A Bill

To incorporate the “Alton1 Wabash ^and Eari^ Rail Road Company.”

Section 1 Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly That John Tilson Jr.William F. Thornton, Stephen Griggs, thier associates, successors and assigns be, and they are hereby created a body politic and Corporate under the name of the Alton2Wabash ^and Eari^ Rail Road Comp^y and by that name shall be, and hereby are made capable in Law, to sue, & to be sued to final judgment and execution, plead & be impleaded, defend and be defended, in any Courts of record, or in any other place whatever; to make have & use a common seal & the same to break, renew, or alter at pleasure; and shall be and are hereby vested with all the powers, privilages & immunities, which are or

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may be necessary to carry into effect the purposes and objects of this act, as hereafter set forth. And the said Company are hereby authorized and empowered to locate, construct, and finally complete a Rail Road, leading from Alton, on the Mississippi River in this State, ^running through Hillsboro, Shelbyville ^and^ Danville to the line of the state ^ & terminating at the Wabash & Erie Canal on the Wabash River, in Indiana
In such manner and form as they shall deem to be most expedient, and for this purpose the said Company are authorized to lay out their road, not exceeding six rods wide, through the whole length: and for the purpose of cuttings, embankments, & procuring stone and gravel, may take as much more Land as may be necessary for the proper construction and security of said Road: provided however: that all damages that may be occassioned to any person or corporation, by the taking of such Land or materials for the purposes aforesaid, shall be paid for by said corporation in the manner hereafter provided.

Sec[Section] 2. The capital stock of said Company shall consist of Twenty thousand shares; ^of one hundred dollars each^ and the immediate government & direction of the affairs of the said Company shall be vested in a board of not less than five Directors, who shall be chosen by the members of the corporation, in the manner hereinafter provided, and shall hold their offices until others shall be duly qualified to take their places as Directors, a majority of whom shall form a quorum for the transaction of business, shall elect one of their own number to be president of the board, who shall also be president of the Company; and shall have authority to choose a clerk, who shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of his duty, & a Treasurer, who shall give bonds to the corporation, with sureties to the satisfaction of the Directors in a sum not less than twenty thousand Dollars for the faithful discharge of his trust.

Sect 3 The President & Directors, for the time being, are hereby authorized & empowered, by themselves or their agents, to exercise all the powers herein granted to the Company for the purpose of locating, constructing & completing said Rail Road: and for the transportation of persons, goods & merchandise: and all such other powers & authority for the management of the affairs of the Company, not heretofore granted, as may be necessary and proper to carry into effect the object of this grant: to purchase & hold land, materials, ingines, cars and other necessary things in the name of the corporation, for the use of said Road, & for the transportation of persons, Goods & Merchandise: to make such equal assessments, from time to time, or all the shares of in said Company, as they may deem expedient,

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property of all descriptions which may be conveyed or transported upon said road, at such rates per mile as may be agreed upon and established from time to time by the directors of said Company. The transportation of Persons & property, the construction of wheels, the form of cars & carriages, the weight of Loads, & all other matters & things in relation to the use of said Road, shall be in conformity to such rules, regulations & provissions as the Directors from time to time prescribe & direct, & said road may be used by any persons who shall comply with such rules & regulations: Provided however, that if at the expiration of ten years from & after the completion of said Road, the net income or receipts from tolls & other profits, taking the ten years aforesaid as the basis of calculation, shall

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have amounted to more than ten per ct[percent] per annum upon the cost of the road the Legislature may take measures to alter & reduce the rate of tolls and other profits, in such manner as to take off the overplus for the next ten years, calculating the amount of transportation upon the road to be the same as the ten preceeding years: and at the expiration of every ten pre ceeding years thereafter the same preceedings may be had: Provided further: that the legislature shall not at any time, so reduce the tolls & other profits as to produce less than ten per centum upon the cost of the said Rail Road, without the consent of said corporation: and no other Rail Road than the one hereby granted, shall within Fifty years from the passing of this act,

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and necessary in the execution ^ & progress ^ of the work, and direct the same to be paid to the Treasurer of the Company, and the Treasurer shall give notice of all such assessments. And in case any subscriber shall neglect to pay his assessment for the space of thirty days after due notice by the Treasurer of said Company, the directors may order the Treasurer to sell such share, or shares at public auction, after giving due notice thereof, to the highest bidder, and the same shall be transfered to the purchaser: and such delinquent subscriber shall be held accountable to the Company for the balance, if his share or shares shall sell for less than the assessment due thereon, with the interest and cost of sale, and shall be entitled to the occupancy, if his share, or shares, shall sell for more than the assessment due with interest and cost of sale:

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provided however: that no assessments shall be laid upon any shares in said Company of a greater amount than one Hundred Dollars or a share

Sec 4 The said Company shall have power to make, ordain, & establish all such laws, rules, regulations & ordinances, as they shall deem expedient & necessary to accomplish the designs & purposes & to carry into effect the provisions of this act, for the assignment & transfer of its stock, & for the [wellordering?], regulating, & securing of the interests & affairs of the Company: Provided: the same be not repugnant to the Constitution & laws of this State & the United States.

Sect 5. A Toll be & hereby is granted and established for the sole benefit of said Company, upon all passengers and

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be authorized to be made, leading from said Alton to any place within ten miles of the Eastern termination of the Rail way hereby established.

Sect 6. The Directors of said Company for the time being are hereby authorized to erect toll Houses, establish gates, appoint toll gatherers, and demand toll, upon the road, when completed, and upon such parts thereof as shall from time to time be completed.

Sect 7. The said Company shall be holden to pay all damages that may arise to any person or persons, corporation, or corporations, by taking their land for said Rail Road when it cannot be obtained by voluntary agreement, to be estimated & recovered in the manner provided by Law for the recovery of damages happening by the laying out of high ways.

Sect 8. That when the lands or other property or estate of any femme covert, infant, or person non compos mentis, shall be necessary for the construction of said Rail Road, the husband of such femme covert, and the guardian of such infant or person non compos mentis, may release all damages for any lands or estate, taken or appropriated as aforesaid, as they might do, if the same were holden by them, in their own right respectively.

Sec 9. That if any person shall wilfully, maliciously, or wantonly, and contrary to law, obstruct the passage of any carriage on said Rail Road, or in any way spoil, injure or destroy said Rail Road, or any part thereof, or any thing belonging thereto, or any material or implements to be employed in the construction or for the use of said Road; he, she or they, or any person or persons, assisting

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aiding or abeting in such trespass, shall forfeit & pay to said Company, for every such offence, treble such damages as shall be proved before the justice, court or jury, before whom the trial shall be had: to be sued for & recovered before any Justice, or any court proper to try the same by the Treasurer of the Company, or other office whom they may direct, to the use of said Company. And such offendor or offendors shall be liable to indictment by the grand inquest for the county within which such trespass shall have been committed for any offence or offences, contrary to the above provisions, and on correction thereof before any court competent to try the same shall pay a fine not exceeding one hundred Dollars, nor less than thirty Dollars to the State, or may be imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year at the descretion of the court before whom the convictions may be had.

Sect 10. The annual meeting of the members of said Company shall be holden or the first Monday of May at such time & place as the Directors for the time being shall appoint, at which meeting the Directors shall be chosen by ballot, each proprietor being entitled to give as many votes as he holds shares: provided that no vote shall be given by any proprietor by reason of any share held by him, exceeding one tenth part of the whole number of shares. And the person first named in this act, or any two of the persons named therein, are hereby authorized to call the first meeting of said corporation by giving notice in the Alton Spectator to the of of the time & place & purpose of such meeting, at least fifteen days before the time mentioned in such notice. and the

Sect 11. If said Rail Road in the course thereof shall cross any River, canal turnpike, or other highway or private way the said corporation shall so construct said Rail Road as not to obstruct the safe & convenient use of such River, canal turnpike, or other highway or private way.

Sec^t 12 That if said Company shall not have been organized, & the location of the route filed with the County Commissioner of the County in which the land proposed to be taken for the use of said Rail Road is situate previous to the first of August in the year of our Lord 1838, and if the said corporation shall fail to complete the said Rail Road on or before the first day of January 1846, in either of the above named cases this act shall be null & void.

Sect 13 The said Rail Road Company shall constantly maintain, in good repair, all bridges with their abutments and embankments which they may construct for the purpose of conducting their Rail Road over any canal, river, turnpike, or other high way ^or^ any private way.

14. That it shall be in the power of the State at any time during the continuance of this charter, after the expiration of twenty five years from the opening for use of the Rail Road here3 provided to be made, to purchase of the said Company the said Rail Road, and all the purchase rights & privileges of the said Company, by paying them therefor the amount expended in making said Rail Road, and in case at the time of such purchase the said Company shall not have received a net income equal to

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ten per cent per annum on the said expenditures, from the time of the payment thereof by the stockholders, by paying the Company such additional sum as together with the tolls & profits which they shall have received from the said Rail Road, will be equal to net profit of ten per ct.[percent] per annum on the cost of said Road from the date of the payment thereof by the stockholders of the said Compy to the time of such purchase: and every thing after such purchase the limitation provided in the fifth Section of this act shall cease & be of no effect. And it shall be the duty of said Company from year to year to make report to the Legislature of their acts & doings, receipts and expenditures under the provisions of this act.