In force Feb. [February]15, 1837.
AN ACT to incorporate the Knox Manual Labor College.
1Corporation created body politic and corporate.
College to be located at.
Trustees to constitute a board.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That John Waters, John G. Sanburn, Mathew Chambers, Erastus Swift, Nehemiah H. Losey, George H. Wright, Ralph H. Hurlburt, George W. Sale, Nehemiah West, Thomas Simmons, and Parnach Owen, be and hereby are created a body politic and corporate, to be styled and known by the name of the trustees of Knox Manual Labor College, and by that name and style to remain, and have perpetual succession, the said college shall be located on section No. fifteen, in township No. eleven north, of range one
east, of the fourth principal meridian in the county of Knox.2 The number of trustees shall not exceed twenty-five including the President of the
College, who shall be ex officio a member of the board of trustees. For the present the individuals above named, shall constitute the board of trustees
with power to fill the remaining vacancies at their discretion.
Object of corporation.
Sec. 2. The object of said corporation shall be to promote the general interests of literature, and to qualify young men
in the best manner for the various professional and business occupations of society,
by carrying into ef-
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fect a thorough system of mental, moral, and physical education, and so reduce the
expences of such education by manual labor and other means, as shall bring it within the reach
of every young man of industry and promise.
Privileges and powers of corporation.
Sec. 3. The corporate powers hereby bestowed, shall be such only as are essential to the
attainment of said object, and such as are usually conferred on similar bodies corporate,
viz: to have perpetual succession, to make contracts, to sue and be sued, plead and
be impleaded, to grant and receive in its corporate name, and to do all other acts as natural persons
may, to accept, acquire, purchase or sell property, real, personal, or mixed, in all
lawful ways, to use, employ, manage, and dispose of all such property, and all money
belonging to said corporation, in such manner as shall seem to the trustees best adapted to promote the above mentioned
objects, to have a common seal and to alter or change the same, to make such by-laws for its regulation as are not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the
United States or this State, and to confer on such persons as may be considered worthy of such academical and
honorary degrees as are usually conferred by similar institutions.
Powers of trustees
Sec. 4. The trustees shall have power from time to time to prescribe and regulate the course
of study to be pursued in said college, and in the preparatory departments attached thereto, to fix the rate of tuition,
room rent and other college expenses, to appoint instructors, professors, and such
other officers and agents as may be needed in managing the concerns of the institution, to define their powers, duties, and employments, to fix their compensation to displace
and remove either of the instructors, officers or agents, as they may deem the interests
of the college require; to fill all vacancies among the instructors, officers and agents, to erect
necessary buildings, to purchase books, chemical, and philosophical apparatus and
other suitable means of instruction, to establish and regulate the proposed system
of manual labor, in the way which they shall deem best adapted to promote the object
of said corporation, to make rules for the general management of the affairs of the college, and for the regulation of the conduct of the students, and to establish when they
shall deem it expedient, and the means can be procured, professorships of law and
medicine.
Vacancy of trustees to be filled by board.
Proviso.
Sec. 5. If any trustee shall be elected president of said college, his former place as trustee shall be considered vacant, and shall be filled by the
board of trustees. The trustees for the time being, shall have power to remove any
trustee from office for any dishonorable or criminal conduct, Provided, That no such removal shall take place
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without giving to such trustee notice of the charges exhited against him, and an opportunity to defend himself before the board, nor unless two-thirds
of the whole number of trustees for the time being, shall concur in such removal.
The trustees in order to have perpetual succession, shall have power as often as a
trustee shall be removed from office, die, resign, or remove out of the State, to appoint a resident of this State to fill the vacancy in the board. A majority of the trustees for the time being,
shall be a quorum to do business.
Trustees to apply funds &c.[etc.]
Proviso.
Sec. 6. The trustees shall faithfully apply all funds collected or hereafter to be collected
for said college, according to their best judgment, in erecting suitable buildings, in compensating
the necessary instructors, professors, officers and agents, and in procuring books,
maps, charts, globes, philosophical, chemical, and other apparatus necessary in the
promotion of sound learning in said institution, Provided, That in case any donation, devise, or bequest, shall be made, for particular purposes,
accordant with the objects of the institution, and the trustees shall accept the same, every such donation, devise, or bequest,
shall be expressly applied in conformity with the condition prescribed by the donor,
or devisor, provided, also, That lands donated or devised as aforesaid, shall be sold or disposed of as required
by the last section of this act.
Trustees and agents to give bonds &c.
Sec. 7. The trustees of said college always, and all other agents when required by the trustees, before entering upon
the duties of their appointments, shall give bonds respectively for the security of
the corporation, in such penal sum and with such securities as the board of trustees shall approve.
All process against said corporation shall be by summons, and the service of the same shall be by leaving an attested
copy with the treasurer of the college, at least thirty days before the return day thereof.
No religious faith required in preparatory departments.
Sec. 8. The said college and its preparatory departments shall be open to all denominations of christians,
and the profession of any particular religious faith shall not be required of those
who become students; all persons however may be suspended or expelled from said institution whose habits are idle or vicious, or whose moral character is bad.
Proviso.
Time donation of lands may be held by corporation.
Sec. 9. The lands, tenements, and hereditaments to be held in perpetuity in virtue of
this act, by said institution, shall not exceed one thousand and forty acres, Provided however, That if donations, grants, or devises in land shall from time to time be made to
said corporation, over and above one thousand and forty acres, which may be held in perpetuity as
aforesaid, the same may be received and held by such corporation, for the period of three years from the
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date of every such donation, grant, or devise; at the end of which time, if the said
lands over and above the said one thousand and forty acres, shall not have been sold,
then and in that case the said land so donated, granted, or devised, shall revert
to the owner, grantor, or the heirs of the devisors of the same.3Approved Feb.[February] 15th, 1837.
1On January 9, 1837, Peter Butler in the Senate introduced the petition of citizens of Knox County, requesting the incorporation of a manual labor college in the county. The Senate
referred the petition to a select committee. Responding to this petition, Butler
of the select committee introduced SB 61 in the Senate on January 10 . On January 13, the Senate passed the bill. On January
19, the House of Representatives referred the bill to the Committee on Corporations. On January 31, the committee
reported back the bill without amendment, recommending its passage. On February
6, the House passed the bill. On February 15, the Council of Revision approved the bill, and the act became law.
Illinois House Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 256, 300, 434-35, 487, 571; Illinois Senate Journal. 1836. 10th G. A., 1st sess., 173, 181, 201, 205, 360, 400-401, 434.
2Located at Galesburg.
“Counties, Townships, and Ranges in Illinois,” Maps, Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis
et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d
edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Reference.aspx?ref=Reference html files/LandMeasurement.html.
Printed Document, 4 page(s), Incorporation Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed at a Session of the General Assembly (Vandalia, IL: William Walters, 1837), 33-36, GA Session: 10-1,