Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb. [February] 27, 1841.

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 Luther Birge, of Fulton county, Thomas Hurff and Daniel Belcher, of Peoria county, be and the same are hereby appointed commissioners to view, survey and locate a State road, from Farmington, in Fulton county, to Charleston, in Peoria county, crossing the West Branch of Kickapoo creek, at the public bridge, on and near the north-east corner of section eighteen, township nine north, range five east of the fourth principal meridian.2

Time & place of meeting.

Report of road.

Sec. 2. The said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Farmington, on the first Monday in April next, or someday thereafter, which they shall agree upon; and, after being duly sworn, before some justice of the peace, faithfully to discharge their duties, agreeably to the provisions of this act, shall proceed to view, survey and locate said road, on the nearest and most eligible ground, from point to point, having due regard to private property; and shall make return to the county commissioners’ courts of the several counties through which the same shall pass; which return shall be entered of record, and filed in the clerk’s office; and said road shall be a public and State road3, and opened and kept in repair as other public roads.

Compensation

Sec. 3. Said commissioners shall receive such compensation for their services as the commissioners’ courts of the several counties, through which said road shall pass, shall deem just and reasonable, to be paid out of the several county treasuries.

Approved, February 27, 1841.

1Oliver Shepley introduced HB 216 in the House of Representatives on February 8, 1841. The House passed the bill on February 17. The Senate concurred on February 24. On February 27, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 347, 367, 380, 419, 503, 546, 552, 560; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 335, 396.

2In the eastern portion of Peoria County.

3State 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.