Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 7th Feb[February]. 1837.

AN ACT to locate a State road from Stephenson to Peoria.
1

Commissioners appointed to view road

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Isaac Doile, of Peoria county, Luther Driscoll, of Knox county, and Samuel L. Lamberson, of Henry county be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark, and locate a State road from Stephenson, in Rock Island county, via Rock Island city, (crossing Rock river at or near Van Reeff’s ferry) La Grange, in Henry county, and Lafayette, in Knox county, to Peoria, in Peoria county.2

When and where to meet.

To be sworn.

Oath and duty.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet in the town of Stephenson, on the first Monday in June next, or within six months thereafter, and after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace, faithfully to perform the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to view, mark, and locate said road from point to point, taking into consideration the local situation of the country and the public convenience, and doing as little injury to private property as practicable on the best and most advantageous ground for a permanent road.

To make report with a map to county com. courts & its duty.

Sec. 3. As soon as practicable, after said road is located, said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall make out a report, accompanied by a map or plat of said road, giving the courses and distances from point to point, with such other marks of certainty as they may deem necessary, and shall transmit a copy of said plat and report to the county commissioners courts of each county through which said road shall pass, which shall be filed in their respective offices, and each county shall bear her proportional part of expenses according to the distance said road may pass through the same, to be allowed by the county commissioners court of each county, and the said county commissioners courts shall cause so much of said road as lies in their respective counties, to be opened four poles wide,3 and the same shall be deemed a state road, and shall be kept in repair as other state roads are.

Declared a State road.
Further duty of com.[commissioners]

Sec. 4. If the said road can be made to intersect within the bounds of the county of Peoria without materially changing its course, any State road heretofore laid out, or

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that may hereafter be laid out prior to the location of the road authorised by this act, the said commissioners shall not be authorised or required to continue said road any farther than the point where the two roads may intersect.

Approved; 7th February: 1837.

1On January 11, 1837, Augustus G. S. Wight introduced SB 70 in the Senate. On January 13, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on January 14 with an amendment, in which the Senate concurred. The Senate passed the bill as amended. On February 2, the House of Representatives passed the bill. On February 7, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 263, 270, 387, 451, 494; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 194, 203, 209, 214, 346, 358, 364.

2In 1836, the County Commissioners’ Court of Peoria County had laid out a road from Stephenson to Peoria. The General Assembly essentially adopted this route for the proposed 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.
Newton Bateman and Paul Selby, eds., Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Peoria County, ed. by David McCulloch (Chicago and Peoria: Munsell, 1902), 1:88. An Act concerning Public Roads, sec. 9; An Act Authorizing Commissioners’ Courts to Alter, Change, and Relocate State Roads; An Act concerning Public Roads.

3One pole is the equivalent of 16.5 feet.