In force, 8th Jan.[January] 1840.
AN ACT to amend “an act to establish the county of Hardin, approved 2d March, 1839.”
1Boundaries of the county of Hardin.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That all that part of the territory of Pope county, as it stood previous to the passage of the law to which this is an amendment, which is comprised
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within the following limits, shall constitute the county of Hardin, that is to say: beginning on the Ohio river, at the point where a line, dividing sections thirty-four and thirty-five, in township
twelve, south of range seven east, running south, would strike the Ohio river; thence, due north with the sectional line to the Gallatin county line; thence, east two miles; and thence, southeast along the line dividing Pope and Gallatin counties to the Ohio river; thence, with the Ohio river, to the place of beginning.2Jurisdiction of county.
Sec. 2. The said county of Hardin shall have jurisdiction of all the territory included within the said limits, as
well as all jurisdiction which, of right, belongs to the State of Illinois, upon so much of the Ohio river as forms the river boundary of said county of Hardin.
Duty of com’rs[commissioners] of Pope county.
Proportion of Internal Improvement money.
School fund.
Sec. 3. That it shall be the duty of the county commissioners of the county of Pope, to pay over to the county commissioners’ court of Hardin county, a fair proportion of the money received by said county of Pope, from the State under the Internal Improvement law;3 also, a fair proportion of the school fund, according to the population of Pope and Hardin counties, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty, to be ascertained by
the census of that year.
Election to be ordered by oldest Justice of Peace for co.[county] officers.
Notice for election.
Sec. 4. That immediately after the passage of this act, the oldest justice of the peace, within the limits of the county of Hardin, shall order an election to be held in the several places of holding elections in
said county, for a sheriff, coroner, and three county commissioners, and a commissioners’ clerk,
and all other county officers elective by the people, for said county of Hardin; whose powers and duties shall be the same as other sheriffs, coroners, and county
commissioners of other counties. The notice for the elections aforesaid, shall be given three weeks before the time
of holding it, by posting up, at three of the most public places in said county of
Hardin, a notice thereof; and it shall be the duty of said justice giving the notice aforesaid,
to receive the polls, count the votes, and declare who shall have been elected sheriff,
coroner, and county commissioners of said county of Hardin.
Term of offices.
Sec. 5. Said sheriff, coroner, and county commissioners, so elected, shall continue in office until the next general election.
Duty of commissioners
Election for Seat of Justice
Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of the county commissioners first to be elected, to appoint
a day for an election, to be held at the several places of holding elections within
the limits of the said county of Hardin, for the purpose of choosing the permanent seat of justice of said county; and if no one place shall have received a majority of all the votes given, then
it shall be lawful for the legal voters to meet at the place or places of holding
elections, in ten days thereafter, and then and there select and vote for one of the
two places only, heretofore voted for, having the two highest number of all the votes
where the county seat shall be located; and that
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place, having a majority of all the votes given, shall be the permanent seat of justice
for said county of Hardin.
Appropriation for public improvements
Sec. 7. The county commissioners of Hardin county are hereby authorized to appropriate, for public improvements, the amount of money which said county is to receive from the county commissioners of Pope county under the Internal improvement law, as provided in the third section of this act.
County attached to 3d Jud. circuit
Time of holding courts
Proviso
Suits in Pope circuit court
Sec. 8. The said county of Hardin shall belong to the third judicial circuit;4 and the times of holding the circuit courts of said county, shall be as follows, to wit: on the Thursdays before the second Mondays in March, and the fourth Mondays in August:
Provided, That no term of the circuit court of said county of Hardin shall be held until the fall term of said court, as herein provided; that all suits now pending in the Pope circuit court, in which citizens of Hardin county are concerned, or to be commenced, by or against citizens of Hardin county, prior to the next March term of the Pope circuit court, shall be tried in said Pope circuit court; and that the said circuit court of Pope county have full and complete jurisdiction of all matters, whether civil or criminal, which
pertain to the said county of Hardin, as it had prior to the passage of an act, entitled “An act establishing the county
of Hardin, approved March 2, 1839,” to which this (is) an amendment, until after the March
term, next ensuing, of the said Pope circuit court.
Laws repealed
Sec. 9. All laws, or parts of laws, coming within the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.
Approved, January 8, 1840.
1On December 30, 1839, Senator Worthington J. Gibbsintroduced SB 47 in the Senate, and the Senate amended and passed the bill. On January 2, 1840, the House of Representativespassed the bill. On January 8, the Council of Revisionapproved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 107, 117; Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 71, 85, 90, 95.
2This act straightened the border between Pope County and Hardin County by returning to Pope County all or part of a dozen sections of land in Range 7 East
lying east of Grand Pierre Creek, which had been part of Hardin County at its creation in March 1839.
3Section eighteen, sub-section fifteen, of the internal improvement act appropriated $200,000 to counties through which no railroad or canal was provided
at the expense of the State. This money was to be distributed proportionally based on the most recent census.
The money was to be used to improve roads, build bridges, and construct other necessary
public works. By December 1838, the fund commissioners had distributed $145,510 to
sixteen counties. There appears to be some discrepancy on the amount distributed.
Krenkel and the Sangamo Journal cite the total as $144,700, but a tabulation of the figures printed in the Sangamo
Journal results in $145,510. Pope County had received $9387.50.
John H. Krenkel, Illinois Internal Improvements 1818-1848 (Cedar Rapids, IA: Torch, 1958), 83-84; Sangamo Journal 12 January 1839, 2:1.
Printed Document, 3 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eleventh General Assembly, at their Special Session (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1840), 38-40, GA Session: 11-S,