In force, May 1, 1841.
An ACT to locate a State road from Urbana, in Champaign county, by way of North Bend, to Marion, in De Witt county.
1Com’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 Wilson Lewis, of Champaign county, William Wright, of Piatt county, and Hiram Chapin, of De Witt county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, survey, mark and locate a
State road2 from Urbana, in Champaign county, by way of North Bend post office, in Piatt county, to Marion, in De Witt county.
Time & place of meeting.
Sec. 2. Said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Urbana, in Champaign county, on the first Monday in May next, or as soon as practicable thereafter; and, after
being duly sworn before some justice of the peace of said county, shall employ a surveyor and other hands they may find necessary, and proceed to
survey and locate said road, on the nearest and best ground, from point to point,
having due regard to private property.
Plat filed.
Width of road
Sec. 3. The said commissioners, so soon as they shall have completed said view, shall
make out a plat of said road, with the courses and distances from point to point;
which plat, when so made, shall be certified by said commissioners, and a copy thereof filed in the office of the clerk of the county commissioners’ court in each county through which said road may run; and the county commissioners shall
then cause so much of said road, as lies within their respective counties, to be opened three poles wide, and be kept in repair as other public highways are.
Certificate of time & hands.
Compensat’n.[compensation]
Sec. 4. The said commissioners shall make out and present to the county commissioners’ court of each county through which such road may pass, a certified copy of the time and hands necessarily employed in each county; and thereupon
it shall
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be the duty of said courts to make a compensation for the sums severally due, allowing to each commissioner one dollar and fifty cents per day, and to the surveyor
two dollars per day, and all other hands one dollar per day; to be paid out of the
county treasuries of each county, according to the time employed therein, in making
such view, survey and location.
Sec. 5 This act to take effect and be in force from and after the first day of May next.
Approved, February 26, 1841.
1On January 20, 1841, Mathew W. Busey in the House of Representatives presented the petition of citizens of DeWitt and Champaign counties, requesting a state road between the counties. The House referred the petition
to a select committee. In response to this petition, Busey of the aforesaid select
committee introduced HB 173 in the House on February 3. The House passed the bill on February 10. On February
18, the Senate referred the bill to the Committee on Public Roads. The Committee on Public Roads
reported back the bill on February 19, recommending its passage. The Senate passed
the bill on February 22. On February 26, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 249, 318, 346, 358, 473, 507, 514, 531; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 291, 343, 350, 372.
2State roads were those public roads established or designated by the General Assembly and usually crossed county lines. Only the General Assembly could establish, alter,
or abandon state roads, until 1840 and 1841, when the General Assembly gave counties
the authority to alter or to abandon state roads upon petition by a majority of voters
in the area of the change.
Printed Document, 2 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Twelfth General Assembly (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1841), 244-45, GA Session 12-2,