Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 25th Feb.[February] 1837

AN ACT declaring the road from Knoxville to Stephenson a State road.
1

County road declared state road.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly,2 That so much of the county road leading from Knoxville to Stephenson as lies in Knox county, is hereby declared a State [road].3

Commissioners appointed

Sec. 2. Isaac Miller and Hugh Montgomery of Mer[cer] county, and Joseph Conway of Rock Island county, be, and the same are hereby appointed commissioners to view[,] mark, and locate a state road, commencing at the termination of the Knoxville road, near Pope’s Creek, thence to the nearest and best route to Stephenson in Rock Island county, having a due regard to private property as well as the public good.

Shall meet at.
Time of meeting.

Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of said commissioners or a majority of them, to meet at Stephenson on the first Monday of June next, or within six months thereafter, and after having been duly sworn before some justice of the peace faithfully and impartially to execute the duties required of them by this act, to proceed to mark, survey and locate said road, and make return thereof to the county

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commissioners court of Mercer and Rock Island counties, on or before the first Monday in December next.

Compensation.

Sec. 4. The county commissioners of the counties of Mercer and Rock Island, shall allow out of their county treasury respectively, a reasonable compensation for their services in proportion to the time necessarily employed in their respective counties, and shall cause the same to be opened and kept in good repair as other roads are.

Approved 25th February, 1837.

1On January 6, 1837, William McMurtry introducedHB 85 in the House of Representatives. On January 26, the House referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on February 3 with a substitute, in which the House concurred. On February 8, the House passed the bill as substituted. On February 22, the Senate passed the bill. On February 25, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 157, 186, 401, 462, 520, 672, 694, 720; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 377, 481, 488, 514.

2On February 3, 1837, the House of Representatives replaced the original bill text with a substitute, which became the engrossed version and the basis for the text of the act below.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 462.

3State 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.