Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 15th Feb. [February] 1837.

AN ACT to locate a State road therein named.
1

Commissioners appointed.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That John S. Moore, John Johnson, and Joseph B. Eastburn be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark and locate a State road as hereinafter provided.

When and where to meet.

To be sworn.

Duty

Sec. 2. Said commissioners, or any two of them, shall meet at the residence of Isaac Courtright, in Iroquois county, on the first Monday of May next, or within one month thereafter, and after having been first duly sworn by some justice of the peace of said county of Iroquois, shall proceed to view, mark, and locate a state road,2 commencing at the State line at some eligible point in a direction from the town of La Fayette, in Indiana, to the town of Ottawa in LaSalle county, in this State.

Further duty

sec. 3. Said commissioners shall run said road from the place of beginning to the county seat of Iroquois county, thence to the town of Plato, thence to the town of Ottawa in La Salle county; said commissioners in the location of said road shall have due regard to private property, as well as the permanency and public utility of said road.

Road to be marked

sec. 4. The commissioners shall mark the location of said road by chops on the trees through the timber, and by setting stakes in the ground through the prairie.

To make report & where to be filed

Duty of clerks

sec. 5. Said commissioners shall, after locating said road provided for in this act, make out written returns of their acts and doings in the location of the said road, a copy of which shall be returned to each of the clerks of the county commissioners’ courts of the several counties through which the road passes: said return being signed by the said commissioners and returned as aforesaid, the clerks of the county commissioners’ courts shall make record of the same.

Duty of county commissioners to open said road

Sec. 6. The county commissioners of the several counties through which said road passes shall cause said road to be opened, worked and kept in repair as other state roads are.

Compensation

How paid

Sec. 7. The county commissioners’ courts of the several counties through which the road passes shall allow to said road commissioners a reasonable compensation for their services, to be paid out of the county treasuries of the counties through which the road passes, in proportion to the distance that the road runs through each of said counties.

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

Approved 15th February, 1837.

1On January 10, 1837, William McMurtry introduced HB 90 in the House of Representatives. On February 2, the House passed the bill. On February 11, the Senate passed the bill. On February 15, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 224, 455, 673, 678, 695; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 348, 371, 383.

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.