In force, 1st March, 1837.
Commissioners to view and locate State road
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Levi Williams of Hancock county, James Willard of Adams county, and Allen Persinger of Schuyler county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners, to view, mark and locate a State
road2 from Meredocia in Morgan county, thence to Warsaw in Hancock county.
To take an oath.
To locate a road.
To make return and filed in clerk’s office.
Deemed a State road.
Sec. 2. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Meredocia on the first Monday of April next, or within three months thereafter, and after being sworn before some justice of the peace, faithfully to discharge the
duties required by this act, shall proceed to view, mark, and locate said road from point to point, as directed by the first section of this
act, upon the nearest and best route, avoiding, as much as practicable, any injury
to improvements and private property on said route, and make and return to the county commissioners court of each county through which said road shall pass, a certified report of said road,
describing as nearly as practicable the route and distance of said road, which shall
be filed with the several clerks of the county commissioners courts through which said road shall pass, within three months after said road is or shall
have been located, and said road when so located, shall be deemed a State road and kept in repair as
other State roads are.
Compensation of commissioners.
Sec. 3. The county commissioners courts of each coun-
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ty through which said road may pass, shall, in their discretion, allow to said commissioners
appointed under this act, a reasonable compensation, for each day necessarily employed by them in the discharge
of the duties assigned them by this act, to be paid out of the county treasuries of
each county through which said road shall be located, in proportion to the extent
of said road therein.
Commissioners may cause road surveyed, &c.[etc.]
Sec. 4. The county commissioners’ courts of the counties through which said road may pass, may, if they think proper, cause
said commissioners appointed by this act, to have said road surveyed and plats thereof to be filed in the clerks office of
the county commissioners courts of each county through which said road may pass, the expenses thereof to be paid
in the manner and proportion as provided by the third section of this act.
Approved, 1st March, 1837.
1On January 16, 1837, Mark Aldrich in the House of Representatives presented a petition of various citizens of Hancock County, requesting a state road. The House referred the petition to a select committee.
In response to this petition, Aldrich of the select committee introduced HB 156 in the House on January 30. On February 8, the House passed the bill. On February
10, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the
bill on February 14 with an amendment, in which the Senate concurred. On February
15, the Senate passed the bill as amended. On February 27, the House concurred with
the Senate amendment. On March 1, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 265, 426, 519, 602, 722, 727, 760, 795; Illinois Senate
Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 377, 391, 413, 432, 536, 555, 566.
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.
Printed Document, 2 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Tenth General Assembly (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1837), 272-73, GA Session: 10-1