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Sec[Section] 1 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly That the plat of the Town of Buffalo in the County of Will, laid out on the North west fractional quarter of section number [...?]
two in Township number thirty four north of range number nine east of the third principal
meridian,2 and also that ^the^ plat of the Town known and recorded in the County of Cook as the Town of “Vienna” the name of which has been changed by an act of the Legislature of this state to that of “East Buffalo” and surveyed and laid out of the west half of the North3 East quarter of said section two, be and the same are4 hereby vacated and set aside Provided that all the owners of lots in said Towns of
“Buffalo” and “East Buffalo” shall put in writing duly signed sealed and recorded in the recorders office of
the respective Counties in which said Town plats are recorded signifying a consent
thereto,5
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Senate 82
A bill for an act to vacate the survey and plats of the Towns of “Buffalo” and “East Buffalo
A bill for an act to vacate the survey and plats of the Towns of “Buffalo” and “East Buffalo
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[01]/[29]/[1840]
[01]/[29]/[1840]
Engrossed
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01/31/1840
01/31/1840
passed
1On January 9, 1840, James H. Woodworth in the Senate presented the petition of Isaiah M. Treat, requesting passage of an act to vacate
the town of Buffalo in Will County. The Senate referred the petition to the Committee on Petitions. In response to
this petition, John D. Wood of the Committee on Petitions introduced SB 99 in the Senate on January 15. The
Senate passed the bill on January 31. The Senate informed the House of Representatives of the bill’s passage, but the latter took no action.
Illinois House Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 309; Illinois Senate Journal. 1839. 11th G. A., special sess., 94, 110, 204, 222.
5Illinois 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.
Handwritten Document, 2 page(s), Folder 293, SB 99, GA Session 11-S, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,