In force Feb.[February] 12, 1835.
Commissioners appointed to ascertain said line.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That William Wetherford of Morgan county, and Henry Riggin of Sangamon, and John K. Felts of Macoupin county, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to ascertain, designate[,] and permanently establish the county line between the counties of Morgan and Sangamon.
When and where to meet.
Sec. 2. Said commissioners, or a majority of them, at some day before the first of June next,
shall meet at Cooke and Eastman’s mill, and after having been sworn by some justice of the peace of either Morgan or Sangamon county, shall proceed to ascertain, designate[,] and establish the county line between said counties, beginning at the south east
corner of township twelve north, of range eight west, of the third principal meridian,2 and running thence in a northerly direction between the waters of Apple creek, Mauvais Terre, and Indian creek on the left,3 and the waters of the Sangamon river, on the right,4 until they strike the middle of range eight west; it shall be the duty of said
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commissioners to plant and fix suitable stones at least every mile from the place
of beginning to the place of termination.5Shall make reports.
Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of said commissioners to make three reports, and maps and copies
of the field notes of the survey, one of which they shall send to the Secretary of
State, to be by him filed and preserved in his office, and one shall be sent to the
county commissioners’ court of each of the counties of Morgan and Sangamon, and shall be by them recorded at length on the records of said courts, and filed
and preserved, and the line agreed on by the said commissioners, shall forever thereafter
be the county line between the said counties.6
May employ a surveyor.
Compensation.
Sec. 4. Said commissioners may employ a surveyor, and such other hands as may be necessary
to carry into effect the foregoing provisions of this act; and it shall be the duty
of the county commissioners’ courts of Morgan and Sangamon to allow to said commissioners two dollars for each day they shall be necessarily employed
in performing the duties enjoined upon them by this act; also, to said surveyor three
dollars7 for each day he may be employed, and one dollar for each hand necessarily employed.
The expenses to be paid equally by the counties of Morgan and Sangamon.
Approved, Feb. 12, 1835.
1Newton Cloud introduced HB 173 in the House of Representatives on January 28, 1835. The House referred it to a select committee that included Abraham Lincoln. The select committee reported back the bill on January 30 with an amendment, in
which the House concurred. The House referred the bill and amendment to a second
select committee. The committee reported back the bill on January 31 without amendment.
The House passed the bill as amended on February 2. On February 3, the Senate first tabled the bill, then later amended it, and then passed the bill as amended
on February 9. The House concurred with the Senate amendments on February 11. On
February 12, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 307, 415-16, 450, 454, 470, 514, 533, 548, 555; Illinois
Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 1st sess., 404, 414-15, 417-18, 470, 500, 509, 515.
2This published act erroneously established the beginning point of the survey at the
southeast corner of Township 12 North, Range 8 West (six miles south in northern Macoupin
County), instead of the southeast corner of Township 13 North, Range 8 West (as specified
in the bill), which was the southeastern corner of Morgan County and the southwestern corner
of Sangamon County. This error led the Tenth General Assembly to adopt a resolution to republish a corrected version of this act.
4Spring Creek, Lick Creek, and Sugar Creek flow eastward and northward in Sangamon County into the Sangamon River.
5The boundary between Morgan County and Sangamon County reached the middle of Range 8 West approximately four miles west of New Berlin. The total distance of the boundary that the commissioners were to review and establish
was approximately thirteen miles. The total length of the boundary between Morgan
and Sangamon counties at the time was approximately forty miles. From April 14 through
17, 1835, the commissioners completed their task and set stone pillars in place one
mile apart.
History of Morgan County, Illinois (Chicago: Donnelley, Loyd and Co., Publishers, 1878), 256.
Printed Document, 2 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Ninth General Assembly, at their First Session (Vandalia, IL:
J. Y. Sawyer, 1835), 62-63, GA Session: 9-1