Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 31st Jan. 1837.

AN ACT to locate a state road from Shokokon, in Warren county, to Rushville, in Schuyler county.
1

Commissioners appointed to view road from Shokoken to La Harpe, then at or near J. Hewitts.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Joel Huston, jun., of Warren county, David Greenleaf, of Hancock county,2 and John Hardystee, of McDonough county be, and they are hereby, appointed commissioners to view, survey, mark and locate a state road from Shokokon, in Warren county, on the nearest and best route to La Harpe, in Hancock county, and from thence on the nearest and best route until it intersects the Rushville and Fountain Green State road at or near Samuel Hants’,3 in McDonough county, having in view its permanency and doing as little injury to private property as the public good will permit.4

Time and place of meeting.

Shall be sworn
Oath
Duties.

Return a copy of report to clerk of county com. court of each county through which it passes.
Declared a State road

Sec. 2. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Shokoken on the first Monday of April next, or within three months thereafter, and after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace, well and truly to perform the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to view, survey, mark, and locate said road, designating the route by setting stakes in the prairie and mark on the trees in the timber, and shall make a report of the location of said road, giving the most noted points thereon, and return a copy of said report to the clerk of the county commissioners court of each of said counties through which the said road shall pass, which shall be filed by him in his office, and said road thus laid out shall be, and is hereby, declared a public State road, and shall be opened and kept in repair in the same manner as other public roads.

Compensation.

Sec. 3. The county commissioners courts of the respective counties, shall cause to be paid to the said road commissioners and such hands as the said commissioners may find it necessary to employ in viewing, surveying, marking and locating said road such compensation out of the county treasury as they may deem reasonable, each county to bear her proportional part of the expense according to the distance said road may pass through the same.

Approved, 31st January, 1837.

1On December 27, 1836, Mark Aldrich in the House of Representatives presented the petition of various citizens, requesting construction of a certain state road. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Aldrich of the select committee introduced HB 44 in the House on December 31. On January 20, 1837, the House passed the bill. On January 23, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on January 24 with amendments, in which the Senate concurred. On January 25, the Senate passed the bill as amended, amending the title by adding the words, “to intersect the Rushville and Fountain Green state road.” On January 27, the House concurred in the Senate amendments and amended title. On January 31, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 149, 228, 312, 386, 412, 434, 440; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 267, 278-79, 283, 295, 314, 324.

2On January 24, 1837, the Senate amended the bill by adding Huston and Greenleaf as commissioners, replacing Michael Crane and Louis Chaffin.
Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 295.

3Not certain why “J. Hewitts’” is used as a point of contact in the marginal note, but “Samuel Hants’“ is used in the text. Hewitts’ is mostly like a typographical error.

4State 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.