Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Feb.[February] 24, 1841.

An ACT to vacate the plat of the town of Iowa, in Perry county.
1

Plat vacated.

Proviso.

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the survey and plat of the town of Iowa, in Perry county, be and the same is hereby vacated: Provided, The assent of owners of any lots in said town, other than the proprietors, shall first be obtained; which assent shall be obtained in writing, and recorded in the recorder’s office of Perry county. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage.2

Approved, February 24, 1841.

1In response to a petition, Richard G. Murphy introduced HB 168 to the House of Representatives on February 3, 1841. The House passed the bill on February 10 by a vote of 63 yeas and 14 nays, Abraham Lincoln voting yea. The Senate passed the bill on February 13. The Council of Revision approved the bill on February 24, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 317, 341, 366, 397, 469, 477, 492; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 289, 305, 310.

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.