Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force Feb.[February] 19, 1841.

An ACT to locate a State Road from Columbus to Houston, in Adams county.
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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 J. G. Williams, Smith McGinnis and D. Stricklin, be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to view, mark and locate a State road2 from Columbus to Houston, in Adams county.

Time & place of meeting.

Report to be filed.

Sec. 2. Said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Columbus on the first Monday of April next, or as soon thereafter as practicable, and after being duly sworn to perform the duties required of them by this act, shall proceed to lay out said road between the points named in the first section of this act, and shall designate the route of said road by placing stakes in the prairie, and blazes on the trees in the timber. The said commissioners shall as soon as the road shall be laid out, make and file a report in the clerk’s office of the county commissioners’ court of Adams county.

Pay to com’rs

Sec. 3. Said road when so laid out, shall be, and the same is hereby declared a State road, and shall be opened and kept in repair as other State roads are, and the commissioners

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appointed by this act shall be allowed a reasonable compensation for their services, out of the county treasury of Adams county.

Approved, February 19, 1841.

1 On January 14, 1841, James H. Ralston in the Senate presented a petition from H. A. Cyrus and others, requesting the establishment of a state road. The Senate referred the petition to the Committee on Public Roads. The next day, Nelson W. Nunnally from the Committee on Public Roads introduced SB 113. The Senate passed the bill on January 20. The House of Representatives passed the bill on February 16. The Council of Revision approved the bill on February 19 and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 250, 305, 380, 409; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 161, 167, 179, 184, 329-30, 351, 355-56.

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.