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Sec[Section] 1 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General assembly That all that tract of country within the following boundaries, to Wit; beginning
at the South east corner of section thirty one township twelve north of range six
west of the third principal meridian, thence due north, to the south east corner of
section eighteen Township fourteen north of range six West, thence one mile west thence
one mile north, thence one mile west thence one mile north, thence one mile west thence
two miles north, to the south east corner of section twenty seven, Township fifteen
north of range seven west thence due west nine miles to the South east corner of section
thirty, township fifteen north of range eight west, thence one mile South thence one
mile west to the range line between ranges eight and nine thence South two miles thence
west one mile, thence south one mile thence west three fourths of a mile, thence South
one mile thence west two miles and a quarter, thence south one mile thence west one
mile, thence South one mile thence west one mile, to the range line between ranges
nine and ten, thence due South twelve miles to the township line between townships
eleven and twelve, thence due east nineteen miles on said Township line to the place
of beginning shall constitute a county to be called Virgil2
Sec 2. Joshua P Crow of Cass County, Franklin Witt of Green County and James C. Anderson of Macoupin County shall be and they are hereby
three?] ten days thereafter, and after being first duly sworn before some Justice of the
Peace, faithfully and impartially to locate said seat of Justice as near as practicable
in the center of said county, with a Just regard to its present and susceptibility
of future population, shall select, designate and permanently locate the seat of Justice
of said county and shall also give it a name.
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appointed, Commissioners to select and permanently locate the seat of Justice of said
County, Said commissioners or a majority of them shall meet at the house of George Deatherage in said county on the first monday in May next or within [Sec 3. If said location should be made on private property, the commissioners shall ask
and receive a donation in land of not less than twenty acres to be laid off into town
lots and sold ^by the county commissioners^ for the benefit of said county, the proceeds of which shall be appropriated to the
erection of Public buildings the said commissioners in that case shall take a title
in fee simple from the donor to the county commissioners of said county for the use of the county aforesaid to such donations as is provided for in this act.
Sec 4. If said commissioners shall locate the seat of Justice of said county at any town
now laid out they shall ask and receive such donations from the proprietors of said
town, as shall be considered by the commissioners Just and right to be applied to
the erection of public buildings which donations may be received in land or money
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Sec 5. If the said commissioners shall locate the seat of Justice of said county on lands
owned by the general Government it shall be the duty of the commissioners to report
the same to the clerk of the county commissioners court, who shall notify the county commissioners thereof and it shall be their duty to purchase the same without delay and lay off
such portions as may be necessary into town lots, and make sale of the same from time
to time to time as they may think proper the proceeds of which shall be applied to the erection of
a court house and Jail on the public Square of said Town.
Sec 6. an election shall be held at the usual places of holding elections for Justices
of the Peace and consttables within the bounds of said county on the third Monday in April next at which
time and places the legal voters of said county shall elect all the county officers
for said county, the persons being elected to the different offices shall be qualified
and commissioned as similar officers are in the other counties of this state, and shall hold their offices until the next regular election for such officers,
and until their Successors are qualified said election shall be opened and conducted
by the present Judges of election in said districts, the said Judges shall give at
least ten days notice of said election in their respective districts, by posting up
written notices thereof in three public places within each district.
Sec 7. Said Judges of election shall be qualified as the law directs and shall within
five days after said election after said election make return thereof to the house of George Deatherage directed to,
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Matthew Cyrus, George Rigg, and Waller W. Rice three acting Justices of the Peace within the bounds of said county said Justices
or any two of them, shall meet within seven days after the election at said Deatherages and proceed to open said returns and perform all the duties that are now required
by law of clerks of county commissioners courts and Justices of the Peace in like cases.
Sec 8 The Justices of the Peace and constables holding offices in the limits of said
county of Virgil shall continue to hold their offices and have Jurisdiction in the limits of said county
until the next regular election for Justices of the peace and constables
Sec 9. After the elections provided for in this act shall have taken place the said county,
shall be considered organised, and shall form a part of the first Judicial circuit, the clerk of the county commissioners court shall notify the Judge of the first Judicial circuit of the organization of said county, and the said Judge shall appoint a clerk of the
circuit court, and appoint a time to hold circuit ^Court^ in said county, and shall give notice of the time of holding such court, in all the news papers that may be printed in the Town of Jacksonville and springfield at the time of giving such notice. ^all suits pending by parties living in the bounds of said county of [...?] Virgil shall be decided as tho this act had not passed^
Sec 10. The School funds belonging to the several townships in said county, and all notes
and mortgages pertaining to the same, shall be paid and delivered over to the School
commissioners of said county of by the School commissioners of the
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Counties of Morgan, Macoupin, and Sangamon, so soon as the said shall county shall be organized and the commissioners of school Land shall be appointed and qualified according to law together with all interest arising
out of said money that has not been heretofore expended for schools within those parts
of Morgan, Macoupin, and Sangamon counties, now proposed to be set off and form the county of Virgil
Sec [11] Until the next apportionment shall be m[ade] for senators and representatives to the General assembly, the said county of Virgil shall be entitled to one Senator and one Representative, and the ^county ^ County of Morgan shall hereafter be entitled to three representatives and with the
counties of Scott and Cass to two Senators.3
Sec 12. The commissioners appointed in this act to locate the seat of Justice for said
county shall receive out of the county Treasury of said county, two dollars and fifty
cents for each day they may be necessarily employed in making a selection and locating
the seat of Justice of said County.
Sec 13 As soon as the seat of Justice of said county shall have been located, the county
commissioners shall cause a town to be laid off, and a plat thereof filed and recorded
in the recorders office of said county, and one to be sent to the office of the Secretary
of State, to be by him filed and preserved and if the seat of Justice be located at
a town now laid out the county commissioners shall cause
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plats thereof to be made out[,] filed and recorded as aforesaid,
Sec 14 Any county commissioners residing within the limits of the said county of Virgil shall hold ther offices in said county as though ^t^he^y^ had been originally elected in and and for said county, and the countis for which said commissioner^s^ may have been Elected shall hold an election on the day provided for the election
in this act, and elect county commissioners to fill the vacancy^es^ occasioned by this act.
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[ docketing
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No 242
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[...?]
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A Bill for “an act to create the County of Virgil.
[ docketing
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[02]/[25]/[1839]
[02]/[25]/[1839]
Sel[Select] com[committee] reptd[reported] Elkin and indef.[indefinitely] post.[postponed] (no [votes for?]
[ docketing
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[02]/[25]/[1839]
[02]/[25]/[1839]
post-poned for a time
[ docketing
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[02]/[26]/[1839]
[02]/[26]/[1839]
Indfinitely[Indefinitely] postponed
1John Moore of the Committee on Counties, of which Abraham Lincoln was a member and to which the House of Representatives had referred several petitions, introduced HB 291 in the House on February 14, 1839.
The House referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported
back the bill on February 25 with amendments, in which the House concurred. The House
postponed further consideration to allow a representative to investigate and make
a report. On February 26, the House indefinitely postponed further consideration.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 399-400, 509, 516.
2Between statehood in 1818 and 1867, the Illinois General Assembly authorized the creation of 104 Illinois counties. During Lincoln’s four terms in the Illinois House of Representatives, the General Assembly authorized 38 counties. The General Assembly allowed voters
in the affected county or counties to accept or reject the creation of the new county
in only twelve of those cases. In four instances, a majority of voters rejected the
creation of the new county. The Illinois Constitution of 1848 made such referenda
mandatory in the creation of new counties.
Michael D. Sublett, Paper Counties: The Illinois Experience, 1825-1867 (New York: Peter Lang, 1990), 12-14, 22; Ill. Const. (1848), art. VII.
This proposal for Virgil County was the beginning of a twelve-year effort to create
a new county out of territory in southeastern Morgan County, southwestern Sangamon
County, and northern Macoupin County, often with Waverly, Illinois, at its center.
Two years later, the General Assembly passed An Act for the Formation of the County of Allen, but the voters rejected the creation of that county. In 1843, the General Assembly
passed an act to establish Benton County in part of the same area, but again voters
rejected the proposed county. Finally, in 1851, the General Assembly proposed Oregon
County, but again voters rejected the proposal. Allen County and Oregon County covered
much of the same area as the proposed Virgil County.
Sublett, Paper Counties, 45-50, 66-68, 100-5; “An Act for the formation of the county of Benton, and for
other purposes,” 4 March 1843, Laws of the State of Illinois passed by the Thirteenth General Assembly at their
Regular Session (Springfield: Walters & Weber, 1843), 104-8; “An Act for the Formation of the County
of Oregon,” 15 February 1851, Laws of the State of Illinois passed by the Seventeenth General Assembly, at the Session
commencing January 6, 1851 (Springfield: Lanphier & Walker, 1851), 131-34.
Handwritten Document, 8 page(s), Folder 237, HB 291, GA Session 11-1, Illinois State Archives [Springfield, IL]