Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force January 16th, 1837

AN ACT to locate a State road from Ottawa in La Salle county, to Napersville in Cook county.
1

Commissioners appointed.

To view and survey road from Ottawa &c[etc] to Napersville.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That R. M. Sweet2 of Cook county, Isaac P. Hallock of La Salle county, and Benjamin Fridley of Kane county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, survey, mark, and locate a road from the court house in Ottawa, by Green’s mill, Wm. L. Dunavan’s, Vetal Vermit’s, Georgetown, George Hollandback’s, Wm. Harris’, Edward G. Annents, and from thence to Napersville, on the nearest and best route.

When and where to meet.

To be sworn.

Oath & duties.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners or a majority of them, shall meet on the first day of May next, or within four weeks thereafter at Napersville, and, after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace faithfully to discharge the duties required of them by this act, shall locate said road on the nearest and best route, and as soon as practicable thereafter, cause a map to be made of said road, and filed in the clerk’s offices of the county commissioners courts of the counties of La Salle, Kane, and Cook, and said road shall be kept in repair as other public roads are.3

Compensation.

Sec. 3. Said commissioners shall be allowed the sum of two dollars per day, for all the time necessarily employed in said work, together with a reasonable compensation for one surveyor, two chain carriers and one marker, which several sums shall be paid by the counties through which said road shall pass, in proportion to the extent of said road in each county.

Approved January 16, 1837.

1On December 17, 1836, William Stadden in the Senate presented a petition from citizens of LaSalle County, requesting a state road from Ottawa to Naperville. The Senate referred the petition to the Committee on Petitions. On December 21, John D. Whiteside of the Committee on Petitions reported SB 15 in the Senate. On December 23, the Senate amended the bill by striking out the name “Joseph Naper” in the first section and adding in lieu thereof the name, “R. M. Sweet. ” The Senate then passed the bill as amended. The House of Representatives passed the bill on January 9, 1837. On January 16, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 119, 135, 164, 220, 252, 255; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 69, 85, 90, 98, 180, 205, 211, 238.

2On December 23, 1836, the Senate amended the bill by striking out the name “Joseph Naper” and inserting in lieu thereof the name, “R. M. Sweet.”
Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 98.

3Though the terminology was not repeated in the bill text, the original petition requested a state road. State 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.