Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 18th February 1837

AN ACT to establish a State road from Danville to Ottawa.
1

Commissioners appointed

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Owen West and John Manning, of Vermilion county, and Fairchild Weed, of McLean county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view and locate a road from Danville, in Vermilion county, to Ottawa, in La Salle county; said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Danville on some day between the first day of May and September next, and proceed to survey, mark, and locate said road upon the best and most eligible route from Danville to Ottawa as aforesaid.

Make plat of road

Sec. 2. When said road passes through a prairie country, said commissioners shall cause to be erected suitable posts within one half mile of each other, and shall return to the county commissioners court of each county, through which said road passes, a plat of said road, designating therein the courses and distances, which said survey and plat shall be filed in the office of the clerk of said court.

Compensation.

Sec. 3. The said road, when thus located, shall be a State road,2 and shall be opened and kept in repair as other State roads are. Said commissioners shall receive each two dollars per day for every day’s service in marking, surveying and locating said road, which said fee shall be paid in equal proportion by the county commissioners’ courts of the several counties through which said road shall pass.

Sec. 4. That an act to locate a road from Danville to Ottawa, approved January 18th, 1836, be and the same is hereby repealed.

Approved 18th February, 1837.

1On December 31, 1836, John H. Murphy in the House of Representatives presented the petition of several citizens of Vermilion County, requesting a state road. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Murphy of the select committee introduced HB 70 in the House on January 5, 1837. On January 20, the House referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on January 30 with an amendment, in which the House concurred. On February 8, the House passed the bill as amended. On February 11, the Senate passed the bill. On February 18, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 149, 176, 315, 426, 602, 606, 612, 639; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess.,377, 391, 394, 432, 448.

2State 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.