Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 28th Feb.[February] 1837

AN ACT to re-locate certain roads therein named.
1

Commissioners appointed

Their duty.

When and where to meet

To take an oath

Commissioners to certify a map of said road
Road to be opened and kept in repair

Commissioners compensation

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That David Baldridge, Joseph Craig, and Benjamin Raglin, of Perry county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark and re-locate so much of the state road,2 as now laid out from Pinckneyville to Lively’s ferry,3 as lies between Pinckneyville and James Coulter’s in the Grand Coat Prairie, in Perry county;4 Said commissioners shall meet at Pinckneyville, on the first Monday in June next, or within three months thereafter, and after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace, faithfully to perform the duties enjoined upon them by this act, shall proceed to re-locate and review so much of said road as herein specified, and shall mark the same by blazes on the trees in timbered land, and by setting stakes in the prairie; and should it not be deemed proper by said commissioners to intersect the road as now laid out at the farm of the said James Coulter’s, they are hereby authorized to view, mark, and locate said road, so as to intersect the said road as now laid out at some point within two miles thereof; they shall certify to the said county commissioners’ court a map of said road, when so located, and the said court shall cause the same to be opened and kept in repair as other state roads are, and all of said road, lying on different ground from the said road so laid out within said limits, be and the same is hereby vacated; and the said court shall pay said commissioners a reasonable compensation for their services.

Sec. 2. So much of the state road, leading from Shawneetown to Kaskaskia, as lies in Perry county between the south east corner of section fourteen in township six south of range three west, and Forgus Milikin’s residence in section fifteen, in said township and range,5 be and the same is hereby changed, and the same is hereby located, so as to run on the east and west section line, between said points, and from thence to intersect said road at the most eligible point on the present location of said road, and the said road, so located, shall be opened and kept in repair as other state roads.

Approved, 28th February, 1837.

1On February 11, 1837, Richard G. Murphy introduced HB 229, originally titled “A Bill to Re-Locate Certain Roads Therein Named in Perry County,” in the House of Representatives. The House passed the bill on February 21, amending the title by striking out the words “in Perry County.” The Senate passed the bill on February 27. On February 28, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 56-57, 651, 731, 766; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 471, 522, 531.

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.

3Located on the Kaskaskia River in St. Clair County.
History of St. Clair County, Illinois (Philadelphia: Brink, McDonough, 1881), 262; “An Act Authorizing the Laying out and Establishing of Certain Roads Therein Named,” 15 February 1831, The Laws of Illinois (1831), 155.

4Coulter’s farm was actually in the northeastern portion of Randolph County, on the border with Perry County.
Illinois Public Domain Land Tract Sales, Randolph County, 31:6, 8, 54, 72, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL.

5Located northwest of Pinckneyville.
“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.