Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 1st March, 1837.

AN ACT to locate a State road from Liberty to Pinckneyville.
1

Commissioners to view, mark and locate a State road.

When and where to meet.
To be sworn.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Harvey Clendinnen of Randolph county, Richard Bradley of Jackson county, and James Crane of Perry county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark and locate a State road2 from Liberty, in Randolph county, to Pinckneyville in Perry county; said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at the town of Liberty, on the first Monday in May next, or within sixty days 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 and locate said road, by the nearest and most convenient route, taking into consideration the public convenience and the permanency of the road, doing as little injury to private property as possible.

To make report to county commissioners court.

County commissioners to open road.

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, and said report shall form a part of the records of said courts, and said road 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.

County commissioners to allow compensation.

Sec. 3. The county commissioners’ courts of the counties through which the said road may pass, shall allow to said commissioners a reasonable compensation to be paid out of the county treasuries of the counties through which said road may pass according to the time employed on the road in each county.

Approved 1st March, 1837.

1On January 11, 1837, James Shields introduced HB 112 in the House of Representatives. The House passed the bill on February 2. On February 10, the Senate passed the bill. On March 1, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 134, 234-35, 397, 455, 545, 760, 795; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 348, 370, 374, 386-387, 555.

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.