Real estate investors, druggists, architecture patrons.
Buried in Forest Park.

Edwin Oscar Gale (1832-1913) arrived in Chicago with his parents. Abram and Sara Gale, in 1835.  They purchased 320 acres north of Oak Park in what is now known as the Galewood neighborhood of Chicago. Sara opened a hat shop, the New York Millinery Store, in downtown Chicago.  Young Edwin attended the College of Pharmacy in Chicago and, upon graduating, went to work in a drug store in the Palmer House Hotel. There he met William Blocki, who also worked as a clerk in the store.  Gale eventually purchased the business and, when Blocki returned from serving in the Union Army during die Civil War, the two became partners in the Gale and Blocki Drug Store.

The Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed both the Palmer House and the drug store. To rebuild Gale obtained a loan from his friend Joseph Kettlestrings.  Within a few years. Gale and Blocki had expanded their business to eight drug stores, including one in Oak Park.

Gale built a Gothic Revival-style home at the northwest corner of Kenilworth and Lake Streets in Oak Park in the 1860s.  It stood for nearly 100 years until it was torn down and replaced by an apartment building.  He was also a noted author and historian whose works included Reminiscences of Early Chicago and Falling Leaves, a book of poetry.  A hitching post from the Fort Dearborn era, said to be donated by the Gale family, stands in Section 9.