to commence 8. If said company shall not commence operations within When company two years from the passage of this act, then the powers, priv- operations. ileges, and franchises therein granted shall be forfeited and cease. works of com pany punished. 9. If any person or persons shall willfully do, or cause to How injury to be done, any act or acts whatever, whereby the works of said corporation, or any reservoir, pipe, conduit, or any engine, machine, or structure, or any matter or thing appertaining to the same, or any of them, shall be stopped, injured, or destroyed, obstructed, impaired, or weakened, the person or persons so offending shall forfeit and pay to the said company double the amount of the damages sustained by means of such offense or injury, to be recovered in the name of the said company, with costs of suit, by action at law, to be brought in any court having cognizance thereof; and such person or persons may be prosecuted in such other manner as the law may permit. acquire right of 10. The said company shall have power to enter upon lands Company may in the said town of Charleston, and condemn and acquire a way. sufficient right of way over, under, and through the same, for the purposes of its said improvement, as provided by law in the forty-second and fifty-second chapters of the code of West Virginia; but said company by said condemnation shall not acquire a title in fee to said lands. 11. The principal office or place of business of said com- Principal office. pany shall be kept in the town of Charleston, Kanawha county, aforesaid. to general laws. 12. This act shall be deemed a public act, and the said Company subject company shall be entitled to and subject to the laws now in force, applicable to and for joint stock companies and works of internal improvement, except so far as the provisions of this act are or may be inconsistent therewith, and the said company shall have exclusive privileges, and this act shall Privileges exclu be benignly and favorably construed for the purposes therein How act conexpressed and declared, in all courts and places whatsoever. sive. strued. amended. 13. The legislature may at any future time, saving and Act may be securing the rights acquired by the said corporation hereunder, alter, modify, or amend this act. Corporators. CHAPTER 41.-An ACT to incorporate the Northern and Passed February 26, 1870. Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia : 1. That Charles S. Lewis, Oscar F. Wainwright, Henry W. Shealey, Peter H. Goodwin, Solomon S. Fleming, Joseph L. Carr, Cyrus Vance, Luther Haymond, George C. Sturgiss, William A. Hanaway, John J. Brown, D. H. Chadwick, William Price, Francis H. Peirpoint, A. B. Fleming, Fontain Smith, Jonathan M. Bennett, Henry Brannon, William J. Bland, Richard P. Camden, William L. Dunnington, Dr. A. E. Summers, Henry C. McWhorter, Benjamin H. Smith, John S. Burdett, and George Jeffries, and their associates, successors, and assigns, and all who shall become stockholders, Incorporation. when three thousand shares of the capital stock shall have been subscribed as hereinafter provided, are hereby made a body politic and corporate, by the name, style, and title of "The Northern and Southern West Virginia Railroad Company"; provided said subscriptions shall be made in good faith within four years after the passage of this act. Authority to construct rail road. 2. The said company is hereby authorized to construct a railroad from some point on the Pennsylvania line, in the Route of road. county of Monongalia, via Morgantown, Fairmont, Clarksburg, Weston, and Charleston, to some point on the Kentucky state line in the county of Wayne. The said company shall have power to construct as much of said railroad as their capital stock may allow, and shall have all the rights, beneCompany subject fits, and privileges, and be subject to all the duties and responsibilities provided for and declared in chapters fifty-two and fifty-three of the code, so far as the same are applicable to railroad companies and not inconsistent with the provisions of this act. to code. Capital stock. 3. The capital stock of the said company shall not exceed the sum of five million of dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each, and shall be considered as personal property and transferable; and such share shall entitle the How stock voted, holder thereof, either in person or by proxy, to cast one vote in all meetings of the stockholders of said company. And for the purpose of obtaining subscriptions to the said capital stock, books may be opened under the direction of the per Subscription books. books. sons named in the first section of this act, or any three or Subscription more of them, at such time and place or places as the persons who act in that behalf shall deem expedient, and payment ' may be made for any part of such subscription, either in lands or other property; and the said company may receive voluntary donations of land or other property, and hold the Donations. same as part of its capital stock. and convey real after organiza tion. 4. The said company may hold land not exceeding one Power to hold hundred thousand acres, and may sell and dispose of the estate. same by deeds of conveyance, executed by the president, under authority of the board of directors. And in case the said company shall organize and proceed to act as a corporate body before the whole, amount of capital stock shall have Subscriptions been subscribed, the president and directors shall have power to receive further subscriptions. And it shall be lawful for bodies corporate and politic to subscribe for and be owners of Subscriptions by the capital stock, or any part thereof, of said company. And the said company shall have power to connect their said rail- Connections with road with any railroad or railroads that is or may be constructed on or near or across the route of its road, and the companies of such railroad or railroads so connected with, shall furnish all needful facilities for the transhipment of passengers and freight from and to the same. corporations. other railroads. directors 5. Whenever five thousand shares of the said capital stock Election of shall have been subscribed for, the said company may be or- and officers. ganized by the election of nine directors, who from their own number may elect a president and vice president, and may appoint and provide for the necessary officers of said company. The said president and directors shall have power and Powers of authority to conduct all the business of said company, to borrow money for its use, to execute deeds of trust or mortgage on its property, in order to secure the payment of all its debts, contracts, or liabilities, or any of them. directors. 6. The first meeting of the stockholders of said company First meeting of shall be held at Clarksburg, in the county of Harrison, and stockholders. all subsequent meetings at such place upon the line of said road as the directors from time to time may appoint. And the said stockholders shall have authority, at their first meeting or any subsequent meeting, to fix and determine the place of meeting of the directors and the principal office of said Principal office. company. Branches. Representation of bondholders 7. The said company may and shall have full power and authority to locate, construct, and maintain any branch railroad or railroads not exceeding twenty miles in length. 8. The stockholders of the said company may admit the in stockholders' bondholders under any mortgage authorized by the company to representation in the meetings of the stockholders, and determine the ratio of votes to be cast therein by them. meeting. Exemption from taxation. Act may be amended, but not so as to affect rights of creditors or stockholders. 9. The property of the said company shall be exempt from taxation until its net earnings exceed ten per cent upon its capital stock. 10. The legislature reserves the right to alter or amend this act, but such alteration or amendment shall not affect or impair the right of the creditors of the corporation to have the property and assets thereof applied in the discharge of their respective claims, or of the stockholders to have the surplus which may remain after providing for the debts and liabilities of the corporation distributed among themselves according to their respective interests. orporators. CHAPTER 42.-An ACT to amend and re-enact the first section of an act, entitled "An Act to incorporate the Guyandotte Valley Railroad Company," passed July 13, 1868. Passed February 26, 1870. Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia : 1. That James Bumgardner, O. W. Mather, James H. Ferguson, E. D. Wright, and H. J. Samuels, of the county of Cabell; John Alford, Jerome Shelton, B. F. Curry, and John W. Ballard, of the county of Lincoln; Thomas Buchanan, Eli Gore, Jasper Perry, Tolbert S. Godley, Theophilus Fowler, Burbass C. Toney, and William W. McDonald, of the county of Logan; William N. Henderson, William Walker, Leroy B. Chambers, Charles Stewart, and Thomas Cook, of the county of Wyoming; William Prince, John Cook, Garner Caloway, and Sparil Bailey, of the county of Raleigh; Neville C. Beckley, T. J. Simpson, and George Crooks, of Jumping Branch, county of Mercer, and such other persons as may be ny. railroad. come associated with them in the manner hereinafter pro- Incorporation. vided, shall be and are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, by the name of "The Guyandotte Valley Railroad Style of compaCompany," and by that name shall have succession, and have power to sue and be sued in any court whatever; and may have and use a common seal, with the right to alter or renew the same at pleasure; and shall have all the powers, rights and franchises necessary to locate, construct and maintain a rail- Construction of road, to be known as "The Guyandotte Valley Railroad," to begin at some point at or near Barboursville, in the county of Cabell, and to run thence by the most practicable route Route of road. by the way of the falls of Guyandotte river, in the county of Lincoln; Chapmansville, in the county of Logan; by Logan court-house to Wyoming court-house, in the county of Wyoming; thence up the Laurel Fork, by the way of the Skin Poplar Gap, Trap Hill, Raleigh court-house, Jumping Branch, to the mouth of Greenbrier river, in Monroe county. And the said company shall be and is hereby invested with all and Company investsingular the rights, powers, franchises and privileges for sur powers as the veying, locating, constructing and equipping said railroad, Ohio Railroad. and working, repairing, preserving, and controlling the same, and the necessary vehicles and appurtenances thereto belonging, for the safe, convenient transportation of freight and passengers thereon; and with the power and authority to charge and collect tolls on passengers thereon; and with the power and authority to collect tolls on passengers and freight on the same and every part thereof, which the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad enjoys under the act incorporating said company, and the acts amendatory and supplementary relating thereto, and subject to any of the laws of this state, as if the same were hereby expressly enacted as part hereof. ed with same Chesapeake and CHAPTER 43.-An ACT directing the auditor to allow a certain credit to Benjamin White, sheriff of Mercer county. Passed February 26, 1870. Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia : The auditor is directed to allow Benjamin White, sheriff of Credit of $2,105,Mercer county, a credit of two thousand one hundred and 66 allowed. five dollars and sixty-six cents, for the year eighteen hundred |