Town of Freeport v. Board of Supervisors

Citations

• 41 Ill. 495

Syllabus

<p>1. Corporations — counties md towns. Counties and towns, as municipal corporations, are under the legislative control, and the law governing them may be changed according to the legislative will.</p> <p>2. Paupers — liability of towns and counties for their support. Under the act of the general assembly, in reference to paupers in Stephenson county, each town in the county is rendered liable for the support of their resident poor.</p> <p>And persons who were residents of a town and had been sent to the poor farm before the passage of that law did not thereby lose their residence or cease to have it in the town from which they were sent, or become residents of the town in which the poor-house was situated.</p> <p>3. Same—residence. As a general rule, persons under legal disability or restraint, persons of a non-sane memory, or persons in want of freedom, are incapable of losing or gaining a residence by acting under the control of others. Without the intent, the residence cannot be changed, and a pauper maintained at the poor farm is not an exception to the rule.</p> <p>4. Same — division of a town. By the division of a town, or the annexation of a portion of one to another, the pauper of the portion annexed does not lose his previous settlement or residence at the place where he had it when he became a public charge.</p>