CHAPTER 170. AN ACT incorporating the Memphis City Schools. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That the Memphis City Schools shall hereafter be placed under the exclusive management and control of a Board of Visitors, consisting of as many members as there may be Wards in said city, each Ward electing one member, as hereinafter directed. And that said Board are hereby created and constituted a body politic and corporate, by the name and style of the Board of Visitors of the Memphis City Schools, who shall have succession, and by the name and style aforesaid may purchase, receive, hold and possess property of any kind in trust for the use of said City Schools, may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, in all courts of record, and courts of inferior jurisdiction. And said Board shall have power to make, have and use a common scal, and the same to break, alter and renew at their pleasure, and generally to do and execute all acts, matters and things, which a corporation or body politic in law, may and can lawfully do and execute. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That the members of said Board of Visitors shall be chosen in each Ward of the city of Memphis, by ballot, on the first Saturday of June, in each year, by such voters as are entitled to vote for Mayor and Aldermen of said city; and the Mayor shall cause at least ten days previous notice of said election to be given in one or more newspapers in said city; the city Marshal holding the polls, and appointing three judges of election in each Ward, and the members so chosen, shall hold their offices for one year from the first day of the next succeeding July, and until their successors are elected. SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That the Board of Visitors shall choose from their own members a President, and a Secretary, and a Treasurer, either within or without their own body. The Treasurer to give bond in such penalty as the Board may direct, for the proper and faithful performance of his duties, and with such securities as the Board may approve, and all contracts, orders, drafts upon the school funds, notes, bonds, obligations, conveyances, transfers, and other instruments of writing made or executed by the Board, shall be signed by the President, and shall be countersigned by the Secretary, or by such other person as shall be duly and legally authorized by said Board, and, when necessary, sealed with the corporate seal of said Board. Said Board shall have power to employ and dismiss superintendents, teachers, agents, servants, &c., and determine their compensation, to contract for school-rooms, purchase furniture, fuel, fixtures, apparatus, books, stationery, maps, globes, and whatever else they may deem necessary for the proper instruction of pupils, and adopt such rules and regulations for their own government and for the government of the schools, as they may deem expedient, keeping a full record of their proceedings; and said Board shall have power to fill vacancies occurring in their own body. SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That no one shall be admitted as a free pupil in said city schools except the children of white persons residing within the limits of the city; but, the Board of Visitors may admit children living beyond said limits, upon payment, in advance, to the Treasurer, of such tuition fees as they shall prescribe, and such Pupils. payment may also be taken for pupils whose parents or guardians reside out of the city but permit their children or wards to reside within it, to attend the city schools. And the Board may, at their discretion, prescribe higher branches of study than those which are commonly taught in the public schools of cities, and fix to such branches of study reasonable tuition fees, to be paid by such pupils as may engage in them: Provided, the school funds be inadequate to pay the increased expenses. SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That all moneys accruing to those civil districts of Shelby county, which Districts. embrace within their boundaries any portion of the city of Memphis, shall be paid to the treasurer of the Board of Visitors, in the proportions to which those portions are entitled by their amount of scholastic population. The treasurer of the city of Memphis shall also pay over to the treasurer of the Board of Visitors all school moneys which may be in his hands; and the Board of Visitors shall, in the month of June every year, make an approximate estimate of the expenses of the city schools for the next ensuing year, and submit the same to the Mayor and Aldermen, whose immediate successors in office shall proceed to levy a tax upon such property as is taxed for other city purposes, not to exceed a ratio of ten dollars for every Tax.. white youth in the city between the ages of eight and sixteen years. This tax, to be called the school tax, shall be collected by the tax collector of the city, and paid to the treasurer of the Board of Visitors as collected, subject only to the orders of said Board. SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That at the close of every scholastic year, on the 30th of June, the Board of Visitors shall publish, for the information of their constituents, an annual report, setting forth their principal doings and expenses for the year, together with their estimate of expenses for the succeeding year. SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That all previous acts in reference to the Memphis city schools are hereby repealed, and that this act shall take effect from and after its passage. > DANIEL S. DONELSON, Speaker of the House of Representatives. JOHN C. BURCH, Passed March 20, 1858. Speaker of the Senate. Taxes. School fund. CHAPTER 171. AN ACT for the relief of Cheatham county. WHEREAS, Through the oversight of the last General Assembly, the act establishing Cheatham county did not give the Court of said county any power to levy any tax for 1856, but gave to the old counties the power to levy a tax upon the citizens of Cheatham county: Whereas, the counties of Davidson and Montgomery, in pursuance of this power, did tax the citizens of Cheatham county to pay their own county expenses of 1856, and did collect said tax after the organization of Cheatham county, in April, 1856; and, whereas, the county of Cheatham incurred a heavy debt for its county expenses in 1856, and for the extraordinary expenses incident to its organization, from which it cannot be relieved, except by double and excessive taxation, all of which has happened through the imperfect legislation of the last General Assembly. Therefore, SEC. 1. Be it enacted, by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That the Treasurer is hereby required, out of the school fund for 1858, to pay over to Cheatham county the share of the School and Academy fund, to which said county was entitled in 1857, according to its scholastic population. SEC. 2. Be it enacted, That the share of Cheatham county in the Academy fund, shall be paid over to Mill wood Institute, which is hereby incorporated as the County Academy: Provided, this appropriation meet the approval of the County Court of Cheatham county. SEC. 3. Be it enacted, That the County Courts of Cheatham, Davidson, and Montgomery counties may each appoint a Commissioner, and it shall be the duty of the Commissioners of Davidson and Cheatham counties to run anew the dividing line between said counties, and that it County lince. shall also be the duty of the Commissioners of Cheatham and Montgomery counties to run anew the dividing line between said counties, and said lines, when run, shall be the established boundaries between Cheatham and Davidson, and Cheatham and Montgomery counties. SEC. 4. Be it enacted, That the name of the county town of Cheatham county shall be changed from Ashland to Sewance: Provided, That a majority of the County Court at its next April term, shall vote for this change. SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That the County Court of the county of Cheatham shall have the power to change the name of the county town of said county from Ashland to Cheathamville, or to whatever name said County Court may agree upon; Provided, That a majority of said County Court, at its next April term, shall vote for the said change; and that the said town shall be incorporated with such rights, powers, and privlieges, as are conferred by the incorporation of the town of Clarksville, with such boundaries as a majority of the citizens of said town may agree upon. DANIEL S. DONELSON, Speaker of the House of Representatives. Passed March 20, 1858. Speaker of the Senate. CHAPTER 172. AN ACT to authorize the election of an additional Justice of the Peace in the Tenth SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That there shall be elected by the qualified voters of the Tenth Civil District, including the town of Louisville, in the county of Blount, one additional Justice of the Peace, who shall reside within the corporate limits of said town of Louisville. SEC. 2. Be it enacted, The Constable of said Dietrict shall, after giving thirty days notice, in three or more public places in said District, proceed to open and hold said election, at the voting ground in said District; and said Justice of the Peace shall forever thereafter be elected as other Justices of the Peace for said county of Blount. DANIEL S. DONELSON, Speaker of the House of Representatives. JOHN C. BURCH, Passed March 20, 1858. Speaker of the Senate. CHAPTER 173. AN ACT to incorporate the Woodford and Turnersville Turnpike Company, and the Brown's Creek and Robertson Academy Turnpike Company, and the Rockwood Turnpike Company. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, That the subscribers of stock for building a road from the eastern terminus of the Clarksville and Port Royal Turnpike, with or near the road by the of Woodford to Turnersville, as in the act proway vided, shall constitute a body, corporate and politic, by the name of Woodford and Turnersville Turnpike Company. SEC. 2. Be it enacted, That the capital stock of said Company shall be sufficient to construct said road, divided into shares of twenty dollars each. SEC. 3. Be it enacted, That G. A. Woodson, John R. Elliott, B. F. Moody, of the county of Montgomery; Dr. A. D. Cage, John W. Pennington, of the county of Cheatham; James Darden, Sampson Rosson, E. E. Peacher, of the county of Robertson, be, and they are hereby, appointed Commissioners, any five of whom may act, to open books, at any time and place they may choose, for the subscription for stock to be used in the construction of said road. SEC. 4. Be it enacted, That as soon as five thousand dollars are subscribed for, in cash or labor, any three of the Commissioners shall appoint a meeting of the subscribers at Woodford, Montgomery county, giving said subscribers ten days notice of said meeting. The stockholders, or as many of them as shall assemble, shall elect seven Directors, each of whom shall be a stockholder; each shall have as many votes as he has shares, as well in th |