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Sec[Section] 1 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That so much of John Pearson’s addition to the town of Danville, as lies within the following boundaries to wit beginning at the east end of Commercial
Street and running on the North Side of said street to Murphy street thence north
on the east side of said street to the north side of Chesnut Street thence [west?] on the line to [Sperry?] street, thence north to the north-west corner of said addition, thence east to the
north east corner of said addition, thence south on the line to the east end of Commercial
street, or place of beginning—being on the S. W.[South West] fractional qr[quarter]. of section 9 in T[Township]. 19 N[North] of R[Range]. 11 W[West]., of the second principal Meridian, be, and the same is hereby declared vacated.2
Sec 2 That so much of the recorded plat of said addition as is embraced in the foregoing
[boundaries?] be and the same, is hereby set aside, and declared void.
This act to take effect from and after its passage.3
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1On December 12, 1838, John H. Murphy in the House of Representatives presented the petition of Thomas C. Forbes, requesting vacation of the plat of an addition to Danville. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition,
Murphy of the aforesaid select committee introduced HB 20 in the House on December 14.
On January 1, 1839, the House passed the bill. On February 2, the Senate tabled the bill.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 58, 84, 114, 126, 153; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 125, 127, 174, 262.
3Illinois experienced a time of intense land speculation in the 1830s that resulted in a number
of “paper towns,” settlements that were platted and available for sale but where
few or no people actually lived. Many of the proprietors of these settlements abandoned
them during and after the Panic of 1837. As a result, the General Assembly received a large number of petitions for vacation during their sessions from 1838
to 1841. In 1841, the legislature passed an act setting parameters for proprietors to vacate town plats themselves. Vacating a plat
gave owners greater flexibility in the use, fencing, and sale of the property.
An Act to Vacate Town Plats; Alasdair Roberts, America’s First Great Depression: Economic Crisis and Political Disorder after the
Panic of 1837 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012), 19, 33, 38; James E. Davis, Frontier Illinois (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 210-11; Robert P. Howard, Illinois: A History of the Prairie State (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1972), 196.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Folder 16, HB 20, GA Session 11-1, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,