Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 7th Feb.[February] 1837.

AN ACT changing part of the State road from Liberty to Tremont
1

Commissioners appointed to view road from Liberty to Tremont

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Theodore Fisher, John Boyle, and Catesby Gill be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark, and locate a state road from Liberty to Tremont.2

Duty.

Sec. 2. Said road shall commence at Liberty, and proceed along the old location about one quarter of a mile to where it strikes the Peoria state road, thence with said road to the point where the Ottawa road leaves the same, thence with the Ottawa road a north east direction to the line between Jesse Dillon’s and John Dillon’s, thence with said line to the road now laid out from Liberty to Tremont.

To be opened and kept in repair.

Sec. 3. Said road when laid out, shall be opened, worked, and kept in repair as other state roads are.3

Approved Feb. 7th, 1837.

1On January 11, 1837, Benjamin Mitchell in the Senate introduced the petition of citizens of Tazewell County, requesting the alteration of a state road from Liberty to Tremont. The Senate referred the petition to the Committee on State Roads. In response to this petition, John S. Hacker of the Committee on State Roads introduced SB 75 in the Senate on January 13. On January 16, the Senate passed the bill. 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., 284, 302, 408, 456, 494; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 191-92, 206, 218, 224, 348, 358, 364-65.

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.

3This act might be changing a state road authorized by the General Assembly in an act passed in 1836.