Galena, Illinois called Galena "La Pointe" and early Americans adopted this name as "The Point". Early documentation officially records the name as "Fever River", an early name for the Galena River, though it does not appear that this name was commonly used. George Davenport, a retired colonel in the United States Army, successfully shipped Galena's first boatload of lead ore down the Mississippi River in 1816. Three years later, Jesse W. Shull built a trading post. The Thomas H. January family, who arrived in 1821 from Maysville, Kentucky, are considered the first permanent American settlers. The next year, the US Department of
Galena, Maryland Galena, Maryland Galena is a town in Kent County, Maryland, United States. The population was 612 at the 2010 census. Galena is located at (39.341680, -75.878444). According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , all of it land. Galena was founded in 1763 under the name Down's Cross Roads, after William Downs, a local tavern owner. The name was later changed to Georgetown Cross Roads sometime before 1813, and finally to Galena in 1858. The name comes from a supposed silver mine in the vicinity of the town, which extracted the metal from