Galesburg Illinois

Galesburg was Carl Sandburg's hometown - where his hobo journey began and ended.

In Sandburg's autobiography "Always the Young Strangers" he wrote:

The family didn’t like the idea. Papa scowled. Mama kissed me and her eyes had tears after dinner one noon when I walked out of the house with my hands free, no bag or bundle, wearing a black-sateen shirt, coat, vest, and pants, a slouch hat, good shoes and socks, no underwear, in my pockets a small bar of soap, a razor, a comb, a pocket mirror, two handkerchiefs, a piece of string, needles and thread, a Waterbury watch, a knife, a pipe and a sack of tobacco, three dollars and twenty-five cents in cash.

A little west of the Santa Fe station stood a freight train. A conductor came out of the station and waved a yellow flimsy in his hand. As the train started I ran along and jumped into a boxcar. From then on I stood at the open side door, watched the running miles of young corn, reading such station names as Cameron and Stronghurst, names of villages and towns I had heard a thousand times and had never had sight of.