Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That there shall be and is hereby established in the county of Putnam an institution for the education of youth in the various branches of useful knowledge by the name of the Lacon Academy, and that Augustus Pomeroy, Jonathan Babb, Joseph Woodruff, Robert Boal, William Fenn, William Fisher, Samuel Howe, Ira J. Fenn, and their successors, be and they are hereby appointed trustees of said institution, and constituted a body corporate and politic with perpetual succession, with all the powers and privileges incident to a corporation, to be known and distinguished by the name and style of the trustees of the “Lacon Academy.”

Sec. 2. That said trustees by the corporate name aforesaid shall be competent to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in all courts of law or equity, may have a common seal, and alter the same at pleasure, and shall fill all vacancies in their own body occasioned by death, resignation, or neglect for more than one year, to attend to the duties of the trust.

Sec. 3. That the said trustees, or a majority, when met, shall constitute a board, shall have power to appoint a President, Secretary, and Treasurer, and such other officers and agents as they may deem necessary, and to prescribe their duties, and to make, ordain, and establish such by-laws, rules and regulations for conducting the affairs of said corporation as they may deem proper: Provided, That the same be not repugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States, or of this State.

Sec. 4. That the said trustees, in their corporate capacity, shall be capable of receiving and acquiring by purchase, devise, gift, bequest, or otherwise, property, real, personal or mixed, to be used, improved, expended, or conveyed, for the purposes of the trust: Provided, That the annual income of the real property of said corporation shall not exceed four thousand dollars, and that the funds of said institution shall never be used for purposes of banking.

Sec. 5. That the said trustees shall have power to appoint such officers, professors and teachers as may be necessary for the instruction and government of the institution and prescribe their duties.

Sec. 6. That said trustees shall have power to elect honorary members, who shall have seats in the board of trustees, and be admitted to take part in the discussions therein, but not to vote.

Sec. 7. That any future legislature shall have power to alter or amend this act, so far as it may be necessary to restrict the corporation to the powers hereby intended to be conferred: Provided, That the property, or the funds of the corporation, or the management thereof, shall not thereby be diverted or changed from the purposes and direction indicated by the donors.

Sec. 8. That the funds of the corporation shall be appropriated exclusively for the purposes of education, and not for the individual benefit of the members of the corporation.

Sec. 9. That in case any donation, devise, or bequest, shall be made for the particular purposes accordant with the design of this institution, and the corporation shall accept the same: every such donation, devise, or bequest, shall be applied in conformity with the express conditions of the donor or devisor: Provided, That said corporation shall

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not be allowed to hold more than six hundred and forty acres of land at one time, unless the said corporation shall have received the same by gift, grant, or devise, and in such case they shall be required to sell or dispose of the same within three years from the time they shall acquire such title, and, on failure to do so, said land shall revert to the original donor, grantor, devisor, or their heirs.

Approved 19th January, 1837.