Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Jan. 31, 1837.

AN ACT authorizing the School Commissioner of the county of Cook to pay over to the Commissioner of the county of Will, her proportion of the School Funds.
1

Commissioner of School lands in Will authorized to receive monies, books, &c.[etc.] from commissioner of Cook, which may appertain to Will county, and give receipts therefor.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the Commissioner of School lands2 for the county of Will, be authorized to ask, demand, sue for and recover from the Commissioner of School lands for the county of Cook, all monies, dues, demands, books, papers, or other valuable thing, which has or may be derived from a sale of School lands, which formerly lay in the county of Cook, but now within the county of Will,3 and that the receipt of the Commissioner of the county of Will shall be a good and sufficient voucher for the Commissioner of the county of Cook.

This act to be in force from and after its passage.

Approved 31st January, 1837.

1On December 30, 1836Newton Walker introduced HB 54 in the House of Representatives. On January 20, 1837, the House passed the bill. On January 25, the Senate passed the bill. On January 31, the Council of Revision passed the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 152, 228, 312, 385, 414, 418, 440; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 267, 281, 288, 294, 313, 316.

2School lands referred to the land in each township reserved for public education. In 1818, when Congress passed the act enabling the Illinois Territory to become a state, it granted to every township in the state the proceeds of the sale of land in each township’s Section 16. This money became known as the common school fund. In 1829, the General Assembly enacted legislation authorizing and governing the sale of school lands. The General Assembly revised this law in 1831.
“An Act to Enable the People of the Illinois Territory to Form a Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of Such State into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States,” 18 April 1818, Statutes at Large of the United States, 3:428-31; W. L. Pillsbury, “Early Education in Illinois,” in Sixteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1886), 106-07; “An Act Authorizing the Sale of Sections Numbered Sixteen, or Such Land as May be Granted, in Lieu Thereof, to the Inhabitants of Such Townships, for the Use of Schools,” 22 January 1829, Revised Code of Laws, of Illinois (1829), 150-54; “An Act to Amend an Act, Entitled ‘An Act Authorizing the Sale of Sections Numbered Sixteen, or Such Land as May be Granted in Lieu Thereof to the Inhabitants of Such Townships, for the Use of Schools, Approved Jan. 22, 1829,’” 15 February 1831, Laws of Illinois (1831), 172-76.

3In January 1836, the General Assembly created Will County from portions of Cook and Iroquois Counties.