Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 15th Feb. 1837

AN ACT relative to section sixteen, township seventeen north, of range nine west of the third principal meridian.
1

Preamble.

Whereas the trustees of section sixteen, in townships seventeen north, and range nine west of the third principal meridian,2 with a view to make said section as valuable as possible, have laid off a part of the same into town lots and established a town called and known by the name of Philadelphia, and a part of said town lots having been sold by the school commissioner, and there existing some doubt as to the right of the trustees to lay off said land into lots and streets as aforesaid, therefore

Acts of trustees and school commissioners of section sixteen 17 north 9 west, declared valid.

And further powers.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the acts of the trustees of said township, in laying off said land into lots and streets, and establishing the town as aforesaid, and the acts of the school commissioner in selling said lots, are hereby declared valid and binding to all intents and purposes whatever, and the streets laid out, are hereby declared public streets, and the school commissioner is authorised at any time hereafter to sell the remainder of said section sixteen, in town lots or otherwise, as the trustees of the township may request.3

Approved, February 15th, 1837.

1On January 3, 1837, William O’Rear introduced SB 45 in the Senate. On January 6, the Senate passed the bill. On February 6, the House amended and passed the bill. On February 10, the Senate concurred in the House’s amended version of the bill. On February 15, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 91, 253, 388, 426-27, 550, 572; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 145, 154, 163, 360, 388, 400-401, 434.

2The land described here is located along the southern border of Cass County.

3In 1818, when Congress passed the act enabling the Illinois Territory to become a state, it granted to every township in the state the proceeds of the sale of land in each township’s Section 16. This money became known as the common school fund.
“An Act to Enable the People of the Illinois Territory to Form a Constitution and State Government, and for the Admission of Such State into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States,” 18 April 1818, Statutes at Large of the United States, 3:428-31; W. L. Pillsbury, “Early Education in Illinois,” in Sixteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois (Springfield, IL: H. W. Rokker, 1886), 106-07.