Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 7th February, 1837

AN ACT to locate a State road from Shelbyville, in Shelby county, via Urbanna, in Champaign county, to intersect the State road leading from Danville to Chicago.
1

Commissioners appointed to view road

Shelbyville via Urbanna &c.[etc.]

to Kankakee &c

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That George Parks of Shelby county, William Jeremiah of Champaign county, George M. Beckwith of Will county, and Jonathan Wright of Iroquois county,2 be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, survey and locate a State

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road from Shelbyville, in Shelby county, through Urbanna in Champaign county, thence to the head branch of the Vermilion river, thence along the High Prairie on the west side of Spring creek,3 thence to Plats in Iroquois county, thence down the Iroquois river to the Kankakee, and from thence to fall into the State road leading from Danville to Chicago, in the nearest and best way to Chicago.4

Time & place of meeting.

To be sworn.
Oath

Duty

When to report

Commissioners duty

Sec. 2. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Shelbyville on the first Monday of May next, or within three months thereafter, who, after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace of said county faithfully to observe the provisions of this act, shall proceed to view and locate said road, taking into consideration the local situation of the country and the public convenience, and shall fix said road on the most advantageous ground for a permanent road, and the said commissioners shall on or before the first day of September next make or cause to be made a true survey and maps of said road, signed by them in the counties respectively, through which it passes, which road, when laid out as aforesaid shall be deemed and considered a public State road, and the county commissioners courts of the counties through which said road is located shall appoint supervisors, and cause the same to be opened four poles wide, and to be worked and kept in repair as other public roads are.5

Compensation

Sec. 3. The commissioners appointed in the first section of this act, shall receive for their services a just compensation not exceeding two dollars per day out of the funds of the counties respectively in which they reside.6

Approved 7th February, 1837.

1On December 20, 1836, James H. Lyons in the House of Representatives presented the petition of citizens of Iroquois County, requesting construction of a certain state road. The House referred the petition to the Committee on Roads and Canals. In response to this petition, Newton Cloud of the Committee on Roads and Canals introduced HB 50 in the House on December 31 . On January 10, 1837, the House amended the bill by filling in the first blank in the bill with the name George Park and the second blank with the name of Jonathan Wright. On January 20, the House passed the bill as amended. On January 24, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on January 25 with an amendment, in which the Senate concurred. On January 27, the Senate passed the bill as amended. On February 3, the House concurred in the Senate amendment. On February 7, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 81, 151, 228, 312, 414, 468, 483, 505; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 267, 281, 287, 290, 311-12, 351-52.

2On January 10, 1837, the House of Representatives added Parks and Wright to the list of incorporators. On January 25, the Senate added Beckwith.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 228; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 290.

3Most likely a reference to the tributary of the Iroquois River located in Iroquois County.

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.

5One pole is the equivalent of 16.5 feet.

6The commissioners apparently did not survey, plat, and lay out this road in 1837, for the provisions of HB 50 found their way into section seventy-six of an omnibus road act passed in 1839.