In force, 28th Feb.[February] 1837.
Commissioners appointed.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That John Barnette and John C. Crozier, of the county of Randolph, and Isaac Tolin, of the county of Monroe, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, survey and locate a State
road2 to commence at Chester, in Randolph county, from thence running to Evansville in the same county, and from thence to Waterloo, in Monroe county.
Where and when to meet.
Requisite oath.
To put up stakes.
Sec. 2. The commissioners aforesaid or a majority of them, shall meet at the town of Chester aforesaid, on the
<Page 2>
first Monday in April next, or within sixty days thereafter, as may be agreed on by
said commissioners, and shall enter on the duties assigned to them by this act, after they shall have taken 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; whenever the said
road may be located through prairie, it shall be the duty of the said commissioners to mark the same by placing stakes
in the ground four feet in height, at the distance of every quarter of a mile: when
through timber land by blazing the trees in such manner as to make the course of said
road plainly discernable.
Duties of commissioners.
Sec. 3. The said commissioners so soon as they shall have completed said work, shall make
out maps under their hands describing the courses, distances, streams, and such other
estimates and remarks as they shall deem interesting, and return the same to the county commissioners courts of each county through which the same shall pass, which maps so returned shall be
filed in said courts.
Duties of county commissioner’s court.
Allowance to commissioners.
Sec. 4. Said road when laid out as aforesaid, shall be deemed a public highway, and the county commissioners courts of the aforesaid counties shall cause the same to be opened four poles wide, and
to be worked and kept in repair as other State roads are. The respective county commissioners courts of said counties aforesaid, shall allow said commissioners a reasonable compensation
for their services, as also a compensation to such attendants as are absolutely necessary for each day
employed in the discharge of said work, to be paid out of the respective county treasuries.
This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.3
Approved, February 28, 1837.
1On February 8, 1837, Richard G. Murphy introduced HB 201
in the House of Representatives. The House passed the bill on February 18. The Senate passed the bill on February 23, amending the title by striking out “in Randolph county.” The House did not concur with the amended title. On February 28, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 320, 516, 536, 639, 688, 751, 766; Illinois Senate
Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 463-64, 500-501, 551-52.
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.
Printed Document, 2 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Tenth General Assembly (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1837), 248-49, GA Session: 10-1,