Sec[Section] 1 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 Pekin 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 as natural persons may, to have, and use a common seal, and the same to alter at pleasure.

Sec 2 The said corporation is hereby empowered to construct a Rail Road from Pekin in Tazwell County, to Canton in Fulton County, or to some intermediate point between Pekin, and Canton suitable for its termination; shall have power to take, transport, and carry, property and persons upon the same, by any power said corporation may choose to employ; and by this act the said Corporation are hereby vested with the power, right, and privilege, 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 thenceforth and forever cease.

Sec 4 That Daniel M Baily, Edward Jones, Charles Oakley, John W. Casey, Robert Stuart, Daniel Marks, Spencer Fields, Thomas Mather, John T Stuart, Oliver Lindley, Josephus Hewett,

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and Enos Coldsen, are hereby appointed Commissioners, the duty of whom, or a majority of them, and a majority of the successors of them, shall be, at some suitable place in the Town of Pekin, and Springfield, and at such other towns, and cities, as a majority of said Commissioners, or a majority of the survivors of them 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 exceeding two hundred, as said Commissioners or said majority of them, or said majority of the survivors of them, may fix upon and determine: and to do sucth other things, as in their opinions, may be best calculated to get said stock to be 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 opening of said books in one of the public news-papers in each of said places. No subscription shall be received, unless at least five Dollars on each share subscribed be paid at the time of subscription; and if the whole of said shares shall not be taken within twenty days after the said books shall have been opened, as aforesaid, the said commissioners, or the said portion of them as aforesaid, shall open other books, on such days, at such places as they may deem expedient, giving at least twenty days notice of the time and place of reopening said books, in one or more news papers 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 Pekin to the

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point of terminating said road; to select the point of terminating said route, as they may think proper, and 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 seven directors, being stockholders, and citizens of this state; but five of the said Directors of said corporation shall form a board, and they or a majority of them, shall be competent to transact all the business of said corporation; and they shall have full power to make and prescribe such bye laws, rules and regulations, as to them may appear needfull and proper touching the management and disposition of the stock, property, estate, priviliges and effects of the said corporation— the transfer of shares; and touching the duties and conduct of their officers, agents and servants, and the election of directors, and all other matters whatsoever, which may appertain to the concerns of the said corporation; and also shall have power to appoint a secretary, treasurer; and as many clerks, agents and servants as to them shall seem meet, and prescribe their duties; and to prescribe such salearies and allowances to them, and also to the President, as to the said board shall appear proper.

Sec. 7. As soon as the directors shall have been chosen, and the commissioners hereby appointed and authorised to act shall have been notified of their election, they shall pay over the whole amount of subscriptions, severally paid to, or received by them, into the hands, as to the order of the President and directors of said corporation;

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Provided, that if, on closing the books it shall be found, that more than the number of shares, prescribed by the said commissioners, have been subscribed, the excess shall be taken first from such as reside out of the state; then from corporations, and should these still be an excess, the same shall be taken, in proportion from the remainder, as nearly as may be convenient, until all are reduced to the proper amount.

Sec. 8 The election of directors under this act, shall be held at such time and place in the town of Pekin, in the county of Tazewell, as shall be directed by said commissioners, or said portion of them, authorised to act, as aforesaid; who are hereby appointed inspectors of said election; and these persons then elected as directors, shall hold their offices for one year, and until others are elected.

Sec. 9. The Directors for every subsequent year shall be elected by the stockholders, either in person, or by proxy, each share authorising one vote, at an election to be held from time to time, in the said town of Pekin, under the direction of the bye laws; and shall hold their offices for one year, and until others are elected in their stead.

Sec. 10. All elections shall be by ballot and the seven persons receiving the greatest number of votes shall be the directors; and if at any election two or more persons have an equal number of votes, then the directors who have been elected, shall proceed, by ballot, and by a plurality of voices, to determine the election from among those having an equal vote. And any vacancy that may

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happen from any cause among the directors may be supplied, for the time being, by the bye laws, or by the remaining directors, or a majority of them.

Sec. 11 The Directors elected, as soon as may be, after their election, shall proceed to choose, by ballot, one of their number to be President, who shall preside in the board until the next annual election; and in case of his death or resignation, they or such portion of them as may act as aforesaid, may proceed to fill the vacancy occasioned thereby for the residue of his term; and in case of the absence of the President, the directors president at any meeting of the board may elect a president pro tem.

Sec. 12. It shall be lawfull for the directors to require payment of the sums subscribed to the capital stock, at such times, in such proportions, and on such conditions, as they shall deem fit, under the penalty of the forfeiture of all previous payments thereon; and shall give notice of the payments thus required, and of the time and place when and where the same are to be paid, at least ninety days previous to the payment of the same, in some public newspaper of the state, and in the cities and places where the books of the company have been opened for the subscription, for stock, and stock actually taken thereat.

Sec. 13. That the said corporation be, and they are hereby authorised, by their agents surveyors and engineers, to cause such surveys and examinations to be made of the ground and country between Pekin and Canton, or any intermediate point which they may select as the termination of said

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rail road, as shall be necessary to determine the most advantageous route for the proper line or course whereon to construct their said rail road. And it shall be lawfull for said corporation to enter upon, and take possession of, and use all such lands and real estate as may be indispensable for the construction and maintenance of their said rail road, and the accomodations requisite and appertaining to the same; and may also hold and dispose of such lands as they may purchase or receive under the provisions of the first section of this act. Provided, That all lands or real estate entered and take possession of, and used by said corporation, for the purposes and accomodation of said rail road, or upon which the site for the said rail road shall have been located or determined, by the said corporation, shall be paid for by the said corporation in damages, if any be sustained by the owners thereof, or would be sustained by the owners thereof, by the use of the same, for the said rail road,—which damages shall be ascertained by the said corporation in the same manner that they are now ascertained in the case of public roads, running through the lands of individuals— some one of the said directors acting in the stead the supervisor, in the general road lane.—When the lands or other property of any married woman, infant, or person non compos mentis shall be necessary for the construction of said rail road; the husband of such married women, and the gaurdians of such infant or person non compos mentis, may release all damages in relation to the land or estate to be taken and appropriated as aforesaid,

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as they might do if the same were holden in their right respectively; and where the owner or owners of such lands reside out of the state, the said damages, having been ascertained as aforesaid, shall be paid on demand, with six percent per annum interest on the same.2

Sec. 14 The said corporation is hereby authorised to determine the width and dimension of said road and the said ^extent of the ^ premises attached thereto; and shall have power to regulate the time and manner in which goods and passengers shall be transported, taken and carried on the same; as well as the manner in which they shall collect the tolls, compensations and dues, on account of transportation and carriage Provided that the nett proceeds of said rail road shall not exceed twenty per cent per annum clear profits, upon the cost of the said rail road, taking every expense in and about the same, directly or indirectly expended.

Sec. 15. Any expenses necessarily incurred by the commissioners in carrying out the provisions of, or exercising the duties required of them by, this act, shall be paid out of the monies received by them from the subscribers of stock.

Sec. 16 This act shall be taken, and received by all courts, and by all judges, magistrates, and other public officers, as a public act; and shall be construed liberally for the beneficial purposes therein intended; and all printed copies of the same, which shall be, by, and under the authority of the General Assembly, shall be admitted as good evidence thereof, without

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any other proof whatever.

Sec 17 All conveyances of real estate, shall be made and signed by the President of this corporation, and shall have affixed to the conveyance the seal thereof.

Sec. 183 That if any persons shall wilfully do, or cause to be done, any act or acts, whatever, whereby, any building, construction, or work of the said corporation, or any engine, machine or structure, or any matter or thing pertaining to the same, shall be stopped, obstructed, impaired, weakened, injured, defaced, disfigured, or destroyed, the person or persons so offending, shall forfeit and pay to the said corporation treble the amount of damages sustained by reason of such offence or injury, to be recovered in the name of said corporation with costs of suit, by action of debt, or on the 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 accrued; and the person or persons so offending, shall moreover be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and be liable to fine and imprisonment.

Sec. 19. 20That when the said rail road shall be complete, the president and directors shall make out a full and minute statement of the expense of constructing said work, which report shall be under oath of the president and directors, and shall be filed in the Secretary’s office for this state, and shall whenever required make an annual report to the same office of the clear profit of said rail road. and it is hereby further

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provided that at any time after the expiration of twenty years from the time when said rail road is completed, the State of Illinois shall be entitled to purchase said rail road, and all that appertains thereto, by paying to said Corporation the cost of said road, with ten per cent per [...?] interest thereon.

Sec 20 Said Corporation is hereby authorised to employ any boat or boats, propelled either by steam or horse power for the purpose of connecting so much of said rail road as lies on the East side of the Illinois river, with their road on the opposite side of said stream.