Section 1. ^Copy this Page and the last.^ Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly; that a Corporation is hereby created for the purposes mentioned in this Act, and all persons who shall become holders of the stock of this Company pursuant to this Act: shall be and they are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, by the name of the “President and Directors of the Rushville Rail-Road ^company^,” and by that name shall be competent to contract, and be contracted with, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, defend and be defended, in all courts and places, and in all matters whatsoever.

Sec[Section] 2. The said Corporation are hereby empowered to construct a Rail-Road, from Rushville in Schuyler County, to the Illinois River, and to [take?], transport, and carry property and persons upon the same, by any power which the said Corporation may choose to employ; and by this Act the said Corporation are hereby vested with the right and privelege of locating the ground for said Rail-Road for a double or single track in the first instance, and having the damages in regard to the same, assessed in the manner hereinafter provided for.

Sec 3 That if the Corporation hereby created, do not within seven years from the passage of this Act, construct and finish, and put in operation the said Road, then the said corporation shall thence forth and forever cease.

Sec 4 That John Scripps, Hart Fellows, Josiah Parrott, John [T?]. Worthington, James McCroskey, Richard Dougherty, Joseph Burton, Jess M. McCutcheon and Ralph H. Hurlbut, are hereby appointed Commissioners, the duty of whom, or a majority ^of them^ and a majority of the survivors of them, shall at some suitable place in Rushville, and in St. Louis, and in such other cities, Towns and places, as the said commissioners, or the said majority of the survivors may determine upon, and at such times as they may appoint open or cause to be opened books to receive subscriptions for the shares of the stock of said Corporation, at one hundred dollars a share, for such number of shares not

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exceeding fifteen hundred, as the said Commissioners, or said majority of them, or said majority of the survivors of them, may fix upon and determine, and to do such other things, as in their opinion may be calculated, to get said stock taken up: at least thirty days public notice shall be given by said Commissioners, or said portion of them: of the time and place of the opening of the said books, in one of the public newspapers in each of the said places. No subscription shall be received unless at least [...?] ^one^ dollars on each share subscribed, be paid at the time of subscription. And if the whole of the said shares shall not be taken within twenty days after the books shall have been opened as aforesaid, the said commissioners, or said portion of them shall open other books, on such days, and at such places, as they shall deem expedient, giving at least twenty days notice of the time and place of reopening said books, in one or more Newspapers printed at or near the place of reopening said books.

Sec 5 That the said Commissioners be, and they are hereby authorised, by their Agents, surveyors and engineers, to cause such examinations and surveys, to be made of the ground from Rushville, to any point, or points on the Illinois River, as they may think proper, to form an estimate of the cost of making the said Rail Road.

Sec 6. The stock, property and concerns of the said corporation, shall be managed and conducted by nine Directors, being stock holders and citizens of this State, but five of the Directors of said Corporation shall form a board and they, or a majority of them shall be competent, to transact all the business of the said corporation, and they shall have full power to make and prescribe such bye laws, rules, and regulations, as to them shall appear needful and proper, touching the management and disposition of the stock, property, estate, and priveleges, and effects of the said corporation, the transfer of shares and touching . . .

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shall forfeit and pay to the said corporation double the amount of damages sustained by means of such offence, or injury, to be recovered in the name of such corporation with costs of suit, by action of Debt, or Case, to be brought in any Court of Record in this State, or before any Justice of the Peace in the County, where any such injury may have occurred, and the person or persons so offending shall moreover be deemed guilty of a misdimeaner, and be liable to fine and imprisonment.

Sec [20?]. That when the said Rail Road shall be completed, the President and Directors, shall make out a minute, full, and detailed statement of the expense of constructing the same. accrued directly or indirectly; which report shall be under oath, of the President and Directors, and shall be filed in the Secretary’s office of this State, and from thenceforth shall annually, when required, make a report unto the said Office of the clear and nett amount of any annual profit from the rail-road.