Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Dec.[December] 16, 1840.

An ACT to vacate the town plat of the town of Lancaster, in Henry county.
1

Plat vacated.

Proviso.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the entire town plat of the town of Lancaster, in the county of Henry, as laid off and recorded, is hereby declared to be vacated: Provided, This act shall not interfere or prejudice the rights of any individual or individuals, who may have become the purchasers of any lot or lots in the aforesaid town. This act to be in force from and after its passage.2

Approved, December 16, 1840.

1Wyatt B. Stapp introduced SB 19 to the Senate on December 2, 1840. The Senate passed the bill on December 9. The House of Representatives passed the bill on December 12. The Council of Revision approved the bill on December 16 and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 95, 101, 106, 110; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 38, 61, 77, 80, 89.

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.