Isaac Galland

Isaac Galland c. 1850. Anonymous photographer. The Caleb Forbes Davis Collection, Keokuk Savings Bank and Trust Company, Keokuk, Iowa.

Isaac Galland (May 15, 1791 – September 27, 1858) was a merchant, postmaster, land speculator, and doctor. He is best known for selling large tracts of land around Commerce, Illinois, to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1839.

Early life Galland was born in Somerset, Pennsylvania on May 15, 1791, to Matthew Galland and Hannah Fenno during their move from Norfolk, Virginia, to the Western frontier. He was the second of five children. His siblings were Abel (March 9, 1787 – 1857), Matthew Jr. (1794–1812), David (May 10, 1795 – November 26, 1872), and Mary (Polly) (September 8, 1798 – April 27, 1870). Shortly after his birth, his family relocated to land near Marietta, Ohio, which was located in Ohio's Donation Tract. "The remote location of the Galland homestead did not hinder Isaac's education, since his mother, an educated woman, took on the responsibility of teaching him as much as she could until he was thirteen."

Although little is known of his teenage life before his marriage at 18, according to family tradition, he left Marietta to study at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, when he was thirteen; some sources indicate that he left home to search for gold in Mexico, was seized by the Spanish government, and spent one year in a Santa Fe prison the same year that he ran for the Illinois state senate. His political opponent accused him of dishonest land dealings and Galland lost again. Galland speculated with land in the Half-Breed Tract in Lee County, Iowa Territory, which was designated for families of white traders who took Indian wives, so the legality of his land titles were questionable. In 1837, he platted the original town of Keokuk, Iowa (then in Wisconsin Territory) with David W. Kilbourne. The same year, Galland founded the newspapers Western Adventurer and Herald of the Upper Mississippi to encourage development. He bought land across the river in Illinois and "laid out the town of Commerce". In 1840, he published Galland's Iowa Emigrant to promote immigration to the Iowa Territory.