Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the persons hereafter to be elected pursuant to the provisions of this act, and their successors, be and they are hereby created a body politic and corporate, to be styled the “President and Trustees of the Waynesville Seminary,” and in that name to remain in perpetual succession. The said seminary shall be located and remain at or near Waynesville in the county of McLean, and state of Illinois.2

Sec. 2. The object of the said corporation, shall be the promotion of the general interests of education.

Sec. 3. The corporate powers hereby bestowed, shall be such only as are essential or useful in the attainment of said object, and such as are usually conferred on similar bodies politic, viz: To have perpetual succession; to make contracts; to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded; to grant and receive by its corporate name, and do all other acts that natural persons may; to accept, acquire, purchase or sell property, real, personal and mixed, in all lawful ways: to use, employ, manage and dipose of, all such property, and all money belonging to said corporation, in such manner as shall seem to a majority of the trustees best adapted to the promotion of the aforesaid object; to have a common seal, and to alter and change the same; to make and alter from time to time, such by-laws for its regulation, as are not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States or of this state, and to confer on such persons as may be considered worthy, such academical or honorary degrees, as are usually conferred on similar institutions.

Sec. 4. The president and trustees shall be stockholders in said corporation; and the trustees shall consist of eight persons, who together with the president, shall be elected by the stockholders annually, on the first Monday in January, and shall hold their offices until their successors are duly elected and qualified, and any person holding more than one right or share in said corporation, shall be entitled to one vote for each right or share so held; provided

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however, that no one person shall be entitled to more than five votes.

Sec. 5. The president and trustees of said corporation, shall have authority from time to time, to prescribe and regulate the course of studies to be pursued; to fix the rates of tuition, room rent, and the other expenses of the institution; to appoint instructors, and such other officers and agents as may be necessary in managing the concerns of the institution; to define their duties; to fix their compensation, and to displace or remove them; to erect necessary buildings; to purchase books, chemical and philosophical apparatus and other suitable means of instruction, and to make rules for the general management of the affairs of the institution.

Sec. 6. The trustees for the time being shall have power to remove any trustee from his office as such, for any dishonorable or criminal conduct; provided, That no such removal shall take place without giving to such trustee notice of the charge against him, and an opportunity to defend himself before the board, nor unless that two-thirds of the whole number of trustees for the time being concur in such removal. The trustees for the time being, shall have power to fill any vacancy that may occur in the board, from death, removal, resignation, or from any other cause. A majority of the trustees for the time being shall be a quorum to do business.

Sec. 7. It shall be the duty of said trustees to appoint a secretary and treasurer to the board. The treasurer shall be required to give a bond with sufficient security, in such penal sum as the board may prescribe, conditioned for the performance of such duties, as the by-laws may require of him.

Sec. 8. The said institution shall be open to all denominations of christians, and the profession of any particular religious faith shall not be required of any that may become students. All persons, however, may be suspended or expelled from this institution by the trustees thereof, who do not comply with its by-laws.

Sec. 9. The lands tenements and hereditaments, to be held in perpetuity by virtue of this act, by said corporation, shall not exceed six hundred and forty acres; provided however, That if any donations, grants or devise in land, shall, from time to time be made to said corporation, over and above the said six hundred and forty acres, which may be held in perpetuity as aforesaid, the same may be received and held by said corporation, for the period of five years, from the date of any such donation, grant or devise, at the end of which time, if said land shall not have been sold by the said corporation, then and in that case, the said lands so donated, granted or devised, shall revert

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to the donor, granter, or the heirs of the devisor of the same.

Sec. 10. That on the payment of the sum of ten dollars, to the treasurer of said institution, every free white person shall be considered a stockholder, and be entitled to one vote; and it shall be lawful for each and every stockholder, for the time being, of said institution, his executors, administrators and assigns, to give, sell, devise and dispose of their respective rights or shares in said institution, and that the said assignees shall be stockholders, and shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges in said institution, as the original stockholders are by this act.

Sec. 11. That Zebulon G. Cantrell, Joseph Statten, Russell Post, David Montgomery, William Stunton, Joel Jackson, John Brown, Dr. F. S. Harrison and James Hartson, of McLean county, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners, to solicit and receive subscriptions of stock to said institution, and give receipts for the same; and when the sum of one thousand dollars of stock is subscribed, said commissioners, or any three of them, shall be and they are hereby authorized to give public notice, by posting up written notices in six of the most public places in the county, of the time and place of holding an election of President and trustees of the said institution, which election shall be held in the town of Waynesville, Illinois, and that the said commissioners, or any three of the, be and they are hereby appointed judges of said election.

Sec. 12. That in case it should happen that any election of president and trustees should not take place on any day, when, pursuant to this act, it should have been made, the said corporation shall not for that cause be dissolved, but that it shall be lawful on any other day to make an election of president and trustees, in such manner as shall have been regulated by the by-laws and ordinances of said corporation.

Approved March 2, 1837.