Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 3d March, 1837

AN ACT to locate a state road from Grafton to Wood river.
1

Commissioners appointed.

Their duty.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That J. M. Herd and John Hanell, of the county of Green, and James Webb, of the county of Madison be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark out and locate a state road from the Mississippi river, in the county of Green, to Wood river, in such manner as to meet and fall in with the road from Vandalia to Alton, where said road crosses or will cross said river, commencing said road upon the Mississippi river as near the middle of the sixteenth section, town six north, twelve west, as possible, and from thence running in as short and direct a manner as may be convenient to said termination upon Wood river, where the road from Vandalia to Alton crosses, or such other place as said commissioners may think proper, doing as little injury to private property as a due regard of pnblic good will permit.2

Time and place of meeting.

Shall be sworn
Oath

Sec. 2. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Grafton on the first day of September next, or within sixty days thereafter, and after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace, well and truly to perform the duties required of them by this act, according to the best of their skill and ability, they shall proceed to view, mark, and lay out said road, agreeably to the provisions of the first section of this act.

To make maps or plats

To be filed and where

Duty of county commissioners

To be a public road

Sec. 3. As soon as said road is located, said commissioners shall make out two complete maps or plats of said road so viewed, marked out and located by them, and after certifying the correctness of said maps or plats, shall deposite

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one of them with the clerk of the county commissioners’ court of Green county, and the other with the clerk of the county commissioners’ court of Madison county, and the clerks aforesaid shall cause said plat or survey to be laid before the county commissioners’ courts of their respective counties, at the first session of said courts, after the reception of said plats by the clerks aforesaid. And the said commissioners shall cause an entry to be made thereof on their records; and the said road so located is hereby declared a public road. The county commissioners of said counties shall cause said road to be opened at least three rods wide, and kept in repair in the same manner as other public roads by law are required to be.

Compensation.

Sec. 4. The said commissioners and their necessary attendants shall receive such compensation for their services out of their respective county treasuries as the county commissioners of said county may deem reasonable to and allow.3

Approved 3d March, 1837.

1On January 27, 1837, Franklin Witt introduced HB 149 in the House of Representatives. On February 21, following amendment by a select committee, and re-examination without further amendment by a second committee, the House passed the bill and referred it to the Senate. On February 28, the Senate passed the bill without amendment. On March 3, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 406, 526, 583, 652-53, 658, 772, 816, 829; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 476, 538, 558, 604.

2The route described here began approximately three miles west of Grafton and ended near Alton, where the Wood River meets the Mississippi River.

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.