Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 15th Feb.[February] 1837

AN ACT vacating a part of a State road therein named.
1

Road vacated

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That so much of the State road leading from Springfield to Alton, as lies between Oliver Foster’s and Wood river Bridge, in Madison county,2 be and the same is hereby vacated.3

County road declared to be a State road

Sec. 2. That the county road, located and opened between the same points, is hereby declared a State road, and shall be opened of the same width, and kept in repair as other State roads are; and the county surveyor of Madison county is hereby required to cause the necessary alteration to be made in the plat of said road.

Sec. 3. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved 15th February, 1837.

1On January 5, 1837, Robert Smith in the House of Representatives presented the petition of citizens of Madison County, requesting alteration of a certain state road. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, John Hogan of the select committee introduced HB 153 in the House on January 27. The House passed the bill on February 2. The Senate passed the bill on February 11. On February 15, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 174-75, 408, 455, 556, 571, 605; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 348, 374, 387, 396, 400-401.

2Located northeast of Alton, north of the village of Fostersburg, moving east to the Wood River.
W. T. Norton, ed., Centennial History of Madison County, Illinois (Chicago and New York: Lewis, 1912), 1:512; “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.

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.