The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-01-21
Enterprise IN
old ALEXANDRIA
How She Fought and Conquered Cur
rent Of Mississippi and Floods
Of Des Molnes
River.
A DELTA RICH AS EGYPT
suena Vista Was Important suburban
Village TO Gate City Of Church.
vile, Once Most I'M
portant Town.


vile, Once Most I'm
portant Town.
| The delta OF the Des Moines river
the Indians who hunted and 6shed
there before Marquette arrived as the
/ first white man to see 1t, to the mod
ern farmers who took lawsuit about
/ it to the supreme court of the United
States.
| The mouths of the Des MOines, like
those Of the Nile, enclose some of the
richest land in the world, and are Dor
dered by soil Of literally inexhaust-
ible fertility.
Once, Alexandria, then called
Churchville. was the metropolis OF
the upper Mississippi river, and the
T. p. and w. railroad went to War
saw to cross the Mississippi on
bridge to Alexandr1a and the west
Buena Vista, just above the mouth
iof the Des Moines, was then real
town and had considerable import
ance because of its position on the
map Today, it is the name for 2
community, church and q school
house.
Jasper Blines, In . series Of his
torical articles In the Kahoka Ga
izette-Herald, writes this week about
that territory and the movements OF
the lower Des Moines river as fol-
lows:
In Old ChurchviIIe.
When the new people came to the
river line of east Clark county. they
encountered difficulties in securing
safe foundation. The bank Of the
mercy of the big waterway. which
moved down the long curve all the
way from the Keokuk bluffs down to
the county line and farther south
The landing at the eastern and
chief town was not easy for the great
steamers laden with freight and hun
dreds Of passengers seeking lands
and homes in northeast Missouri and
southeast Iowa.
Old Churchville abounded In rich
soil, ample water, trees. vines and
wild life to suit steamboat men,
farmers, adventures, fishermen,
hunters, trappers. poets. naturalists,
and others of romantic fancy. Even
John Audubon or James Wilson, i
naturalists, would have been pleased
with the primitive conditions and
freedom of the Churchville and |
Buena Vista paradises.
Early River Improvement.
As emigration increased here, the
Impression came to some of the lead
ing citizens of the town, that the bank
of the river needed Improvement, for
it appeared plain that Churchyille
was naturally the gate city of the
county, and that the splendor OF Its
famous post of entry, and the rivers
and rich lands of the valleys all COM
bned to guarantee pre-eminence and
the quality of endurance to the town
and country
The north line Of the location
for the town continued to
be pressed severely and threatened at
all times by the pressure of the Des
Moines whose delta outlets were of
three important channels. The siege
Of this waterway has ever been per-
sistent, especially severe from Buna
Vista down through the Bishop Island
lands. Thus Main street and other ,
angle streets of north Alexandria
were constantly subjected by severe !
erosion of their banks.
When the Gorge Formed. /,
This continued in some degrees for
half a century and then came the !.
great attack in the spring of 1881, :
when a gorge north OF town confined !.
he Des Moines and forced a channel =
IN it's west bank. This attack found :
he bank unprotected by wing dams
,r revetment, and Main street was !,
almost washed away, with the old :
Planters hotel and some business
houses and private dwellings.
But Churchville had continued to =
crow, even if the flood poet Of 1851
lumorously said that the great big
own of Churchville is bound to wash r
way. David Lapsley said to the
writer that Ben Stanley wrote the =
lighwater poetry of that fateful year :
# the food which held possession of :
Ill the valley from the Mississippi =
vest to the sand terrace. Observe
hat the great valley of the COM
lined Des Moines and Mississippi
ion from high water invasion in y
S51. s
Alexandrians Were Enterprising.
The big rivers enjoyed unlimited
reedom of all those square miles of =
alley lands of Des Moines, Vernon y
nd Clay townships, now included in n
he Des Moines and Mississippi 1evee :,
istrict No. 1, a territory including =
ONE eleven hundred thousand acres, n
ituated between the Des Molnes 9,
liver on the north and the Fox river +,
n the south, and extending from the a
Mississippi west to the sand terrace.
The original levee erected to pro- v
ect this valley was due to the or
anization of the company of land =
wners and business men of Alex
ndria, who formed into a chartered :