Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Darius B. Holbrook, Miles A. Gilbert, John S. Hacker, Alexander M. Jenkins, Anthony Olney, and William M. Walker, their

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associates, successors, and assigns be and they are hereby made a body corporate and politic, under the name of the “Cairo City and Canal Company;” and by that name shall be and are hereby made capable in law and equity to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended, in any court or place whatsoever, to make and use a common seal, the same to alter and renew at pleasure; and by that name and style be capable in law of contracting and being contracted with, purchasing, holding, and conveying real and personal estate for the purposes and uses of said corporation as hereinafter limited, 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 object of this act, as hereinafter set forth. The real estate owned and held by said company shall not exceed the quantity of land embraced in fractional township seventeen, in Alexander county, and the said corporation are hereby authorized to purchase said land, or any part thereof; but more particularly the tract of land incorporated as the city of Cairo, and may proceed to lay off said land, or any part of the land of said township seventeen, into lots for a town, to be known as the city of Cairo; and whenever a plan of said city is made, the company shall deposit a copy of the same, with a full description thereof in the recorder-of-deeds’ office for the county of Alexander, and any and all additions which the said company may make thereto at any time thereafter shall be also recorded in the same manner; and the said corporation may construct dykes, canals, levees, and embankments for the security and preservation of said city and land, and all improvements thereon from all and every inundation which can possibly effect or injure the same; and may erect such works, buildings, and improvements which they may deem necessary for promoting the health and prosperity of said city, and for draining said city, and other purposes. Said corporation may lay off and construct a canal to unite with Cash river, at such points on said river as the company may deem most eligible and proper;2 and may use the water of said river for said canal, running to and through the said city of Cairo, as said company may direct. The corporation may lay out said canal not exceeding ten rods wide through its whole length, and may take as much more land as may be necessary for the convenient use of said canal and river for tow-paths, locks, and dams, stone, gravel and embankments: Provided, That all damages that may be occasioned to any person or corporation, by the taking of such lands or materials

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for the purposes aforesaid, shall be paid for by said corporation in manner hereinafter provided.3

Sec. 2. The capital stock of said company shall consist of twenty thousand shares, and no greater assessment shall be laid upon any share in said company of a greater amount than one hundred dollars each share. And the immediate government and direction of the affairs of 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 manner hereinafter provided, and shall hold their office until others shall be duly elected and qualified to 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 members to be president of the board, who shall also be president of the company; and may also elect in the same manner a vice president of the company; and have authority to choose a secretary who shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of his duty, and a treasurer, who shall give bond to the corporation, with sureties to the satisfaction of the directors, in a sum not less than twenty thousand dollars, for the faithful discharge of his trust; and appoint such other officers and agents as to them may seem necessary.

Sec. 3. The president and directors, for the time being, are hereby authorized and empowered by themselves or their agents to execute all powers herein granted to the company, and all such other powers and authority for the management of the affairs of the company not heretofore granted as may be proper and necessary to carry into effect the objects of this act, and to make such equal assessments from time to time on all shares of said company as they may deem expedient and necessary, and direct the same to be paid to the treasurer of the company, and the treasurer shall give notice of all such assessments; and in case any subscriber shall neglect to pay his assessment for the space of thirty days after due notice by the treasurer 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 subscribers 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 shall sell for more than the assessment due with interest and cost of sale: Provided, however, That no assessment shall be laid upon any share in said company of a greater amount, in

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the whole, than one hundred dollars: and Provided, also, That nothing shall be construed as to invest said company with banking powers as to authorize them to make, emit, or alter any bank note, or other thing to be used as a circulating medium, as or in lieu of money. But this proviso shall in no wise be so construed as to prevent said corporation from borrowing money upon pledge or security of its property, and using the same in the promotion of their business in the construction of the works and improvements as authorized under this act.

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

Sec. 5. A toll is hereby granted and established for the benefit of said company upon all passengers, and property of all descriptions, which may be conveyed or transported upon the canal of the company upon such terms as may be agreed upon and established from time to time by the directors of said company: Provided, however, That the nett income, or receipts from tolls, shall not amount to more than eight per cent. per annum, upon the amount expended upon said canal, and the improvement of “Cash River:” Provided further, That so far as the said Cash River is rendered navigable by any dams, said company may construct on said river, the same shall be open, as now, for the free use of all persons: Provided, also, That the said company shall not be authorized by this act to erect or construct any dam or dams upon or across Cash River for the purposes aforesaid, until they shall first have obtained the consent of the county commissioners’ court in Alexander county, which consent, so obtained, shall be entered upon the records of said court; and whenever the route of said canal shall be located, the company shall have recorded a plan and description thereof in the office of recorder of deeds, and the office of said county commissioners’ court in Alexander county.

Sec. 6. The said company shall be holden to pay all damages that may arise to any person or corporation by taking their land for said canal, or any other purpose, when it cannot be obtained by voluntary agreement, to be estimated and recovered in the manner provided by law,

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for the recovery of damages happening by laying out highways.

Sec. 7. When the lands, or other property or estate, of any feme covert, infant, or person non compos mentis, shall be wanted for the purposes and objects of the company, the guardian of said infant or person non compos mentis, or husband of such feme covert, may release all damages and interest for and in such lands or estate taken for the company as they might do, if the same were holden by them in their own right respectively.

Sec. 8. If any person shall wilfully do, or cause to be done, any act or acts whatever, whereby any building, construction, or work of said corporation, or any engine, machine, or structure, or any matter or thing appertaining to the same, shall be stopped, obstructed, impaired, weakened[,] injured, or destroyed, the persons so offending shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall forfeit and pay to said corporation treble the amount of damages sustained by means of such offence or injury, to be recovered in the name of said corporation, with costs of suit by action of debt, and shall be subject to indictment and punishment for high crimes and misdemeanors, as in other cases.

Sec. 9. The annual meeting of the members of said company shall be holden on the first Monday in November, in each year, at Cairo, or such other places 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. And the first named individual, in the first section of this act, is hereby authorized to call the first meeting of the said company, by giving notice in some newspaper published at the place where said meeting is to be held, of the time, place, and purpose of said meeting, at least ten days before the time mentioned in said notice.

Sec. 10. This act shall be deemed and taken as a public act, and as such shall be taken notice of by all courts of justice in this state without the necessity of pleading the same, and shall be in force from and after its passage.

Sec. 11. This act shall continue in force for the term of twenty-five years from the passage thereof; and during that time, upon any departure from or violation of the provisions of this act, the legislature may repeal, alter, or modify the same as in their judgment the public good may require.

Sec. 12. The privileges herein granted shall cease, the corporation herein created be dissolved, and this act

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be null and void, unless twenty thousand dollars be expended in the construction of said canal within five years.4

Approved 4th March, 1837.