Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb.[February] 3, 1840.

AN ACT to vacate the town plats of the towns therein named.
1

Town plat of Bristol vacated

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the entire town plat of the town of Bristol, in the county of Marshall, as laid off and recorded, is hereby declared to be vacated. This act to be in force from and after its passage.

Plat of Fairmount vacated

Proviso

Sec. 2. The town plat of the town of Fairmont, in the county of Bureau, as laid off by the original proprietors, and recorded in the county of Putnam, is hereby declared to be vacated: Provided, This act shall not interfere or prejudice the rights of any individual or individuals, who may have become the purchasers of any lot or lots, in either of the aforesaid towns.

Approved, February 3, 1840.2

1John Hamlin introduced SB 77 to the Senate on January 9, 1840. The Senate passed the bill on January 30. The House of Representatives passed the bill on January 31. The Council of Revision approved the bill on February 3 and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 305, 313; Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 96, 204, 212, 233, 234, 243.

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.