Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 4th March, 1837.

AN ACT to locate a State road from Vandalia to Springfield.
1

Commissioners to view, survey and locate road

Where and when to meet

to take an oath

To make return to county commissioners.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That James Stokes of Fayette county, William Cottingham of Montgomery county, and John Whitecraft of Sangamon county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, survey and locate a State road2 from Vandalia, in Fayette county, to the town of Edinburgh, in Sangamon county, running the nearest and best route from point to point; and said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet in the town of Vandalia on the first Monday in May next, or within one month thereafter, and after taking an oath to perform the duties thereof, shall proceed to survey, mark and locate said road; and where said road shall

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pass through prairies, said commissioners shall cause to be set suitable posts for every half mile, and shall return to the county commissioners’ courts of each county through which said road shall pass a plat of said road, designating therein the courses and distances of said road; and said survey shall be filed and preserved in said court.

Declared a State road.
Compensation of commis’rs.[commissioners]

Sec. 2. Said road, when located as aforesaid, shall be a State road, and shall be opened and kept in repair as other State roads are: said commissioners shall receive each two dollars per day for every day’s service in laying out said road, which shall be paid by the counties of Sangamon and Fayette in proportion to the distance said road shall pass through the said counties. The county of Sangamon shall pay for the marking and reviewing of said road through Montgomery county.

Commissioners to have a surveyor & chain carriers, and their compensation.

Sec. 3. That said commissioners shall have a surveyor and two chain carriers, and they shall have the same compensation as the said commissioners have, and shall be paid in like manner.

County commissioners to fill vacancies.

Proviso

Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That if any one of the aforesaid commissioners shall fail or refuse to view and make said survey and location, then it shall be the duty of the county commissioners’ court of such county or counties, to appoint some suitable persons, or one in each county, if all should fail to comply with the requisitions of this act, to survey and locate said road, and said reviewers shall perform the duties required of the commissioners appointed under this act, and shall receive the same compensation: Provided, however, That no such appointment shall take place sooner than their June term, and if the location shall not have been made, a plat of said survey deposited with the clerk of the several county commissioners’ court, then the appointment shall be made at the June term of the county commissioners’ courts.

County commissioners to appoint supervisors

Sec. 5. And it is hereby made the duty of the county commissioners’ courts, in the several counties through which said road shall pass, at their June term to appoint the necessary number of supervisors to open and keep said road in repair as other public roads are.

Commissioners to locate a part of road

Sec. 6. The commissioners, appointed by the 1st section of an act of the present session of the General Assembly, entitled “An act to re-locate a certain road therein named,” shall locate so much of the road therein provided for as lies between the towns of Springfield and Edinburgh, in Sangamon county, by the way of Rathburn’s mill in said county,3 or the vicinity thereof.

Approved 4th March, 1837.

1On February 9, 1837, Richard Bentley introduced HB 207 in the House of Representatives. On February 24, the House tabled the bill until July 4. On February 25, the House re-considered this vote and referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on February 27 with an amendment, in which the House concurred. On March 1, the House passed the bill as amended. On March 2, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on March 3 with various amendments, in which the Senate concurred. The Senate passed the bill as amended. That same day, the House approved the Senate amendments. On March 4, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 455, 529, 709, 715, 728, 782, 819, 835-36, 838, 846; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 575, 586, 600-601, 623, 626.

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.

3Rathburn’s Mill was located in what would eventually be the South Fork Township of Christian County. John Whitecraft constructed the mill.
Thelma B. Gardner, Dorothy D. Drennan, and Helen B. Broverman, Illinois Sesquicentennial Edition of Christian County History (Jacksonville, IL: Production Press, 1968), 15.