Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Jan.[January] 13, 1836.

AN ACT to re-locate and establish a State Road from Paris, in Edgar county, to Grandview.
1

Commissioners appointed to locate road.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Henry G. Smith, George Moke and James Scott, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners, to view, and re-locate that part of the state road leading from Paris to Grandview, Edgar county.

Where and when to meet.

To be sworn.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners shall meet in Paris, on or before the first Wednesday in June next, and after being sworn by some justice of the peace, impartially to locate the same, they shall commence on the south end of Main street, in the town of Paris, and run thence on a straight line, as near as the nature of the ground will admit, to the north-east corner of section number sixteen, in township thirteen north, of range twelve west2; thence to the mouth of Bennett Redmond’s lane; thence to the causeway north of Greenberry Redmond’s old blacksmith shop; thence to Grandview, as the Vandalia road now runs.

File a map.

Compensation.

Sec. 3. Said commissioners shall, within twenty days after the location of said road, cause a true survey, or map of the same, to be lodged with the clerk of the county commissioners’ court, of Edgar county: and the said road shall be, and is hereby declared a state road, and shall be opened and kept in repair, as other state roads are: and the county commissioners’ court of Edgar county, shall allow said reviewers one dollar and fifty cents per day, for their services.3

Approved, Jan. 13, 1836.

1On December 9, 1835, Nelson W. Nunnally in the House of Representatives presented the petition of citizens of Edgar County, requesting relocation of the state road from Paris to Grandview. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Nunnally from the select committee introduced HB 5 in the House on December 12. The House passed the bill on December 21. On January 8, 1836, the Senate amended the bill by changing the word “west” to “east,” and passed the bill as amended. On January 11, the House concurred with the amendment of the Senate. On January 13, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 27, 37, 67, 114, 259, 280, 302, 309, 320; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 89, 93, 168, 187, 213, 230, 236.

2Township 13 north of Range 12, east of the 2nd Principal Meridian lies in Edgar County.

3State 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.
An Act concerning Public Roads, sec. 9; An Act Authorizing Commissioners’ Courts to Alter, Change, and Relocate State Roads; An Act concerning Public Roads.