Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 21st July, 1837.

AN ACT to locate a State Road from Canton to Knoxville, and for other purposes.
1

Commissioners appointed.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Henry Emery, and Starling Turner, of Fulton county, and George Newman of Knox county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, lay out, locate, and survey a state road from Canton, by Middlegrove, to Knoxville.

Time and place of meeting.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners shall meet at Canton on the first Monday in September next, or within three months thereafter, and after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace faithfully to perform the duties required by this act, shall proceed to survey and locate said road as required by this act, having in view the convenience of the inhabitants and the permanency thereof.

Shall make plat of survey.

File with clerk of county.

Sec. 3. As soon as practicable after said road is located, said commissioners shall make or cause to be made a plat of so much of said road as lies within the respective counties, and transmit the same to the clerks of the county commissioners’ court of the respective counties through

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which the same may pass, which shall be filed and preserved in the office of said courts; and (said) road shall be opened and kept in repair as other state roads are.

Compensation.

Sec. 4. The county Commissioners’ courts of the respective counties through which said road shall pass, shall allow said commissioners and all others rendering services, a reasonable compensation, to be paid out of their county treasuries, in proportion to the distance said road shall be located in the same.


Time & place of meeting.

To be sworn.

If road intersect state road commissioners not required to lay out road further

Sec. 5. Ahira Sanders, Absalom Maxwell, are appointed commissioners to view and locate a state road, and are required to meet at Lewiston on the the last Monday in September next, or at such time thereafter as a majority of them may agree upon, and after being duly sworn, shall proceed to survey and locate a state road from Lewiston, via Jackson Grove and Fairview, to Knoxville, on the the most suitable ground for a permanent road; doing as little injury to farms as the public good will permit; and if said road shall intersect a state road leading from Canton to Knoxville, the said commissioners are not required to lay out said road further than the point of intersection.

Map to be made

Where filed.

Sec. 6. As soon as practicable after said road shall be located, said commissioners shall execute a map or plat of so much of said road as lies within the respective counties, and transmit the same to the clerks of the county commissioners’ courts of the respective counties through which the same may pass, which shall be filed in the office of said courts; said road shall be opened and kept in repair as other state roads are.2

Compensation to commissioners and others.

Sec. 7. The county commissioners’ courts of the respective counties through which the said road may pass, shall allow said commissioners and such others rendering necessary service a reasonable compensation, to be paid out of their county treasuries, in proportion to the distance said road may be located in the same.

Commissioners appointed to locate road.

Sec. 8. O. W. Kellogg, of Ogle county, and Sanford Journey and John Brown, of Jo Daviess county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, locate and mark a road from the town of St. Marion, in the county of Ogle, via Elkhorn Grove, to Savannah, in Jo Daviess county.

When and where to meet

Shall be sworn before justice peace.

Mile posts be set up.

Sec. 9. The commissioners aforesaid, or a majority of them, shall meet at the town of St. Marion, on the first Monday in September next, or within four months thereafter, and before entering on the duties of their appointment, shall take an oath before some justice of the peace faithfully and impartially to locate said road, keeping in view the shortness of the route, and eligibility of the ground

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so as to make the same a permanent road; distinctly marking the same, and to set a post on the right of the road with the miles marked thereon progressively.

Map to be made

Sec. 10. The said commissioners so soon as they shall have completed the location of said road shall make out a map which together with the filed notes of survey shall be filed with the clerks of the county commissioners’ courts through which the same shall pass.

Road deemed highway.

Compensation of commissioners

Sec. 11. Said road, when laid out as aforesaid, shall be deemed a public highway, and shall be opened and kept in repair as such; and the county commissioners’ courts of the counties of Ogle and Jo Daviess shall allow to the commissioners engaged in laying out said road, two dollars per day each for the time necessarily engaged in laying out and making returns of the same, together with a reasonable allowance to the surveyor and other hands necessary in laying said road.


Sec. 12. That Jabez Warren, of the county of Whiteside, and Howsen K. Teaor and Ralph Ware, of the county of Putnam, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, survey, mark and locate a state road, from the West bank of the Illinois river opposite the town of Hennepin, in Putnam county, via Prophetstown and Illinois City in the county of Whiteside, to the City of Fulton.

Time & place to meet.

To be sworn.

Duty of commissioners when road passes through prairie.

Sec. 13. The commissioners aforesaid, or a majority of them, shall meet at the town of Hennepin, on the first Monday in the month of October next, or within four months thereafter; and before entering on the duties assigned them by this act, shall take an oath before some justice of the peace faithfully and impartially to locate said road, keeping in view the shortness of the route and the eligibility of the ground, so as to make the same a permanent road; and wherever the said road shall pass through prairie land it shall be the duty of the commissioners to firmly set stakes in the ground at least four feet high, and at the distance of every quarter of a mile, and blaze the trees in passing through the timbered land.

Sec. 14. When said road shall be located as aforesaid, the commissioners shall cause the plat of the survey and field notes thereof to be filed in the office of the clerks of the county commissioners’ courts through which counties, or part of which, said roads shall pass, to be preserved as records thereof.

Sec. 15. Said roads when located as aforesaid shall be deemed public highways, shall be opened four poles wide, and kept in repair as other public roads.

county commissioners to pay commissioners.

Sec. 16. The county commissioners’ courts of the several counties through which, or part of which, said road shall pass, shall allow and pay to each of said commissioners

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the sum of two dollars per day for the time necessarily employed in locating said roads in their respective counties, together with a reasonable compensation to the surveyors, chain carriers, and other hands necessarily employed in said surveys.

Act repealed.

Sec. 17. So much of an act, entitled An act to locate certain state roads therein named, approved February 28, 1837, as makes Sha-ba-nees Grove a point in said location, be, and the same is hereby repealed. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.3

Approved, 21st July, 1837.

1Jonas Rawalt introduced HB 51 in the House of Representatives on July 15, 1837. On July 18, the House referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back the bill on July 19 with an amendment, which the House referred to another select committee. The second select committee reported back the bill and amendment on July 20 with sundry amendments, in which the House concurred. On July 21, the House passed the bill as amended. The Senate concurred on the same day. On July 21, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1837. 10th G. A., special sess., 79, 112, 119, 130, 154, 165, 176, 182; Illinois Senate Journal. 1837. 10th G. A., special sess., 119, 121, 144.

2Saunders and Maxwell did locate the section of road from Knoxville to Jackson Grove; in 1839, the General Assembly passed an act declaring that section to be a state road, and ordering the remainder of the road to be laid out. The commissioners laid out the remainder of the road, and in 1841, the General Assembly passed another act declaring that section of the road to be a state road.

3There is no act of the date and title mentioned in this Section. It is possible that the General Assembly was referring to An Act for a State Road from Ottawa North to the State Line, which mentions Shabbona Grove as a point on a state road.