Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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Sec[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the [state] of Illinois; represented in the General [Ass]embly: That any person or persons, [who] shall hereafter find any lost goods, moneys, Bank notes, or other choses in action of [any] description whatsoever of the value of five [dollars?] and upwards, it shall be the duty of such [person?] or persons to inform the owner thereof if known, and to make restitution thereof without [receiving?] any compensation except the same shall be voluntarily given by the owner, but if [the] owner be unknown, such person or [persons?] finding as aforesaid, shall within five [days?] after such finding, take such money, [bank] notes, goods or other [choses?] in [action before?] some Justice of the peace of the [proper?] [?] make affidavit of the description [?] time and place of finding, and [that?] [?] has been made of the thing thus found [since?] [?] finding: Whereupon the said Justice shall [?] a description of the property or money thus [relative] to him, and the value of the same as [near as?] may be asscertained in his Estray Book, [together?] with the affidavit of the finder, to be taken [as?] aforesaid, and shall also within ten days after the said proceedings shall have been entered on his Estray Book as aforesaid, shall [commit?] to the clerk of the county commissioner’s court, a certified copy thereof, to be by him recorded in his Estray Book, kept for that purpose, and the original certified copy to be filed in said clerks office.

Sec. 2.

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Sec 2. In all cases where such lost goods, [moneys?], Bank notes or other [choses?] in action shall exceed the sum of fifteen dollars in [value] it shall be the duty of the finder, to [advertise] the same on the door of the courthouse county clerks office, and three other of [the] most public places in the county; and if no person shall appear to claim and [prove] such goods, money, Bank notes or other [choses?] in action, within twelve months from [the] time of such advertisements, the right to property, whether the same shall [consist in?] money, Bank notes, or goods shall be [vested in?] the finder; but if the value thereof, shall [exceed?] the sum of fifteen dollars, it shall be the duty of the Clerk of the County [Commissioners?] Court, within [twenty days from?] the time of the reception of the [Justice’s said certificate?] at his office, to cause [an advertisement] to be set up on the courthouse door [of the] County Clerks office, and in three other [of] the most public places in the county, [and?] also a notice thereof to be published for [three?] weeks successively in some public newspaper printed in this state; and if the said [money?], Bank notes, goods or other [choses?] in [action?] be not claimed within six months after [the] advertisement thereof as aforesaid, it [shall] be the duty of the finder, if the property shall consist in money or Bank notes, [to?] deliver the same to the county [Treasurer] after deducting the necessary [expenses] provided for in the act to which [this is an?]

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amendment, if in the Bonds, Bills, Notes [of?] hand, patents, deeds of conveyance, [articles] of apprenticeship, mortgages or [other?] instruments of writing of value, the same shall be delivered to the clerk of the [county?] commissioners court, to be preserved [in?] his Office for the benefit of the [owner?] whenever legal application shall be made therefor; if in goods, wares, notes or merchandize, the same shall be delivered to the [sheriff?] of the County, who shall proceed to sell the same at public auction, to the highest bidder, for ready money, having first [given] ten days notice of the time and place [of?] such sale; and the proceeds of all such [sales] after deducting the costs and charges, shall be paid into the county [Treasury?] . . .

Sec 3. All horses, geldings, mares, colts, asses or mules that may be taken up agreeably to the act to which this is an amendment, shall be taken up between the first day of November, and the first day of May, and at no other time, unless the same be a work beast, and manifestly straying away from the owner.

Sec 4. If any person shall take up any Boat or vessel, or any stray beast of any kind, or find any lost goods, money, Bank notes or other choses in action and shall fail to comply with the requisitions of this act, or of the act to which this is an amendment; every such person so offending, shall forfeit and pay the sum of fifty dollars, to be recovered before any [Justice?] of the peace of the proper county, by any person

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person who may sue for the same, one half shall be for the use of the person sueing, and the other half to be paid into the county treasury for the use of the county. Provided that nothing herein contained, shall prevent the owner from having and maintaining his or her action against such person, for the recovery of any damages, he or she may sustain.

Sec 5. The clerk of the County Commissioners [Court] shall not be required to cause a copy of [the] description of any neat cattle, sheep, [?] goat, to be affixed on the door of the [courthouse?], unless the value shall exceed the [sum] of five dollars: all persons taking up any horse, mare, colt, [?] deposite with the Clerk, a [?] to pay the postage on the Estray papers.

Sec 6. All estrays that are required to be sold [?] the fourth section of the act to which [this] is an amendment, shall be sold to the highest bidder on a credit of nine [months?] the purchaser giving bond with security [to be?] approved by the Justice selling the same [?] which bond shall be taken, in the [name of?] the County Commissioners Court, for [the?] use of the County, and filed with the [clerk?] of said Court until due; any other [law to?] the Contrary notwithstanding.

Sec 7. That if any animal or animals [shall?] stray away from any person who has [?] such estrays, and be taken up and [?]

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by a second person, the first taken up [shall?] have all the rights of the original [?] to prove and take such estray or estrays paying the costs and expences that [?] original owner would be by law, required to pay; and if the original owner [shall] apply, for any such estray or estrays, he [shall] be bound to pay all expences of [posting?] such estrays2

[ certification ]
01/11/[1836]
Prickett, David (Pricket)

Passed H. R. Jan. 11^th [1836]
D. Prickett clk[clerk]. H [R]

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[ docketing ]
H. R.
A Bill for an act to amend an act entitled an Act Concerning Estrays, Approved 9^th Feb[February] 1835

[ docketing ]
[01]/[16]/[1836]
Prickett, David (Pricket)

to be enrolled
Clk. H. R.

[ docketing ]
[01]/[07]/[1836]
Engrossed

1John D. Hughes introduced HB 16 in the House of Representatives on December 14, 1835. On December 15, the House referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on December 18 with amendments, and the House referred the bill and proposed amendments to a five-person select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on January 7 1836, with an amendment, in which the House concurred. On January 11, 1836, the House tabled the bill. The House later took up the bill and passed it. The Senate concurred on January 15. The Senate and House journals report no action by the Council of Revision, and the bill did not become law.
Illinois House Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 25, 61, 68, 84-85, 250, 273-74, 278, 347; Illinois Senate Journal. 1835. 9th G. A., 2nd sess., 219, 262-63.

2An estray is any domestic animal found wandering, whose ownership is unknown; the term also applies to water craft found adrift. Settlers only slowly brought the Illinois prairies stretching through the central third of the state under cultivation, and the sparse timber made the erection of extensive wooden fences impractical. Farmers commonly turned livestock loose to graze freely on the prairies in mild weather, thus requiring rules for how and when loose animals could be claimed and by whom. Open-range methods of livestock raising were common into the 1850s and in some areas continued into the 1870s, when the advent of inexpensive, durable barbed wire made possible the fencing of large tracts of grazing land.
Henry Campbell Black, ed., Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th ed., (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1990), 552; Paul C. Henlein, Cattle Kingdom in the Ohio Valley, 1783-1860 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1959), 19, 62-64; Allan G. Bogue, From Prairie to Corn Belt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), 73-79, 140.