Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Mar.[March] 2, 1839.

AN ACT to locate a State road from Bloomington to Lexington, in McLean county.
1

Com’rs[commissioners] to locate road.

Place & time of meeting.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Jacob Spawr, Elbert Dickerson, and Jesse W. Fell, of McLean county, be, and they are hereby, appointed commissioners to view, mark, survey, and locate a State road from Bloomington to a point on the Money creek timber, at or near Elbert Dickerson’s, and from thence to Lexington, in said county. Said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at the town of Bloomington, on the first Monday in April next, or within ninety days thereafter, and, after being duly sworn by some justice of the peace faithfully to discharge the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to view, mark, survey, and locate said road, taking into consideration the public convenience and the permanancy of the road, doing as little injury to private property as practicable.

Report to be recorded.

Width of road.

Damages, how paid.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners shall make a report, in writing, to the county commissioners’ court for McLean county, at

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the next term thereof after said location is made; which said report shall form a part of the records of said court; and said road thus laid out shall be a public highway of this State; and the county commissioners’ court of said county shall cause the same to be opened four rods wide, and kept in repair as other roads are required by law: Provided, That said road shall not be opened, if any person through whose land the same may pass shall be injured thereby, unless the damages be first paid; nor shall the county of McLean be bound for the payment of any damages which may be assessed on said road.

Approved, March 2, 1839.

1On February 6, 1839, Cheney Thomas introduced HB 270 in the House of Representatives. The House referred the bill to a select committee comprised of representatives Thomas, John Moore and William S. Maus. On February 21, the committee reported back the bill with amendments to which the House concurred. On February 26, the House passed the bill. On February 28, the Senate passed the bill. On March 2, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 3, 1838 (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 353, 470, 505, 524-25, 567, 581-82, 596-97; Journal of the Senate of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 3, 1838 (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 458, 488.