Papers Of Abraham Lincoln

1
A Bill for An Act to vacate the Plat of the Town of Shrewsbury

Section 1^st Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly; That the Town Plat of the Town of Shrewsbury in the County of Lasalle be and is hereby vacated

Section 2^d This Act shall be deemed a public Act; and shall be in force from and after its passage2

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N^o 29 H R

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A Bill for An act to vacate the Plat of the Town of Shrewsbury.3

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1840

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[12]/[24]/[1840]
read 1

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[12]/[30]/[1840]
ord Engross’d[ordered Engrossed]
Dec[December] 30

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H.R.
Dodge

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42

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8

1Abram R. Dodge introduced HB 58 in the House of Representatives on December 24, 1840. On January 4, 1841, the House tabled the bill.
Illinois House Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 157, 166, 171, 183.

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.

3First “r” written over “e”