Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Alexis Phelps, John Humphrey, John Miles, John G. Sanburn, Matthew Chambers, Joseph Duncan, Parnach Owen, Charles Hansford, Eli Wilson, George B. Parker, Joshua Aiken, Andrew M. Hunt, and Peter Menard, jun., their associates, successors, and assigns are hereby created a body politic and corporate, under the name and style of the Mississippi and Illinois Rail-road Company, and by that name and (style) hereby are made capable in law and equity to sue and be sued to final judgment and execution, to plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended in any court or courts of record, or in any other place whatever; to make, have, and use a common seal, and the same to break, renew and alter at pleasure; to contract and be contracted with; and shall be and hereby are vested with all the powers, privileges, and immunities which are or may be necessary to carry into effect the purposes and objects of this act as hereinafter set forth: and the said company are hereby authorized and empowered to locate, construct, and finally complete a rail-road, commencing at Oquawka on the Mississippi river, and extending through Monmouth in Warren county, and Knoxville in Knox county, to Peoria on the Illinois river, in such manner and form as the said company shall deem most expedient. And for this purpose said company are authorized to lay out their said Rail-road at least six rods wide through the whole length; and for the purpose of cutting embankments, stone; and gravel may take as much more land as may be necessary for the proper construction and security of said Rail-road: Provided, That all damages

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that may be occasioned to any person or corporation by the taking of such land or materials for the purposes aforesaid, shall be paid for by said company in the manner hereinafter provided.

Sec. 2. The capital stock of said company shall consist of seven thousand shares of one hundred dollars each. The immediate government and direction of the affairs of said company shall be vested in not less than five directors, who shall be chosen by the members of the company in the manner hereinafter provided, who shall hold their offices for one year, and until others shall be duly elected and qualified to take their places as directors; and the said directors, or a majority of them, shall form a quorum for the transaction of business, shall elect one of their number to be president of the company, and shall have authority to choose a clerk, who shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of his duty, and a treasurer, who shall give bond to the company with sureties to the satisfaction of the directors.

Sec. 3. The president and directors, for the time being, are hereby authorized and empowered by themselves or their agents to exercise all the powers and authority herein granted for the purpose of locating, constructing, and completing said rail-road; and all such other powers and authority for the management of the affairs of said company, not heretofore granted, as may be necessary to carry into effect the objects of this grant only; to purchase and hold lands, materials, and other necessary things in the name of the company for the use of the road; to make such equal assessments, from time to time, on all the shares in said company as they may deem necessary and expedient in the progress and execution of the work, and direct the same to be paid to the treasurer of the company, and the treasurer shall give notice of all such assessments. The board of directors shall have power to call special meetings of the stockholders of the company, and to adopt rules and by-laws regulating the manner and time of payment of all assessments they may order as they may deem expedient.

Sec. 4. Said company shall be holden to pay all damages that may arise to any person or persons, corporation or corporations, by taking their land, stone, or gravel for the use of said rail-road, when the same cannot be obtained by voluntary agreement, to be estimated and recovered in the manner provided by law for the recovery of damages happening by the laying out of highways.

Sec. 5. When the lands, or other property, or estate 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 woman, and the guar-

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dian 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, as fully as they might do if the same were holden in their right respectively.

Sec. 6. If any person shall wilfully, maliciously, or wantonly, and contrary to law, obstruct the passage of any car on said rail-road or any part thereof, or any thing belonging thereto, he, she, or they, or any person assisting, shall forfeit and pay to said company for every such offence treble such damages as shall be proven before any court competent to try the same, to be sued for in the name and behalf of said company; and such offender or offenders shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to indictment in the same manner as other indictments are found in any county or counties where such offence shall have been committed, and upon conviction of such offence shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars for the use of the county where the indictment may be found, or may be imprisoned not exceeding one year at the discretion of the court before whom the conviction may be had.

Sec. 7. Said company shall so construct their said rail-road across rivers, canals, turnpikes, or other public ways, as not to obstruct, hinder, or interfere with the passage, navigation, and free use of such public ways: and if said road shall not be so constructed, it shall be lawful for the persons aggrieved to abate the same in the same manner as is now provided by law for the removal of obstructions to public ways.

Sec. 8. The time and place of holding the annual meetings of said company for the election of directors and other purposes, shall be fixed and determined by the by-laws of said company, and at such meetings each proprietor shall be entitled to vote in person or by proxy as many votes as he holds shares.

Sec. 9. The persons hereinbefore mentioned are hereby appointed commissioners to open subscription books for the stock of said company; and they, or a majority of them, are hereby authorized to open subscription books for said stock at such places as they may deem proper, and shall give at least thirty days notice of the time and places where such books shall be opened; and shall keep the same open for five days, unless the whole number of shares of said company shall be sooner subscribed, and they shall require each subscriber to pay one dollar on each share subscribed at the time of subscribing. And at the termination of said five days, or sooner if the whole amount of said shares shall be taken, said commissioners shall call a meeting of the stockholders by giving thirty days notice, in some public newspaper printed in this

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State, of the time and place of such meeting. At such meeting it shall be lawful to elect the directors of said company; and when the directors of said company shall have been chosen, the said commissioners shall deliver said subscription books, together with all sums of money received by them, to said directors: Provided, That no election shall be held until the whole number of shares of said company shall have been subscribed; and Provided, also, That each director shall at the time of his election hold at least ten shares of the capital stock of said company.

Sec. 10. The president and directors shall have power to make, ordain, and establish such by-laws, rules and regulations, and ordinances as they may deem expedient and necessary to accomplish the purposes, and to carry into effect the provisions of this act; and for the well ordering, regulating, and securing the interest and affairs of said company: Provided, The same are not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this State, and of the United States.

Sec. 11. A toll shall be and is hereby granted and established for the sole benefit of said company upon all passengers and property of all descriptions, which may be conveyed or transported upon said road, at such rates per mile as may be agreed upon and established from time to time by the direction of said corporation. The transportation of persons and property, the construction of wheels, the form of cars and carriages, the weight of loads, and all other matters and things in relation to the use of said road, shall be in conformity to such rules and regulations, and provisions, as the directors shall from time to time prescribe and direct: Provided, however, That if the net income and receipts for tolls and other profits from and after the completion of said road shall exceed twelve per cent. per annum, the legislature may take measures to reduce said rates of tolls and profits so as to take off the overplus. The directors of said company for the time being are hereby authorized to erect toll houses, establish gates, appoint toll gatherers, and demand toll upon the road when completed, and so much thereof as shall from time to time be completed.

Sec. 12. The said company shall have the route of the proposed rail-road surveyed within two years from August next, and the road completed withing ten years thereafter, otherwise this act is declared null and void.

Sec. 13. The county commissioners’ courts of the counties of Warren, Knox, and Peoria may subscribe for any number of shares of the capital stock of said company not exceeding forty shares each, in the same manner and upon the same terms as individuals may do

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under this act, and the State of Illinois may in like manner subscribe for any number of shares of said stock not exceeding one third part thereof: and the said several county courts and the said State of Illinois in all elections to be held in and for said corporation shall, by their respective agents thereto duly authorized, be entitled to so many votes as they respectively hold shares of the capital stock of said company.

Sec. 14. It shall be the duty of said company to keep a full, complete, perfect, and correct account of all cost incurred and of all expenditures made by them in the construction of said rail-road, which account, so kept, shall at any time, when called for, be laid before the General Assembly of the State of Illinois for inspection and examination; and it is expressly provided, that the State of Illinois may at any time purchase from said company the said rail-road by paying to said company the cost and expense of constructing the same, together with interest thereon, at the rate of twelve per cent. per annum.

Sec. 15. This act shall exist and be in force for the period of forty years from and after the first day of March next, unless the said corporation shall be guilty of acts contrary to the provisions of its charter and against the public good, or unless it shall in any manner abuse or transcend the powers hereby granted; and then and in that, or either of the said cases, the Attorney General of this State, at the request of fifty citizens of this State, specifying clearly in writing the acts and charges upon which said request is founded, shall file an information in the nature of a quo warranto against said corporation for the purpose of vacating and annulling this act: Provided, however, In case the said charter is annulled, the said company shall have power for three years thereafter to dispose of all its property, and to settle its affairs in its corporate name.

Approved 24th February, 1837.