Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Mar.[March] 2, 1839.

AN ACT to amend “An act to incorporate the Wabash and Indiana Railroad Company.”
1

Where lands of feme covert, or others, are taken, husband or guardian may be served with notice.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That when lands of any feme covert, infant, or insane person, shall be taken for the use of the road authorized to be constructed by said act, the husband of such feme covert, and the guardian of such infant or insane person, may be served with notice to appear before the commissioner to be appointed by the circuit court to appraise the damage which may be sustained by the appropriation of the lands to the use of the road aforesaid.

Appraisers to make report.

Damage.

If owners are unknown, amount of damage to be deposited in bank.

Report recorded.

Sec. 2. The appraisers appointed under the seventh section of the act to which this is an amendmend shall make a report to the judge of the circuit court by whom they have been appointed, reciting the order of their appointment, and specifying the several parcels of land, with all proper certainty, which they have valued, the names of the owners of

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respective parcels, if known, and, if not known, stating that fact; and specifying also the damage which the owners thereof will sustain by reason of the appropriation of the same for the purpose aforesaid; and in case the owners are unknown, on depositing the amount of the assessed value or damage sustained by such unknown owner in such bank as the said judge may direct, the said corporation shall immediately become entitled to the said land: and the report of the said appraisers shall be recorded in the office of the recorder of the county in which such lands may be, in the same manner and with the like effect as deeds are recorded, without any other proof that the report is genuine than the certificate of such judge; and when the said report shall have been so recorded, the said corporation shall be seized and possessed of such lands, and may enter thereon and use the same for the purposes before recited.

Railroad may be extended.

Proviso.

Sec. 3. The said corporation may, if they should deem it practicable, extend the said railroad towards and to Fox river, under the same terms, conditions, privileges, and advantages, as are given and recited in the original act of incorporation: Provided it shall not interfere with any of the railroads or canals directed to be constructed by and on the part of the State.

Approved, March 2, 1839.

1On February 18, 1839, William Stadden introduced this bill in the Senate. Although it is not recorded in the journal, the Senate passed the bill without amendment. On February 28, following the insertion of an amendment by the Committee on Public Works, the House passed the bill. On March 1, the Senate approved the House amendments. On March 2, Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Journal of the House of Representatives, at the First Session of the Eleventh General Assembly, of the State of Illinois (Vandalia, IL: William Waters, 1838), 454, 545, 553, 582; Journal of the Senate, at the First Session of the Eleventh General Assembly, of the State of Illinois (Vandalia, IL: William Waters, 1838), 345, 455, 477, 488, 501.