed in the cornerstone, prayers, the singing of “All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name” and closed with a benediction by Dr. G.B. Stocking, pastor of the Universalist Church.

In the evening the Marine Band was to play its first concert of the season at Lake George.

The City of Galesburg was receiving bids for the paving in brick of streets in the area of Knox, Lombard, Chambers and South Streets. North Seminary Street was to be paved along with a new sewer line. A bridge across Cedar Creek on North Cherry Street was also up for bid.

The City Council had approved establishing a new saloon district between Main and North Streets and between Cherry and a line drawn along the east side of the Public Square.

Workmen of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company were installing a new alarm system in the yards. Each alarm connected to the hose cart house and the engineer's office. The alarms would show the location of any accidents and register the time of the alarm.

John H. Finley, President of Knox College, was rumored to be considering a call to the presidency of Lake Forest University. He had been at Knox College for five years. The newspaper stated “The people of Galesburg in general, and the friends of Knox College in particular, will regret deeply the loss of Dr. Finley. Everybody in the town thinks highly of him and feels proud of him.”

The newspaper also reported that Ray McGill had gotten into a fight the night before at Main Street and Allen's Avenue. When he refused to go home, Officer Nelson arrested him and took him to the station house for an overnight stay.

Carl Sandburg wasn't in Galesburg that summer. He was riding the rails out west as a hobo.