Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb.[February] 27, 1839.

AN ACT to locate a State road therein named.
1

Com’rs[Commissioners] to locate road.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Elijah Taylor of Franklin county, R. A. D. Welbanks of Jefferson county, and Ennis Maulding of Wayne county, be, and they are hereby, appointed commissioners to view, locate, and mark, a State road from the bridge over the Middle fork of Muddy river, (or the road leading from Frankfort, in Franklin county, to Mount Vernon, in Jefferson county,) to Maulding’s mills, in Wayne county.

Time and place of meeting.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at the office of Lawson Thompson, on the first Monday in May next, or within thirty days thereafter, and, after being duly sworn by a justice of the peace faithfully to discharge the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to locate said road by putting up stakes in the prairie, and marking trees through the timber. Said road shall be located on the nearest and best ground between said bridge and said mills. Regard shall be had to the accommodation of the settlement through which the same shall pass; and care shall be taken to do as little damage as possible to the property of individuals living on the route.

Report to be made & filed.

Sec. 3. Said commissioners shall, as soon as convenient after making such location, make report thereof to the county commissioners’ court of the several counties through which any part of said road may pass; which report, when so made, shall be by the clerks of said courts filed, and shall thereafter form a part of the records of said courts; after which said road shall be opened and kept in repair as other State roads are.

Compensation.

Sec. 4. The county commissioners’ courts of the several counties through which said road shall pass, shall allow said commissioners a reasonable compensation for their services under the provisions of this act, having regard to the length of the same, and the time necessarily employed in making said location, as the length of road and time spent in locating in each county may be to the whole.

Approved, February 27, 1839.

1On January 31, 1839, John S. Hacker introduced a bill in the Senate. On February 7, the Senate passed the bill. On February 14, the House of Representatives read the bill twice and referred it to a select committee. On February 16, the select committee reported back the bill with an amendment. The House read the amendment, and concurred in the bill as amended. On February 22, the House passed the bill as amended. On February 25, the Senate approved the House amendment. On February 27, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 3, 1838 (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 367, 406, 420, 483, 509, 537; Journal of the Senate of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at their First Session, Begun and Held in the Town of Vandalia, December 3, 1838 (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1838), 253, 287, 293, 387, 409, 436-37, 452.