The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗On June 1, 1872, Anson Calkins laid out the village of Alpha. Alpha was created as a railroad town and replaced the town of Oxford, which was located about three miles west of current day Alpha. It was located at the junction between two lines of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, and a since-razed depot was located at the junction. The north–south branch between Galesburg and Savanna crossed an east–west branch between Galva and New Boston. The east–west line has been abandoned and the north–south line is in operation as the BNSF Barstow Subdivision. The village was named Alpha (the first letter of the Greek alphabet), because Calkins believed it to be the beginnings of a great city. It was incorporated on January 11, 1895.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Alpha’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Alpha’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Alpha, decade by decade
2000
Nothing in Alpha is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Alpha has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Lind, Jenny, Chapel in Andover, 8.1 miles away.
Alpha and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
When neighbors add old photos, retakes from the same spot appear here side by side.
Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (3). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.