In force, Jan.[January] 31, 1840.
AN ACT to vacate the town plat of the town of Washington.
1Plat may be vacated
Proviso
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Thomas S. Garvin and Robert McClellan, proprietors of the town of Washington, lying in the county of Fulton, and situated on the west half of section twenty-four, in township three north of
range one east, of the fourth principal meridian, be, and they are hereby authorized to vacate the survey and plat of said town of Washington: Provided, said Thomas S. Garvin and Robert McClelland, the proprietors of said town, shall first in writing, duly signed, sealed, and recorded, in the Recorder’s office
of said county, signify their consent thereto: And provided also, That vacating the survey and plat of said town, shall not interfere with the vested rights of any person or persons, who may have
purchased lots in said town, of the proprietors or others.2
Approved, January 31, 1840.
1On January 3, 1840, Newton Walker introduced HB 103 in the House of Representatives. On January 13, the House passed the bill. On January 29, the Senate passed the bill. On January 31, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 123, 152, 161, 298, 306, 317; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 09-10, 186, 208.
2Illinois 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.
Printed Document, 1 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eleventh General Assembly, at their Special Session (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1840), 32, GA Session: 11-S,