Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb.[February] 26, 1839.

AN ACT to locate a certain road therein named.
1

Com’rs[Commissioners] to locate road.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That John O. Hyde, David Mark, David Alexander, Spencer Field , and Richard H. Snell, be, and they are hereby, appointed commissioners to view and locate a road, commencing at the west bank of the Illinois river, in the county of Peoria, and some point opposite the town of Pekin, in the county of Tazewell, at low-water mark; running from thence, in a westerly direction, to the now travelled road leading from the town of Peoria, in Peoria county, to Canton, in Fulton county, along the Illinois bottom.

Time and place of meeting.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at the town of Pekin, on or before the first Monday of September next, and, after being first duly sworn before some justice of the peace faithfully to perform the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to view and locate said road on the nearest and best possible route, taking into consideration the public convenience and economy, so as to make the same a permanent road.

Plat and survey to be filed with clerk.

Sec. 3. When the commissioners aforesaid shall have located said road, they shall cause a plat and survey of said road to be filed in the office of the clerk of the county commissioners’ court of the county of Peoria, and the road so located is hereby declared a public State road, and shall be opened one hundred feet wide and kept in repair as other State roads are.

Trustees of Pekin may improve road.

Proviso.

Sec. 4. That the president and trustees of the town of Pekin may, and they are hereby authorized to expend any sum or sums of money they think proper on said road, for the purpose of opening, improving, and keeping the same in repair, under their own supervision, or under the superintendence of any agent they may appoint for that purpose: Provided, Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to give to the president and trustees of the town of Pekin any jurisdiction over the said road when laid out, other than the right to expend any amount of money on the same, in opening and improving it, that they may think proper to appropriate for that purpose.

Approved, February 26, 1839.

1The information about the introduction and passage of SB 173 in the Senate seems to be missing from the Senate Journal; however, on February 23, 1839, the same journal notes on page 386 that the House of Representatives concurred with the Senate in the passage of the bill. On February 14, the House referred the bill to a select committee. On February 16, Representative Harvey T. Pace of the select committee reported the bill to the House with an amendment. On February 22, the House passed the bill. On February 26, 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), 367, 408, 420, 483, 517; 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), 279, 386, 418, 436.