Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

In force, Feb.[February] 19, 1841.

An ACT declaring a certain road in Fulton county a State road.
1

Road declared a State road.

Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That so much of the State road, as surveyed by authority of Ahira Sanders and Absalom Maxwell, leading from Lewistown, via Jackson Grove and Fairview, to Knoxville, in Knox county, as lies between Lewistown and Jackson Grove, be and the same is hereby declared a State road, and shall be worked and kept in repair as other State roads are.2

Surveyor of Fulton county to make a plat of road.

Sec. 2. It shall be the duty of the county surveyor of Fulton county to make out a plat of said road, as surveyed by the authority of the commissioners aforesaid, and return it to the clerk of the county commissioners’ court of said county, who shall file the same according to law.3

Approved, February 19, 1841.

1David Markley introduced SB 122 to the Senate on January 18, 1841. The next day, the Senate passed the bill. 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., 248, 252, 380, 409; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 176, 179, 329-330, 337-338, 355-356.

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.

3In 1837, the General Assembly passed an act that, among other things, appointed Ahira Saunders and Absalom Maxwell to lay out a state road from Lewistown to Knoxville. In 1839, the General Assembly passed an act declaring the section from Knoxville to Jackson Grove to be a state road, and ordering the remainder of the road to be laid out, from Jackson Grove to Lewistown.