Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, 1st March, 1837.

AN ACT to locate a State Road from Decatur in Macon county, to Carlinville in Macoupin county, via Edinburgh in Sangamon county.
1

Commissioners appointed.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Isaac C. Pugh of Macon county, Robert S. Young of Sangamon county, and Sylvester J. Durbin of Montgomery county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark and locate a State road from Decatur in Macon county, via Edinburgh, to intersect the road leading from Springfield to Carlinville at Harris’s point, in Macoupin county.

When and where to meet.

To be sworn.
Oath.
Duty

Sec. 2. The said commissioners, or any two of them, shall meet at Decatur on the first Monday in May next, or within three months thereafter, and after being duly sworn before some justice of the peace, faithfully to discharge the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to view, mark and locate a State road, from the public square in the aforesaid town of Decatur, to the town of Edinburgh in Sangamon county, and thence to Harris’s point, in Macoupin county, on the nearest and best practicable route, and on the most eligible and advantageous ground, for the permanency of the road, taking into view the present settlements of the country, and its susceptibilities of future settlements.

To mark said road

Sec. 3. The said commissioners shall mark said road, by blazes on the trees where it passes through the timber, and by placing in the ground stakes of durable timber at

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proper intervals, where the said road passes through the prairie.

To make plat and report.

To be filed.

Sec. 4. As soon as practicable after the said road is located, the said commissioners or a majority of them, shall make a plat of so much thereof as lies in each of the counties through which said road may pass, and return the same to the clerks of the county commissioners’ courts of said counties respectively, to be by them filed and preserved in their respective offices, and said road when so laid out shall be opened four poles wide, and kept in repair as other State roads are.

Compensation.

Sec. 5. The county commissioners courts of the several counties through which said road may pass, shall allow to said commissioners, and to all surveyors, markers, chain carriers, and other persons necessarily employed in surveying, marking and laying out said road, a reasonable compensation for their services, to be paid out of the county treasuries of said counties respectively in proportion to the extent of said road in each of said counties.

Road from Harris’s to Carlinville, established.

Sec. 6. The county road from Harris’s point in Macoupin county, to Carlinville in the same county, as at present laid out and travelled by the mail stage, is hereby declared a State road, and shall be opened and kept in repair as other State roads are.2

Approved, March 1, 1837.

1James Allin introduced SB 233 in the Senate on February 13, 1837. On February 15, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee, which reported back with amendments on February 18. The Senate approved the amendments and passed the bill the same day. They then amended the title by striking out all after “Decatur” and inserting “in Macon county, to Carlinville in Macoupin county, via Edinburgh in Sangamon county.” On February 25, the House of Representatives passed the bill. On March 1, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 614, 717, 768; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 407, 438, 458, 537, 572, 590.

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.