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Sct[Section] 1 Be it enact by the people of the State of Illinois Represented in the general Assembly that all astray2 ox or oxen taken up by aney person ortherized by the Law of this State to take up estrays shall be delt with in all Respects as is now Required by Law in Regard to estray horses[,] mares[,] colts[,] mules[,] and Asses
Sect [Section]2 hereafter if aney person shall trade[,] Sell [,]higher[,] Loan[,] or take away aney Estray or Estrays by him or her taking out of the county in which the same was posted
for a Longer time than ten days togeather before the expiration of one year after the taking up of Such Estray or Estrays such
person So offending Shall be Liable to indictment in the Circut cort of the proper county and on conviction thereof shall be fined in a sum doble the value of the property one half to the owner thereof and the other half to the
County treasury
Sect 3 it Shall be the duty of all persons taking up aney Estray or Estrays in all Cases whare the value thereof shall Exceed ten dollars at the Expiration of one year from the
time of taking up to deposit in the County treasury one half of the apprazed value of Such Estray property by him or her taking up and the [real?]
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property therupon shall be Vested in the takerup and the money so paid into the county Treasury shall
be county funds but shall be subject to the former owner at aney time within two years after the taking up of such property by such owner prooving his or her property before the Clerk of the County Commissioners Cort of Said County
Sect 4 if the taker-up of such Estray or Estrays shall fail to pay the one half of said
appraized value as above provided for then and in that Case it shall be the duty of such takerup
to deliver such Estray or Estrays to the Sheriff of the proper County whoes duty it shall be to sell said property to the highest bidder on a credit of nine
months and shall give publick notice of such sail by posting up three written or printed notices in three of the most publick places in said county at Least twenty days preivious to said sail the puchaser ^purchaser^ shall give Bond and approved Securiety payable to the County Commissioners Cort of said County and on collection of said money the taker up shall be paid all Reasenable charges and after paying the Shireff his fees for advertising and selling the Balance shall be depoited in the county Treasury Treasury to be used as county Funds
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nevertheless the former owner shall have a Right to said money by provinging his or her property before the Clerk of the County Commissioners Cort within two years after the taking up of such property
Sect 5 So much of the Law to which this an amendment as comes within the perview of this act is hereby Repealed but Right
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[ docketing
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No 95
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25
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[02]/[25]/[1839]
[02]/[25]/[1839]
Indefinitely postponed.
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[01]/[14]/[1839]
[01]/[14]/[1839]
2
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[01]/[14]/[1839]
[01]/[14]/[1839]
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[02]/[22]/[1839]
[02]/[22]/[1839]
no vote on rept[report] of Sel Com[Select Committee]
1Milton Carpenter introduced HB 146 in the House of Representatives on January 14, 1839. The House referred the bill to a select committee. The select
committee reported back the bill on February 22 with an amendment. On February 25,
the House indefinitely postponed further consideration of the bill and proposed amendment.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 209, 210, 481, 504.
2An estray is any domestic animal found wandering, whose ownership is unknown; the
term also applies to water craft found adrift. Settlers only slowly brought the Illinois
prairies stretching through the central third of the state under cultivation, and
the sparse timber made the erection of extensive wooden fences impractical. Farmers
commonly turned livestock loose to graze freely on the prairies in mild weather, thus
requiring rules for how and when loose animals could be claimed and by whom. Open-range
methods of livestock raising were common into the 1850s and in some areas continued
into the 1870s, when the advent of inexpensive, durable barbed wire made possible
the fencing of large tracts of grazing land.
Henry Campbell Black, ed., Black’s Law Dictionary, 6th ed., (St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 1990), 552; Paul C. Henlein, Cattle Kingdom in the Ohio Valley, 1783-1860 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1959), 19, 62-64; Allan G. Bogue, From Prairie to Corn Belt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), 73-79, 140.
Handwritten Document, 4 page(s), Folder 113, HB 146, GA Session 11-1, Illinois State Archives [Springfield, IL] ,