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Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Thomas J. Buntain, the proprietor of the town of Jeffersonville in the county of Edgar, be, and he is hereby authorized to . . .of the said town of Jeffersonville. Provided, that Th[omas] J. Buntain shall be the owner of the entire pla[t] of said town and shal make out such vacatio[n] in writing, which shall be acknowledged befo[re] some Justice of the peace and recorded in the recorders office in said county; and that the plat and survey of so much of the town plat of the town of New Quebec, in Rock Island county, as lies east of centre street, be, and the same is hereby vacated: Provided, that the proprietors of the entire part hereby vacated, shall enter their wish
for such vacation in writing on the records of the Recorders office in the county
of Rock Island.2
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No 100
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A Bill for an act to vacate the town plats of Jeffersonville, in the county of Edgar, &, a part of the Town
platt of New Quebec in Rock Island County3
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[01]/[21]/[1840]
[01]/[21]/[1840]
Engrossed
1On January 15, 1840, Robert McMillan in the House of Representatives presented the petition of Thomas J. Buntain, which the House referred to a select committee. In response to this petition, McMillan
of the aforesaid select committee introduced HB 146 in the House on January 17. The
House referred the bill to a select committee. The select committee reported back
the bill with an amendment, in which the House concurred. On January 27, the House
passed the bill as amended, amending the title by adding “and a part of the town plat
of New Quebec, in Rock Island County.” The House informed the Senate of the bill’s passage, but the latter took no action.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 166, 191, 195, 222, 261; Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 189.
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.
3On January 27, 1840, the House of Representatives amended the title by adding “and Part of the Town Plat of New Quebec in Rock Island County.”
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 261.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Folder 139, HB 146, GA Session 11-S, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,