The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-04-19
ROAD RIGHTS.
DANIEL r. MCKENZIE.

A correspondent gives the following
synopsis of Judge Edward H. Benefits
decision in relation to the rights Of the
road:
eff farm deed is bounded by, on, or
upon road, it usually extends to the mid
die of the roadway. There are few excep-
tional cases, but ordinarily the farmer owns
the soil of half the road. and may use the
grass, trees, stones, gravel sand, or any
thing of value to him, either on the land
or beneath the surface, subject only to the
superior rights of the public to travel over
the road and that of the highway surveyor
TO use such materials for the repair of the
road; and these materials he may cart
away, and use elsewhere on the road, but
he has no night to use them for his own
private purposes. No other man has a
right to feed his cattle there. or cut the
grass or trees; much less deposit his wood.
old carts, wagons or other things thereon;
and, after notice to the owner, you may
remove them to some suitable place, and
if they are lost or injured it is not your
fault. The owner of a drove of cattle
which stop to feed in your land, or of a
drove of pigs which root up the soil, is
responsible to you at law as much as if
they did the same thing inside the fence
Nobody's children have right to pick the
apples under your trees, although the same
stand wholly outside of the fence. No
private person has right to cut or lop off
the limbs of your trees in order to move
his old barn or other buildings along the
highway, and even if the owner of the
building has q license to move the same
through the streets this does not exempt
him from liability to private sufferers. And
no traveller can hitch his horse to your
trees on the sidewalk without being liable,
if he gnaws the bark or otherwise Injuries
them; and you may unite the horse
AMI remove him to some safe
place. Ii your well Stande
partly on your land and partly outside tbs
fence no neighbor can use it without your
permission. Nay, more; noman has a
right to stand in front of your land and
white or deface your fence, throw stones
at your dog or insult you with abusive
language, without being liable to you for
trespassing on your land; he has a right to
pass and repass in an orderly and be-
coming manner-a right to use the road but
not to abuse it. Perhaps it may be as we'll to
state here, that, if the highway becomes
suddenly impossible by heavy SHOWS or
deep gullies, he may turn aside into your
adjoining land, without being liable as "a
trespasser, if he does no unnecessary injury
oAIs ON lis IlIC
soil of the road, even he cannot use it fer
any purpose which interferes with the use
of it by the public for travel. He cannot
put his pens, wagons, wood, or other
things there, if the highway surveyor or
ders them away, as obstructing the public
ttaval If he leaves such things outside his
fence, and within the limits of the high
way as actually laid out Though some dis
tance from the travelled path), and trav-
eler runs into them in the night and is in
jured, the owner is not only liable to him
for private damages, but may also be in
dicted and fined for obstructing public
highway. And, if he have fence or wall
along the highway, he must place it all on
his own land, and not half on the road as
in case of division fences between neigh
bors. But, as he owns the SOIL if the
road is discontinued or located elsewhere
the land reverts to him, and he may en-
close ii to the centre and use it as part
of his farm