The undersigned, your petitioners, would respectfully, represent to your Honorable Boddy that, that portion of the state of Iowa laying south west of the Desmoines River and a portion of the north East corner of the state of Missouri are allmost entirely destitute of Mail and Post Office facilities, and that some portions of these sections of our country are now densely inhabited and other portions are fast filling up with an industrious, enterprising and inteligent population, and that Nature has wisely adapted these sections of Our beautifull country ^to a cheep and rapid transmission of news [...?]^, Owing to the dryness of the roads, evenness of the face of the country and there being no considerable streems to cross, they (the streems) running parallel with the main thoroughfares of the country. We would further represent to your Hon. Boddy that owing the present lack of Mail and Post Office facilities and the arangement of the mail we are longer recieveing Inteligence on a line parallel with and south west of the Desmoines River a distance of thirty miles than we are from some of the most distant sections of the Union. For these causes and others that we

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will assign we pray your Hon. Boddy to provide by Law for a mail rout, starting at Alexandria cituated at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Desmoines Rivers in the state of Missouri ^thence^ to Fort Desmoines cituated the junction of the Raccoon fork and the Desmoines fork of the Desmoines Rivers, by the way of Wood’s Mill in vanburen Co. Io Fox Post Office. Bloomfield, Drakesville Davis Co. Io. Princeton Knoxville, thence to the end of the rout Fort Desmoines, to be transported once a week both ways your petitioners would represent that all the citizens of the south west side of the Desmoines in the state of Iowa and large portion of those of northern Mo. would receive Inteligence much more direct and at a much earlier date by this rout than any other rout now authorized by Law. For these obvious reasons, The Mississippi River the main channel through which most of the Eastern and southern news is derived by these portions of the country, remains open, free from ice and in a condition to pass boats most all of every winter below the Desmoines rapids in the Mississippi River, while above the Rapids the River is frozen over from three to four months in every winter, and in the summer season when the water is low, so low

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that Boats cannot pass the Rapids, they cause delay in the transmission of news, Another reason is, that this rout prayed for is free from any obstructions in the way of bad roads or impassable streems. While on the other hand the rout through which we now derive our news ^is obstructed by^ ^is^ Desmoines rapids in the summer, ice in the winter, Inteligence gets to Burlington and there meets with delay on account of the arrangement of the mails, delayed at various points along the way from this last mentioned cause, obstructed with bad roads across low wet flat parairies and impassable streems in conciquence of ice and high water except at particular seasons of the year. For these causes and many others that might be assigned, we pray your hono Hon. Boddy to provide by Law for the afore mentioned rout for which favor we will ever pray and be greatfull

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