Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That William Brown, John W. Casey, Benjamin Kellogg, Philip Flagler, Samuel P. Bailey, Robert Stuart, James Allen, J. W. Fell, Samuel McRoberts, M. L. Covell and William Fithian, their associates, successors and assigns, be, and they are hereby created a body politic and corporate, under the name of the Pekin, Bloomington and Wabash Rail Road Company, and by that name shall be, and hereby are made capable in law to sue and be sued to final judgment and execution, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in any court of record, or in any other place whatever; to make, have and use a common seal, and the same to break, renew or alter at pleasure; and shall be, and hereby are vested with all the powers, privileges and immunities which are or may be necessary to carry into effect the purposes and objects of this act, as hereafter set forth; and the sacompanyid are hereby authorized and empowered to locate, construct and finally complete a rail road leading from Tremont, in Tazewell county, and passing through Bloomington, in M’Lean county, with the privilege of extending said road eastwardly to the state line, or at any point in a direction to unite with the Erie and Wabash canal at its termination on the Wabash river, in such manner and form as they shall deem to be most expedient; and for this purpose the company are authorized to lay out their road not exceeding six rods wide through the whole length, and for the purpose of cutting embankments and procuring stone and gravel, may take as

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much more land as may be necessary for the proper construction and security of said road: Provided, however, that all damages that may be occasioned 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 hereinafter provided: Provided, that in case the Pekin and Tremont Rail Road Company, incorporated at the present session of the General Assembly, shall not commence the rail road therein authorized to be made within one year from the passage of this act, and vigorously prosecute the same to its final completion, according to the provisions of their charter, the corporation hereby created shall have the right to continue and extend the rail road herein provided for, from the said town of Tremont to the town of Pekin on the Illinois river, under the same regulation as herein provided for other parts of the said road.

Sec. 2. The capital stock of said company shall consist of five thousand shares, not exceeding one hundred dollars each; and the immediate government and 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 are 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 company, and shall have authority to choose a clerk, who shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of his duty; and a treasurer, who shall give bonds to the corporation, and sureties to the satisfaction of the directors, in a sum not less than twenty thousand dollars, for the faithful discharge of his trust.

Sec. 3. The president and directors are hereby authorized and empowered, by themselves or their agents, to exercise all the powers herein granted to the company for the purposes of locating, constructing and completing said rail road, and for the transportation of persons, goods and merchandize, and all such other powers and authority for the management of the affairs of the company not heretofore granted, necessary and proper to carry into effect the object of this grant; to purchase and hold land, materials, engines, cars, and other necessary things, in the name of the corporation, for the use of said road and for the transportation of persons, goods and merchandize; to make such equal assessments, from time time, on all the shares of the said company as they may deem expedient and necessary in the execution and 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

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in case any subscriber shall neglect to pay his assessment for the space of thirty days after due notice by the trustees 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 transferred 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 interest and cost of sale: and shall be entitled to the overplus, if his share or shares sell for more than the assessment due, with interest and cost of sale: Provided, however, that no assessment shall be laid upon any shares of said company of a greater amount than one hundred dollars on a share.

Sec. 4. The said company shall have power to make, ordain and establish all such laws, rules, regulations and ordinances as they shall deem expedient and necessary to accomplish the designs and purposes and to carry into effect the provision of this act, for the assignment and transfer of its stock and for the well ordering, regulating and securing of the interests and affairs of the company: Provided, the same be not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this state and the United States.

Sec. 5. A toll shall be, and is hereby granted and established for the sole benefit of said company, upon all passengers and property of all descriptions which may be conveyed or transported upon said rail road, at such rates per mile as may be established and agreed upon, from time to time, by the directors of said company: the transportation of persons and property, the construction of wheels, the form of cars and carriages, the weight of loads, and all other matters and things in relation to the use of the said road shall be in conformity to such rules, regulations and provisions as the directors, from time [to time], prescribe and direct; and said road may be used by any persons who shall comply with such rules and regulations.

Sec. 6. The directors of said company, for the time being, are hereby authorized to erect toll-houses, establish gates, appoint toll-collectors, and demand toll upon the road where completed, and upon such parts thereof as shall, from time to time, be completed.

Sec. 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 and recovered in the manner provided by law for the recovery of damages happening by laying out of highways.

Sec. 8. That when the lands or other property or estate

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of any feme covert, infant, or persons non compos mentis, shall be necessary for the construction of said rail road, the husband of such feme 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.2

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 rail road, he, she or they, or any person or persons assisting, aiding or abetting in such trespass, shall forfeit and 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 held; to be sued for and recovered before any justice, or any court proper to try the same, by the treasurer of the company or other officer whom they may direct, to the use of said company; and such offender or offenders 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 conviction 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 discretion of the court before whom the conviction may be had.

Sec. 10. The annual meeting of the members of said corporation shall be holden on the first Monday of June, at such time and place as the directors, for the time being, may appoint; at which meeting the directors shall be chosen by ballot, each proprietor being entitled to 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 Illinois Advocate and Sangamon Journal of the time and place and purpose of such meeting, at least fifteen days before the time mentioned in such notice.

Sec. 11. If said rail road in the course thereof shall cross any river, canal, turnpike or highway, the said corporation shall so construct said rail road as not to obstruct the safe and convenient use of such river, canal, turnpike or highway.

Sec. 12. That if said company shall not have been organized, and the location of the route filed with the county commissioners of the county or counties in which the land proposed to be taken for the use of said rail road is situate, previous to the first of September, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and forty, and if the said corporation shall fail to complete the said rail road on or before the first day of January, eighteen hundred and fifty, in either of the abovenamed cases, this act shall be null and void.

Sec. 13. The 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 highway.

Sec. 14. That it shall be in the power of the state at any time during the continuance of this charter, after the expiration of thirty years from the opening for use of the rail road through, provided it be made, to purchase of the said company the said rail road and all the franchises, rights and privileges of the said company, by paying them therefor the amount expended in making said rail road, with ten per cent. per annum interest thereon; and after such purchase the limitation provided in the fifth section of this act shall cease and 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 and doings, receipts and expenditures, under the provisions of this act.

Approved, Jan. 16, 1836.