Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force 20th July, 1837.

AN ACT to locate a State Road from Apanooce, in Hancock county, to the Drowning Fork of Crooked Creek, in McDonough county, and to vacate part of a State Road.
1

Commissioners appointed

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That John R. Atherton and Jalus A. Beebe, of the county of Hancock, and Robert Alexander, of the county of McDonough, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark, and locate a state road from Edward White’s ferry, in Hancock county, the nearest and best route, to intersect the state road leading from Beardstown to Commerce, where said road crosses the Drowning Fork of Crooked Creek, in McDonough county, having in view the permanency, and a due regard to the public convenience, doing as little private injury as possible.

Time of meeting

Place

Report

State road

Sec. 2. The said commissioners shall meet on the first Monday in September next, or as soon thereafter as practicable, at the town of Apanooce, in Hancock county, and after being duly sworn by some justice of the peace of said county faithfully to discharge the duties required

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of them by this act, shall proceed to locate the said road, designating the same by ploughing or staking in the prairie, and marking the trees in the timber, and as soon as practicable thereafter cause to be made out a report of the same, and return a copy thereof to the clerk of the county commissioners’ court of each of said counties, which shall be by him filed in his office; and said road, thus laid out, shall be and is hereby declared a public state road, and shall be opened and kept in repair as other state roads are.

Commissioners may call assistance

Report filed

Sec. 3. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall be authorized to proceed and lay out said road as required by this act, and call to their assistance such other help as may be necessary for the location of the same; and the county commissioners’ court of each of said counties shall allow said commissioners, and such other hands as they may necessarily employ to assist them, a reasonable compensation for each day employed in locating said road, to be paid out of each of said county treasuries, in proportion to the distance said road may pass through the same, where said commissioners shall have filed a copy of said report as recited in this act, duly certified and attested by them.

Part of road vacated

Sec. 4. That all that part of the state road leading from Beardstown to Commerce, as lies between the Drowning Fork of Crooked Creek, in McDonough county, and Commerce, in Hancock county, be and the same is hereby disannulled and vacated.

Approved, 20th July, 1837.

1On July 12, 1837, Thomas H. Owen in the Senate presented the petition of citizens of Hancock and McDonough counties, requesting the location of a state road connecting the counties. The Senate referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Owen from the aforesaid select committee introduced SB 11 in the Senate on July 13. The Senate passed the bill on July 15. The House of Representatives concurred on July 17. On July 20, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Tenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at a Special Session of the General Assembly, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, July 10, 1837 (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1837), 75, 95, 124; Journal of the Senate of the Tenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at a Special Session, Begun and Held in Vandalia, July 10, 1837 (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1837), 41, 44, 50-51, 65, 79, 108-109, 114-15.