Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 27th Feb.[February] 1837

AN ACT to locate a State road from Chester to Belleville.
1

Commissioners appointed to view road from Chester to Belleville

Time & place of meeting.

To be sworn

Width of road

sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That James Pollock of Randolph county, John Winstanly of St. Clair county, and Henry Null of Monroe county,2 be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark, survey, and locate a state road3 from Chester, in Randolph county, via Preston in said county to Belleville in St. Clair county. Said commissioners shall meet at the town of Chester on the first Monday in April next, or within sixty days thereafter, and after being duly sworn by some justice of the peace faithfully to discharge the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to view, mark, survey and locate said road four poles wide, taking into consideration the public convenience and the permanency of the road, doing as little injury to private property as practicable.

To make report

To form a part of records

Road to be opened

Sec. 2. Said commissioners, within thirty days after having located said road, shall make a report in writing to the county commissioners’ courts of the respective counties through which the said road shall pass: said report shall form a part of the records of said courts: and the said road thus laid out shall be a public highway of this state; and the county commissioners’ courts of each county, through which said road may pass, shall cause the same to be opened and kept in repair as state roads are required to be by law.

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County commissioners to allow compensation

Sec. 3. The county commissioners’ courts of the several counties through which the same may pass, shall allow to the said commissioners a reasonable compensation for their services, to be paid out of the county treasuries of the counties through which the said road may pass, in proportion to the time employed in surveying said road in each of said counties.

This act to be in force from and after its passage.

Approved 27th February, 1837.

1On January 23, 1837, Richard B. Servant in the Senate introduced the petition of Seth Allen and 175 others, requesting a state road from Chester to Belleville. The Senate referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, John Murray of the select committee introduced SB 142 in the Senate on January 31. The Senate passed the bill on February 3. On February 3, the House of Representatives referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on February 9 with amendments, in which the House concurred. The House passed the bill as amended. On February 22, the Senate concurred in the House amendments. On February 27, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 470, 473, 535, 679, 716, 729; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 270, 324, 337, 344-45, 386, 488, 523, 528, 543-44.

2On February 9, 1837, the House of Representatives amended the bill by adding Henry Null to the list of commissioners.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 535.

3State 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.