Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

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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 Payton of Coles County Jessee Ellis of Shelby County and Henry Rollin of Macon County be and they are hereby appointed Commissioners to review[,] mark[,] and relocate the State road leading from Charleston in Coles County to James Keller[’]s in Macon County, commencing at Charlston and running to [?]Leaches point, thence to (where the road now crosses the Kaskaskia River thence to Juliann) in Shelby County, and from thence on the nearest and best rout to Andrew Wilson[’]s on the ploughed furrow road in macon County 2

Sec 2. Said Commissioners or a majority of them shall meet at the Town of Charleston on the first Monday of June next or as soon thereafter as convenient, and after being duly sworn before some Justice of the Peace, to discharge their duties under this act faithfully and impartially, shall proceed to survey and relocate said road and shall file a survey and field notes together with a map of said road in the Office of the Clerks of the County Commissioners Courts through which said road may pass.

Sec 3 Said road when laid out as aforesaid shall be deemed a State road, and the

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County Commissioners Courts of the several Counties through which the same may pass shall cause the same to be opened and worked and kept in repair as other State Roads are

Sec 4 Said Commissioners shall be authorised to employ a County Surveyor of some one of the Counties through which said road may pass and the necessary chainmen to survey said road, and said Surveyor and chainmen, shall receive a reasonable compensation for their services, to be paid out of the County Treasuries of the several Counties proportioned to the number of miles of said road in each County

Sec 5 The said Commissioners shall make a full report of their doings under this act, and file the same with the survey, field notes, and map of said road, and shall each be allowed the sum of one dollars and fifty cents per day for their services to be paid proportionally out of the County Treasuries of the several Counties through which said road may run3

This act to be in force from and after its passage

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01/22/1840
Bond, Benjamin

Passed the Senate Jany 22 1840
Ben: Bond scy[secretary] Senate

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Senate N^o 18

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A Bill For an act to relocate a State Road from Charleston to Andrew Wilson[’]s in Macon County

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[01]/[25]/[1840]
Cunningham
Williamson
Gouge
M^cMillan
Simms
sel com[select committee]

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29

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[12]/[27]/[1839]
1

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[01]/[01]/[1840]
Passed
amended. H.

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[12]/[27]/[1839]
Engrossed

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[01]/[22]/[1840]
passed

1On December 26, 1839, the Senate referred a petition to the Committee on Public Roads. On December 27, Joseph Borough introduced SB 34 in the Senate. On January 3, 1840, the Senate voted to recommit the bill to the Committee on Public Roads. On January 6, the Senate referred a remonstrance of the citizens of Shelby and Coles counties against the bill to the Committee on Public Roads. On January 22, the Senate passed the bill. On January 25, the House of Representatives referred the bill to a select committee. On February 1, the select committee reported the bill, and the House passed the bill with an amendment.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Called Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 9, 1839 (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1839), 233, 253, 318; Journal of the Senate of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Called Session, Begun and Held in Springfield, December 9, 1839 (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1839), 60, 77-78, 161-62, 234.

2Wilson owned as many as seven different plots of land in Macon County at this time, so it is unclear which is being referencing here. There is no record of Keller owning any land in Macon.

3State roads were those public roads established or designated by the General Assembly and usually crossed county lines. Only the General Assembly could establish, alter, or abandon state roads, until 1840 and 1841, when the General Assembly gave counties the authority to alter or to abandon state roads upon petition by a majority of voters in the area of the change.
An Act concerning Public Roads, sec. 9; An Act Authorizing Commissioners’ Courts to Alter, Change, and Relocate State Roads; An Act concerning Public Roads.