Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 7th Feb.[February] 1837

AN ACT to locate a state road from Fairfield, in Adams county, to Monmouth, in Warren county.
1

Commissioners appointed to view road from Fairfield, in Adams county to Woodville, Carthage and Monmouth

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Wm. Laughlin, of Adams county, Abraham Hooper, jun., of Hancock county, and J. M. Hopper, of Warren county be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, survey, mark, and locate a State road,2 to commence at Fairfield, in Adams county; thence through Woodville, Chili, and Carthage, to La Harpe, in Hancock county; and thence to Monmouth, in Warren county, doing as little injury to private property as the public good will permit.

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Where and when to meet.

To take an oath.
Oath.

To mark road

Sec. 2. The commissioners aforesaid, or a majority of them, shall meet at Fairfield, in Adams county, on the first Monday of May next, or within six months thereafter, and before entering on the duties assigned them by this act, shall shall take an oath before some justice of the peace of said county faithfully and impartially to view, survey, mark and locate said road, keeping in view the shortness of the route and the eligibility of the ground so as to make the same a permanent road, and shall designate the course through the prairie by sticking up stakes and by marking the trees through the timber.

To make report

Sec. 3. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, so soon as they shall have completed said work, shall make out a report accompanied with a plat or map of said road, giving the courses and distances from point to point, and deliver a copy of said report and plat to the county commissioners courts of each county through which the same shall pass, which shall be filed in said courts.

Authorised employ surveyor and chain men.

Compensation

How paid

Sec. 4. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, are hereby authorised to call to their assistance a surveyor and such other help as may be necessary for the location of said road, and the county commissioners courts of each county through which the same may pass shall allow said commissioners, surveyor, and such other hands as they may employ to assist them, a sum not exceeding one dollar and fifty cents each, for every day necessarily employed in locating said road, to be paid out of the county treasury of each county according to the distance said road may pass through the same.

Approved 7th February, 1837.

1On December 29, 1836, Mark Aldrich in the House of Representatives presented the petition of numerous citizens, requesting the establishment of a state road from Quincy by way of Carthage to Monmouth. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Aldrich of the select committee introduced HB 71 in the House on January 5, 1837. On January 21, the House passed the bill. On February 3, the Senate passed the bill. On February 7, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 132, 177, 315, 322, 469, 483, 505; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 278, 298, 327, 331, 344, 351.

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.