Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 24th, Feb. [February] 1837.

AN ACT to locate a State road therein named.
1

Commissioners appointed.

Shall file a plat

Shall be a state road.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That Thomas Creswell, Luther Calvin, and George Clendennen, of the county of Greene, be and they are hereby appointed said commissioners to view, lay out, locate and mark a road from Grafton, in said county, to the State road2 leading

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from Carrollton to the mouth of Apple creek, to intersect the same near Mr. Spencer’s via Camden, Teneriffe and Pittsburg, to be located on the nearest and best route, having a due regard to farms and other works of improvement; said road shall be laid out at least sixty feet wide; and it shall be the duty of the commissioners to make and file a plat of said road in the clerk’s office of the county commissioners’ court of Greene county, together with the number of days actually employed in locating said road. Said road, when so located, and the plat of the same filed in the clerk’s office of said county, shall be a State road and worked and kept in repair as such.

Time of meeting.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners shall meet on the first Monday of May next, or within three months thereafter, at some suitable place in said county, and after being duly sworn, shall proceed to locate, mark, and establish said road as set forth in the preceding section of this act.

Compensation

Sec. 3. The county commissioners’ court of Greene county shall pay said commissioners one dollar per day for their services as commissioners out of any money in the county treasury, not otherwise appropriated.

Approved 24th February, 1837.

1On February 4, 1837, Franklin Witt introduced HB 102 in the House of Representatives. On February 6, the House passed the bill. On February 22, the Senate passed the bill. On February 24, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 478, 520, 556, 586, 594, 605; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 377, 481-82, 488.

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.