A Bill to Establish a State Road from Peoria to Hendersonville, [21 January 1837]1
Sec.[Section] 1 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly: That Stephen French of Peoria county, and Henry McClenahan and Wilson Brown of Knox county, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners, to view, mark and locate a State
road from Peoria in Peoria county by way of Prince’s Mill to Hendersonville in Knox county.3
Sec 2 Said commissioners shall meet at Hendersonville on the first monday in April
next, or within six months thereafter, and, after being duly sworn by some Justice
of the Peace, faithfully to perform the duties required of them by this act, shall
proceed to locate said road, on the nearest and best route, avoiding, as much as the
public convenience will permit, the injury of private property; and shall mark the
same, by blazing the timber on the timbered land, and fixing stakes on the Prarie
land.
Sec 3 Said commissioners shall make a map and report of so much of said road as lies
in Peoria county, and file the same with the Clerk of the County commissioner's court of said county; and a like map and report of so much as lies in Knox county and file
the f same with the clerk of the county commissioners court said county. The county commissioner's
courts of Peoria and Knox counties shall allow said commissioners such compensation
as they, respectively, shall deem just and reasonable
Sec 4. Said road shall be worked, and kept in repair, as other State roads are.
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A. Bill for an Act to establish a State road from Peoria to Hendersonville
A. Bill for an Act to establish a State road from Peoria to Hendersonville
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1Abraham Lincoln wrote the text of this bill as well as its title on the back page.
On January 16, 1837, William McMurtry presented to the House of Representatives a petition from citizens of Morgan, Fulton, Knox, and Peoria counties, requesting construction of a state road. The House referred
the petition to a select committee. On January 21, McMurtry on behalf of the select
committee introduced HB 140, which was authored by Abraham Lincoln. On January 25,
the House passed the bill. On February 8, the Senate passed the bill. On February 10, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 266, 317, 383-84, 515, 530, 543, 550; Illinois Senate
Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 301, 338-39, 341, 366, 373, 383-84.
2State roads were those public roads established or designated by the General Assembly
and usually crossed county lines. Only the General Assembly could establish, alter,
or abandon state roads, until 1840 and 1841, when the General Assembly gave counties
the authority to alter or to abandon state roads upon petition by a majority of voters
in the area of the change.
3The road envisioned would occupy the same route that the county commissioners court
of Peoria County had already partially laid out.
Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, ed. by David McCulloch (Chicago and Peoria: Munsell, 1902), 1:89.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Lincoln Collection, GA 10-1, HB 140, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL).