Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force March 2, 1837.

AN ACT to locate a State road from Darwin to New Richmond in Clark county.
1

Commissioners appointed to view road from Darwin to New Richmond,

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Clark Nicholls, James C. Hilibert, and Isaac P. Dougherty be, and the same are hereby appointed commissioners to view and locate a state road2 from the town of Darwin in Clark county, to New Richmond in the same county.

When and where to meet

To be sworn
Oath.
Duty

Sec. 2. Said commissioners or a majority of them, shall meet at the said town of Darwin on the first Monday of March next, or within ninety days thereafter, and after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace of said county, faithfully and impartially to discharge the duties of such commissioners as by this act directed, shall proceed to survey, mark, and locate said road, beginning at the town of Darwin aforesaid, thence to Auburn and New Richmond on the best and most practicable route.

To mark trees and set up stakes.
To set up mile posts.

Sec. 3. Said commissioners shall blaze trees through the timbered land, and set up stakes on said route where the same runs through the Prairie, and at the termination of each mile, shall set up a post or stone marking thereon the number of miles from the place of beginning.

Width of road and a state road

Sec. 4. Said road shall be laid out four poles wide, and shall be opened and kept in repair as other state roads.

<Page 2>

To make a map and notes and file the same.

Compensation

Sec. 5. The said commissioners shall within ten days after completing such survey as aforesaid, cause a map or plat of said road, with its courses and distances, to be filed in the office of the clerk of the county commissioner’s court of Clark county, and the county commissioner’s court of said county shall allow said commissioners such compensation as shall be just and equitable, for their trouble and expenses.

Approved March 2, 1837.

1On January 5, 1837, William B. Marrs in the House of Representatives presented the petition of citizens of Clark County, requesting a state road. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Marrs of the select committee introduced HB 97 in the House on January 9. The House passed the bill on February 2. The Senate concurred on February 10. On March 2, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 175, 216, 397, 455, 545, 793, 806; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 348, 370, 372, 386-87, 590.

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.