Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That William Major, William Davenport, Dennis Rockwell, Joshua Jones, Jacob Cassell, David B. Henderson, Josiah L. James, Isaac G. Israel, Joseph J. Taggart, Samuel R. Smith, R. O. Wariner, William Rockwell, John Hill, Huston Hawks, J. Josephus Hewitt, and their successors be, and they are hereby created a body corporate and politic, by the name of the “Trustees of Hanover College,” and by that name and style to remain and have perpetual succession. Said college shall be located at or near to the town of Hanover in Tazewell county. The number of trustees shall not exceed fifteen, exclusive of the president, principal, or presiding officer of the institution, who shall, ex-officio, be a member of the board of trustees.

Sec. 2. The objects of said incorporation shall be the diffusion of knowledge among men, the promotion of the general interests of education; to qualify young men to engage in the several employments and professions of society, and to discharge, honorably and usefully, the various duties of life.

Sec. 3. The corporate powers hereby bestowed shall be such only as are essential or useful in the attainment of said objects, and such as are usually bestowed 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 by its corporate name, and to do all other acts and things as natural persons may; to accept and acquire, purchase or sell property, real, personal, or mixed, in all lawful ways; to use, manage, employ, and dispose of such property, and all money belonging to said corporation, in such manner as shall seem to the trustees best adapted to promote the objects aforesaid; to have a common seal, and to alter or change the same; to make such by-laws as are not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the Uuited States and of this state, and to confer on such persons as may be deemed worthy, such academical or honorary degrees as are usually conferred by similar institutions.

Sec. 4. The trustees of said college shall have authority from time to time, to prescribe and regulate the course of studies to be pursued in said college, and in the preparatory department attached thereto; to fix the rate of tuition, room rent and other college expenses; to appoint instructors, 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 said instructors, officers, or agents, or all of them, as said trustees shall deem the interests of said college may require; to fill all vacancies among said instructors, officers, and agents; to erect suitable or necessary buildings; to purchase books, chemical and philosophical apparatus, and all other suitable means of instruction; to put in operation a system of manual labor, for the purpose of lessening the expense of education and promoting the health of the students; to make rules for the general government of the affairs of the college, and for the regulation of the conduct of the students; and to add, as the ability of the corporation shall increase, and the wants of the community demand, additional departments for the study of any or all the liberal professions, Provided, that no theological department shall ever be attached thereto.2

Sec. 5. If any trustee shall be elected president of the college, his former place as trustee shall be considered as vacant, and the place filled by the remaining 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 without giving to such trustee notice of the charges preferred against him, and an opportunity to defend himself before the board of trustees; nor unless two-thirds of the trustees for the time being concur in such removal. The trustees for the time being, in order to have perpetual succession, shall have power, as often as a trustee may be removed from office, die, resign, or remove out of this state, to appoint a resident of this state to fill the vacancy occasioned by such removal, death, resignation, or removal out of the state. A majority of the trustees for the time being shall be a quorum to do business.

Sec. 6. The trustees shall faithfully apply all funds by them collected, according to their best judgment, in erecting suitable buildings; in procuring books, maps, charts, globes, chemical, philosophical and other apparatus necessary to aid in the promotion of sound learning in the institution: Provided, that in case any donation, devise, or bequest, shall be made for particular purposes, accordant with the objects of this incorporation, and the trustees shall accept the same. Every such donation, devise or bequest shall be applied in strict conformity with the express condition of the donor or devisor: Provided, also, that lands so donated or devised as aforesaid, shall be sold or disposed of as is required by the tenth section of this act.

Sec. 7. The treasurer of said college always, and all other agents when required by the trustees, before en-

---

tering upon the duties of their appointment, 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 said corporation, at least thirty days before the return day thereof.

Sec. 8. The said college and its preparatory department shall be open to all denominations of christians, and the profession of any 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 whose moral character is bad.

Sec. 9. The lands, tenements and hereditaments to be held in perpetuity in virtue of this act shall not exceed one thousand acres: Provided however, that for, during, and until the termination of the term of ten years from the passage of this act, said corporation shall be permitted to hold one thousand acres, in addition to the land held in perpetuity as aforesaid. The said trustees shall, within one year from the termination of the aforesaid term of ten years, sell at public auction, to the highest bidder, any quantity of said additional thousand acres, not less than one hundred and sixty acres; and in each successive year thereafter, said trustees shall sell, as aforesaid, not less than one hundred and sixty acres; Provided, further, that the whole of said additional one thousand acres shall be sold, as aforesaid, within five years from the expiration of the before mentioned term of ten years: And it is further provided, that if, at any time after said college has gone into actual operation, and after the faculty of said college shall consist of the president and two additional professors, any person or persons shall desire to establish a third or any greater number of professorships, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, and for this purpose shall secure to the trustees of said college a permanent fund of five hundred dollars annually for each such professorship, so to be created, it shall and may be lawful for said trustees to hold, for the support of each such professorship, any quantity of land not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres; and the fund so secured to the trustees, with all the rents and profits arising from the land, so held for the support of each such professorship, shall be kept separate and distinct from the funds and means of the college, and also separate and distinct from each other, and shall be applied solely and alone to the support of that particular professorship for which such fund was originally secured, and for which said land may be held; and for and

---

during the time that the aforesaid permanent fund and land herein before named, shall be so held by the said trustees, for the support of any such professorship, as aforesaid; any number of young men, not exceeding five for each professorship so established, not being over the age of eighteen years at the time of applying, shall, on presenting to the president of said college the recommendation of any county commissioner’s court in this state, certifying to the good moral character and sober habits of each applicant, be entitled to all the advantages of said institution free of charge; And it is further provided, that if at any time any such professorship shall be without a professor in its chair during two terms of instruction in said college, or during that length of time be without students, said trustees shall, within six months from the close of such second term, sell at public auction, to the highest bidder, all lands held by them for the support of such professorship; and at the first county commissioners’ court which shall be held in the county in which said college is situate, said trustees shall present a true and full statement of the proceeds of said land, and also of the amount and situation of the permanent fund, created for the support of any such professorship. And said fund, or any part of it which may be within the control of said trustees, and the proceeds of the land herein last mentioned, shall forever after constitute a fund for the gratuitous education of young men in said college, subject to the restrictions and on the recommendation prescribed for beneficiaries in the former part of this section: said trustees shall be required to make out, and submit to the county commissioners’ court aforesaid, yearly, a full and complete statement of the condition of said fund for the current year, and how said fund has been appropriated in compliance with this act. And at all times said trustees shall furnish said county commissioners with any information relating thereto, which they may require, and which shall be within the knowledge of said trustees.

Sec. 10. If any donation, grant or devise in land shall, from time to time be made to said institution over and above the one thousand acres to to be held in perpetuity as aforesaid, and over and above the lands held by virtue of the other provisions of the ninth section of this act, 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 the said lands over and above the lands to be held in perpetuity, and over and above the lands held by the other provisions of the ninth section of this act, shall remaiu unsold, then and in that case, the lands so donated, granted or devised,

---

shall revert to the donor, grantor, or heirs of the devisor of the same, and in case the donor, grantor or heirs of the devisor of said lands shall be deceased or unknown, the school commissioners for the county in which said college is situate, shall proceed to sell said lands, and the proceeds of said lands so sold by the school commissioners shall be divided among the several school districts of the county, and be appropriated to common school purposes solely in proportion to the population of each district.

Sec. 11. No sale of lands shall be made by the trustees of said corporation, until notice has been previously given for at least six weeks successively, in some public newspaper in this state, announcing the time, place, and terms of said sale; any sale of lands to be made by the school commissioner under this act shall be regulated as nearly as may be, by the laws of this state regulating the sale of school lands; and if, at any time, said corporation shall act contrary to, or fail, or refuse to comply with the provisions of this charter, it shall be the duty of the circuit attorney for the circuit in which said college is at such time situated, to cause a scire facias to issue to repeal this charter.3

Approved 27th February, 1837.