Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb 18, 1841.

An ACT to locate a State road in Bond, Madison and St. Clair counties.
1

Com’rs[Commissioners] to locate road.

Line of road.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Benjamin Johnson, of Bond county, David Tharp, of Madison county, and Daniel Baldwin, of St. Clair county, are hereby appointed commissioners, to locate a State road2, as follows, to wit: From Benjamin Johnson's, in Bond county, via Highland, in Madison county, to Lebanon, in St. Clair county.

Time & place of meeting.

To be sworn.

Plat and survey, where to be recorded.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners, or a majority, shall meet at the town of Highland, on the first Monday of April next, or within thirty days thereafter; and, after having been duly sworn, before some justice of the peace, faithfully to perform the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to mark, survey and locate said road; and, having so located the same, shall, within thirty days thereafter, return to the office of the clerk of the county commissioners’ court of each of said counties through which said road will pass, one copy of the plat, survey and field notes thereof; which, together with the report of said commissioners, shall be spread upon the records of the said county commissioners’ courts.

Width of road

Compensat’n of com’rs,[compensation of commissioners] &c.[etc]

Sec. 3. The said road shall be at least four poles wide, and shall be opened and kept in repair, as other public State roads are; and the said counties shall each pay one-third of the expense of said road. The said commissioners and the surveyors shall each receive and be allowed two dollars per day, for their services herein; the chain-carriers and axe-men, the sum of one dollar per day.

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Road vacated

Sec. 4. The road leading from Hickory Grove, in Bond county, by way of Joseph Duncan's, in Madison county, to Lebanon, in St. Clair county, be and the same is hereby vacated.

Approved, February 18, 1841.

1On February 6, 1841, Joseph Gillespie introduced HB 211 in the House of Representatives, and the House passed the bill. On February 10, the Senate passed the bill. On February 18, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 341, 369, 413, 424; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 252, 255, 286-87.

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.
An Act concerning Public Roads, sec. 9; An Act Authorizing Commissioners’ Courts to Alter, Change, and Relocate State Roads; An Act concerning Public Roads.