A Bill for an act to incorporate the Canton and Utica Rail Road company.
Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly. That Charles Hunt, Isaiah Stillman, Gabriel Walling, Lathrop W. Curtis, Alexander Wilson, Nathaniel D. B. Childs, Joel Wright, Jonas Breed, Starling Turner, John Orendoff and Lewis Bideman, their associates successors and assigns are hereby created a body corporate and
politic, under the name and style of the “Canton and Utica Rail Road Company;” and by that name may be and are hereby made culpable in law and equity, to sue
and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, defend and be defended,
in any court or courts of record, or in any ^other^ place whatever; to make, have and use, a common seal, and the same to break, renew,
and alter at pleasure; and shall be, and are hereby 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 hereinafter set forth. And the said company are hereby authorised and empowered to locate, construct, and finally construct complete, a rail road commencing
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on the Illinois River, at or near the mouth of Copperas Creek, thence to Utica, in such maner and form as the said company shall deem most expedient; and for this purpose said company are authorised to lay out said road not to exceed eight rods wide through the whole length; and
for the purpose of cutting embankments, stone, gravel, may take as much more land
as may be necessary for the proper construction and security of said road Provided
that all damages that may be occasioned to any person or persons, by the taking of
such land or materials, for the purposes aforesaid, shall be paid for by said company, in the manner hereafter provided.
Sec. 2. The capital stock of said company shall consist of one thousand shares, with the privilege of increasing the same to
two thousand shares in the whole of fifty dollars each; and the immediate government
and direction of the affairs of said company, shall be vested in seven directors, who shall be chosen by the members of the company, in the manner hereinafter provided, who who shall hold their offices for one year; and until others shall be duly elected
and qualified to
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take their places as directors; and the said directors, a majority of whom shall
form a quorum for the transaction of business, shall elect one of their 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, and a treasurer, who shall give bond to the company, with sureties to the satisfaction of the directors.
Sec. 3 The president and directors for the time being are hereby authorised and empowered, by themselves or their agents, to exercise all the powers and authority
herein granted for the purpose of locating, constructing and completing said rail
road, and all such other powers and authority, for the management of the affairs of
said company, not heretofore granted, as may be necessary to carry into effect the object of this
grant, to purchase and hold lands, materials, and other necessary things, in the name
of the company, for the use of the road; to make such equal assessments from time to time, on all
the shares in said company, as they may deem expedient and necessary, in the progress and execution of the work,
and direct the same to be paid to the treasurer of the company, and the treasurer
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shall give notice of all such assessments. The boards of directors shall have power
to addopt rules and bye laws, regulating the manner and time of payment of all assessments
they may order, under such penalties as they may deem proper.
Sec. 4. Said company shall be holden to pay all damages that may arise to any person or persons, by taking
their lands, stone or gravel, for the use of said rail road, when the same cannot
be obtained by voluntary agreement, to be estimated and recovered in the manner provided
by law for the recovery of damages happening by the laying out of highways.
Sec. 5. When the lands or other property or estate of any married woman, infant, or person
non compas mentis, shall be necessary for the construction of said rail road, the husband of such married
woman, and the guardian of such infant, or person non compas mentis, may release all damages in relation to the land or estate to be taken and appropriated
as aforesaid, as fully as they might do, if the same were holden in their right, respectively.
Sec. 6. If any person shall wilfully, maliciouly, or wantonly and contrary to law, obstruct the passage
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of any car on said rail road, or any part thereof or any thing belonging thereto,
he, she, or they, or any person assisting, shall forfeit and pay to said company, for every such offence, treble such damages as shall be provide before any court competent to try the same,
to be sued for in the name, and in behalf of said company; and such offender or offenders shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable
to indictment, in the same manner as other indictments are found, in any county or
counties where such offence shall have been committed; and upon conviction, such offenders shall be liable to
a fine not not exceding five thousand dollars, for the use of such county where the indictment may be found,
or may be imprisoned not exceeding one year, at the discretion of the court before
whom the conviction may be had.
Sec. 7. Said company shall so construct their said rail road across public high ways so as not to hinder,
obstruct, or interfere with the passage and free use of such public highways; and
if said rail road shall not be so constructed, it shall be lawful for the persons
agrieved to abate the same, in the same manner as is now provided by law for the
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removal of obstructions to public highways.
Sec. 8. The time of holding the annual meeting of said company for the election of directors shall be fixed and determined by the bye laws of said
company; and at all meetings each stockholder shall be entitled to vote in person, or by
proxy, duly authorised, one vote for each share he or she may own.
Sec. 9. That Charles Hunt, Isaiah Stillman, Gabriel Walling, Lathrop W. Curtis, Alexander Wilson Nathaniel B. Childs, Joel Wright Jonas Breed, Starling Turner, John Orendoff and Lewis Bideaman, ^or a majority of them^ are hereby appointed commissioners to open subscription books for the stock of said
company. Said commissioners, or a majority of them, are hereby authorised to open subscription books for said stock at such places as they may deem proper,
and shall give at least thirty days notice of the time and place where such books
shall be opened, and shall keep the same open for five days, unless the whole number
of shares of said company shall be sooner subscribed; and they shall require each subscriber to pay one dollar
on each share subscribed at the time of subscribing; and at the termination
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of said term of five days, or sooner, if the whole amount of said shares shall be
taken, said commissioners shall call a meeting of the stock holders, by giving ten
days notice in some public newspaper printed in this state, of the time and place of such meeting: At such meeting it shall be lawful to elect
the directors of said company; and when the directors of said company shall have been chosen, the said commissioners shall deliver said subscription books,
together with all sums of money received by them, to said directors; Provided, that no election shall be held until the whole number of shares of said company shall have been subscribed; and Provided also, that each director shall, at the time of the election, hold at least ten shares
of the capital stock of said company.
Sec. 10. Said board of directors shall have power to make, ordain, and establish such
bye laws rules and regulations, and ordinances as they may deem expedient and necessary
to accomplish the purposes, and carry into effect the provissions of this act, and for the well ordering, regulating, and secureing the interests and affairs of said company; Provided
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the same be not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this state or of the United States.
Sec. 11. The said company shall, on or before the fourth day of July 1838, commence the construction of said
rail road, and have the same completed within five years thereafter; and should the
said company fail to have the said road commenced and completed as herein provided, in either
case this act shall be null and void.
Sec. 12. Said company shall have a discressionary power to continue said rail road from Utica to Canton in Fulton County in the same manner and form and upon the same conditions as herein
granted, from the place of beginning on the Illinois River to Utica; and for this purpose shall be vested with all the powers, priveleges and immunities heretofore granted in this charter, and shall be governed by the same
rules regulations and bye laws. Provided said company shall commence the construction of said proposed continuation within five years
from the obtaining
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of this incorporation, and complete the same previous to the expiration of this charter.
Sec. 13. Said Company shall have further power, if they deem it most expedient practicable to construct a canal in lieu of the above named rail road ^on any part thereof^ under the same rules, regulations, bye laws and restrictins, and have the same powers, privileges and immunities as heretofore granted for the
construction of the aforesaid rail road.
Sec. 14. The Legislature hereby reserves to itself the right to alter, repeal or
amend or repeal this incorporation by a vote of two thirds of both branches of the
General Assembly.
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rail road, on any part thereof, under the same rules, regulations, bye laws, and
restrictions and have the same powers, priviliges and immunities, as heretofore granted for the construction of the aforesaid rail
road
Sec 14. The Legislature reserves the right to Alter, Amend, or Repeal this act whenever in the Opinion of
the General Assembly the public good may require the same
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No 391
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No. 62
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An act to Incorporate the Canton and Utica Rail Road Company” H
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[01]/[31]/[1837]
[01]/[31]/[1837]
Engrossed
Handwritten Document, 12 page(s), Folder 89, HB 94, GA Session 10-1, Illinois State Archives (Springfield, IL) ,