In force, Feb.[February] 19, 1841.
An ACT to vacate a part of the town plat of Meredosia.
1Part of plat vacated
Further proviso.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That all that part of Daniel Waldo and James E. Waldo’s addition to the town of Meredosia, in Morgan county, lying east of Crosby street in said addition, be, and the same is hereby vacated, and the title to the land occupied by streets in
the part hereby vacated shall be revested in the said Daniel Waldo and James E.
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Waldo: Provided, however, That all persons interested in said addition, and owning lots therein, shall first
sign a relinquishment of all their claims to the said streets and alleys, which instrument
shall be recorded in the recorder’s office of Morgan county: And Provided, also, That the vacating of said addition shall not interfere with the vested rights of
any person who may have purchased a lot or lots in said addition.2Approved, February 19, 1841.
1William L. Sargeant introduced SB 153 to the Senate on February 3, 1841, and the Senate referred it to the Committee on the Judiciary.
The committee reported back on February 5 and recommended an amendment, to which the
Senate concurred. 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., 346, 390, 411; Illinois Senate Journal. 1840. 12th G. A., 235, 242-43, 248, 329-330, 351, 355-356.
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.
Printed Document, 2 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Twelfth General Assembly (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1841), 310-11, GA Session 12-2,