Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Jan.[January] 18, 1840.

AN ACT to amend “An act establishing the county of Williamson,” approved February 28, 1839.
1

Williamson attached 3d judicial circuit

Duty of judge to hold court in

Time of court

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois , represented in the General Assembly, That the county of Williamson be attached to, and form a part of, the third judicial circuit of the State of Illinois, and the Judge of said circuit is hereby required to appoint a circuit clerk in said county, and to hold circuit courts in said county, on the Monday after the circuit court in the county of Johnson, until otherwise directed.2

Duty of auditor to pay school fund to Williamson county

Sec. 2. Until a new apportionment is made, the Auditor of Public Accounts shall issue his warrant in favor of the School Commissioner and agent for the inhabitants of Williamson county, for one-half of the distributive share of the school fund,

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belonging to the connty of Franklin, under the last apportionment.

Election for senator and representatives

Duty of clerk of Williamson relative to elections

Sec. 3. The county of Franklin and Williamson, at the next general election for Senator and Representatives to the General Assembly, shall each be entitled to elect one Representative, and the county of Williamson shall vote with the counties of Franklin and Jackson, for Senator; and the clerk of Williamson county shall be required to perform all the duties in relation to such election, as is required of the county clerk of the county of Jackson.

Acts of officers legalized

Elections legalized

Duty of clerk of Franklin county

Bonds of officers

Sec.4. The official acts of all officers rendering services in their official capacities, in the counties of Williamson and Franklin, since the first Monday in August last, are hereby declared to be legal as though no division had taken place; and the election of all officers which took place in the counties of Williamson and Franklin, , on the first Monday in August last, is hereby legalized, and commissions required to be issued accordingly: and the clerk of the county commissioners’ court of Franklin county, is hereby required to hand over to the county clerk of Williamson county, all bonds which he may have received of officers elected in the county of Williamson, at such election, and said bonds shall be filed in the clerk’s office of said county, and be in force as though they were given to such clerk.

Act repealed

Sec. 5. The act establishing Frankfort the county seat of Franklin county, is hereby repealed.3

This act to be in force from and after its passage.

Approved, January 18th, 1840.

1On December 12, 1839, Representative John Allen introduced HB 42 in the House of Representatives. On December 17, the House passed the bill. On December 21, the Senate referred the bill to a select committee. On December 23, the select committee recommended passage of the bill without amendment, and the Senate passed the bill. On January 18, 1840, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 31, 41, 50, 82, 139, 200, 205; Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 31, 39, 48, 219.

2The General Assembly created Williamson County out of Franklin County in February 1839, but failed to specify its judicial circuit. This act remedied that deficiency, and Williamson joined Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin, Gallatin, Hardin, Pope, Johnson, Alexander, Union, Jackson, Marion and Perry counties in the third judicial circuit.
An Act Dividing the State into Judicial Circuits (1835), An Act to Establish the County of Williamson (1839), An Act to Establish the County of Hardin (1839).

3This section likely refers to an act passed by the General Assembly in 1821, appointing commissioners to establish a county seat for Franklin County.
“An Act for the Establishment of a Permanent Seat of Justice for the County of Franklin,” 1 February 1821, Laws Passed by the Second General Assembly of the State of Illinois at their First Session (Vandalia, IL: Brown & Berry, 1821), 69-70.
In the act creating Williamson County from the southern half of Franklin County, the General Assembly appointed commissioners to relocate the county seat of Franklin County. In August 1839, the commissioners chose a site approximately eight miles north of Frankfort, and the county commissioners of Franklin County laid out a town there and named it Benton.
History of Gallatin, Saline, Hamilton, Franklin and Williamson Counties, Illinois (Chicago: Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1887), 363.