Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force March 3, 1837.

AN ACT for a State road from Ottawa north to the State line.
1

Commissioners appointed to locate said road

When and where to meet

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Joseph Ross and Charles Gattin, of the county of Kane, and William Munson, of the county of LaSalle, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark, survey, and locate a State road2 from Ottawa, in LaSalle county aforesaid, in a northerly direction to the State line, by the way of the town of Munson, the east end of Sha-ba-nee’s Grove, the south timber on Sycamore, and Mr. Callum’s Point; said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at the town of Ottawa aforesaid, on the second Monday of April next, or some day thereafter, and after being duly sworn by some justice of the peace, faithfully to discharge the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to view, mark, survey, and locate said road, having a due regard to the convenience of the public, and the permanency of the road.

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Shall make a report to commissioners’ courts.

Road how opened and kept in repair.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners, within thirty days after having located said road, shall make a report in writing, to the county commissioners’ courts of the respective counties, through which said road shall pass; said report shall form a part of the records of said courts, and the same thus laid out shall be a public highway of this State, and the county commissioners’ courts of each county through which the said road may pass, shall cause the same to be opened, and kept in repair, as other State roads are required to be by law.

Compensation to several persons, how made

Sec. 3. The county commissioners’ courts of the counties through which said road shall pass, shall allow to said commissioners a surveyor and chain carriers, and others rendering service, to be paid out of their county treasuries, equally, a reasonable compensation.

Approved, March 3, 1837.

1On January 10, 1837, Henry Madden introduced HB 105 in the House of Representatives. On February 8, the House passed the bill. On February 28, the Senate passed the bill. On March 3, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 134, 396, 519, 772, 815, 829; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 377, 398-99, 556, 603.

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.