Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force. 7th February 1837

AN ACT to locate a certain State Road.
1

Commissioners appointed

Duty.

When and where to meet.

To be sworn. Oath.

Duty.

To make report

To be deemed a state road.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That David Thompson, Elliot Kinney, George Webb and John Taylor are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark and locate a road from French creek bridge, in White County, to a point on Bon Pas creek, near Grayson’s mill,2 where the road leading from Mount Carmel in Wabash county to Graysville in White County, stops. Said commissioners or a majority of them shall meet at French creek bridge on the first Monday in April next, or as soon thereafter as may be practicable or convenient for them, and after being sworn before some justice of the peace impartially and faithfully to locate said road, shall proceed to lay out the same, on the most advantageous ground for a permanent road, taking into consideration the situation of the country, and the public convenience: the said commissioners shall, as soon as may be, make and cause true maps and surveys of said road, signed by themselves, to be lodged in the county commissioners’ courts, through which said road passes: and the said courts shall cause the same to be opened at least four poles wide;3 and the said road when so laid out and opened shall be deemed a State road, and shall be kept in repair as other State roads are.4

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

Approved 7th February, 1837.

1Edwin B. Webb introduced HB 74 in the House of Representatives on January 5, 1837. The House passed the bill on January 21. The Senate passed the bill on February 2. On February 7, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 178, 315, 322, 483, 505, 605; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 278, 298, 327, 335, 351.

2Most likely reference to a water mill established in 1830 and operated by John Grayson.
Donald Zochert, “Illinois Water Mills, 1790-1818” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 65 (Summer 1972): 188.

3A pole is the equivalent of 16.5 feet.

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.