Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
Sec[Section] 1^st Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly

That Samuel Hall one of the proprietors of the town of Circleville, in the County of Tazewell, be and he is hereby authorized to vacate the survey and plat of blocks number one, two[,] and three of said town, and the Alleys passing through said blocks, provided however that the said Samuel Hall shall be the entire owner of said blocks, and shall first make in writing duly signed, sealed, acknowledged[,] and recorded in the recorders office of said county, signifying his intention so to do.2

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[ certification ]
01/27/1840
Calhoun, John

Passed House Reps.
Jan. 27^th 1840
J Calhoun Clk.[Clerk] H. R.

[ docketing ]
No [?]

[ docketing ]
H. R
A bill for “An act to vacate a part of the town of circleville”

[ docketing ]
[01]/[20]/[1840]
Engrossed

[ docketing ]
49

1On January 7, 1840, Alden Hull in the House of Representatives presented the petition of Samuel Hall, requesting vacation of the town plat for Circleville. The House referred the petition to a select committee. In response to this petition, Hull of the aforesaid select committee introduced HB 140 in the House on January 15. The House passed the bill on January 27. The House reported the bill’s passage to the Senate, but the latter took no action.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 134, 179, 207, 260; Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 188.

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.