Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb.[February] 21, 1839.

AN ACT to vacate the survey and plat of the town of Middletown.
1

Proprietors may change plat.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That John Newman, the proprietor of the town of Middletown, in the county of Will, and that owners of lots therein, be, and they are hereby, authorized to alter, change, or vacate, the survey and plat of said town, as may be deemed necessary and proper: Provided, The said John Newman, and all owners of lots in said town, shall first, in writing, duly signed, sealed, and recorded in the recorder’s office of said county, signify his and their consent thereto.2

Approved, February 21, 1839.3

1On January 9, 1839, Senator Ebenezer Peck introduced SB 67 in the Senate. On January 17, the Senate passed the bill. On February 18, the House of Representatives passed the bill. On February 21, the Council on Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 232, 280-281, 432-433, 471; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 147, 157-158, 183-184, 347, 381.

2A subsequent act corrected the spelling of “John Newman” to “John Nawman.”

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.