In force, Feb.[February] 23, 1839.
AN ACT to vacate the town plat of the town of Auburn.
1Plat of town vacated.
Proviso.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Edwin L. Case, the proprietor of the town of Auburn, situate in township number twenty-four north, range three, west of the third principal
meridian, in the county of Tazewell, be, and he is hereby, authorized to vacate the survey and plat of said town of
Auburn: Provided, That said Edwin L. Case shall be the owner of the entire plat of said town, and shall make out such vacation in writing; which shall be acknowledged before
some justice of the peace, and recorded in the recorder’s office in said county.
1On January 14, the House of Representatives referred a petition to a select committee. On January 17, Representative Alden Hull from the select committee introduced the bill in the House. On January 21, the House
passed the bill. On February 11, the Senate passed the bill. On February 23, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 227, 238, 253, 376, 488, 495; Illinois Senate Journal. 1838. 11th G. A., 1st sess., 202, 280-281, 307, 393.
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.
Printed Document , 1 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eleventh General Assembly (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1839), 176, GA Session: 11-1,