Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 28th Feb.[February] 1837

AN ACT to locate a State road from Beardstown to Mount Sterling.
1

Commissioners appointed.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Nathaniel Harris, George Harper2 and William A. Hinman be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark, survey and locate a State road3 from the Illinois river opposite Beardstown, via Mount Sterling, to intersect the State road leading from Rushville to Quincy, at a point on section 7, township 1 south, 2 west.4

Time and place of meeting at Rushville
Shall be sworn.

Shall make a true survey and map and file same in the office of clerk of commissioners court.

Sec. 2. The said commissioners shall meet on the first Monday in June next, or within two months thereafter, at Rushville, in Schuyler county, and after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace, faithfully to discharge the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to view, mark and locate said road, four poles wide, and as soon as practicable, shall make a true survey and map of said road, signed by them and file the same in the office of the county commissioners court of Schuyler county.

Shall be public highway.
Shall be opened.
Compensation.

Sec. 3. Said road, when laid out as aforesaid, shall be deemed a public highway, the county commissioners of said county shall cause the same to be opened, and be worked and kept in repair as other State roads are. The county commissioners of said county of Schuyler, may allow a reasonable compensation for their services to be paid out of the county treasury.

Approved, 28th February, 1837.

1On January 11, 1837, Stephen A. Douglas of the Committee on Pensions, to which the House of Representatives referred a petition, introduced HB 107 in the House. On February 8, the House amended the first section by striking out the name “G. W. Baker” and inserting in lieu thereof the name “George Harper”. The House then passed the bill as amended. The Senate passed the bill on February 23. On February 28, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 232, 396, 521, 686, 751, 766; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 378, 480-81, 488, 494-95, 551-52.

2On February 8, 1837, the House of Representatives amended the bill by striking out the name “G. W. Baker” and inserting in lieu thereof the name “George Harper.”
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 521.

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.

4Located in central Adams County, northwest of Quincy.
“Counties, Townships, and Ranges in Illinois,” Maps, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Reference.aspx?ref=Reference html files/LandMeasurement.html.