Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Rufus Hubbard, Elisha Cone, and James Wilcox, and their successors, be, and they are hereby, created a body corporate, and shall have perpetual succession, to be styled “The Trustees of the Geneseo Manual Labor High School,” to be located in township seventeen north, range three east, at or near the town of Geneseo, in Henry county, with full power to acquire, hold, and transfer property, real and personal; make contracts, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in their corporate capacity; to make, have, and use, a common seal, and the same to break, alter, or destroy, at pleasure; and said trustees shall never exceed the number of eleven. For the present the aforesaid individuals shall constitute the board of trustees, who shall fill the remaining vacancies at their discretion. But it is expressly declared that the powers hereby given shall not be used or construed to extend to the contracting for, or acquiring, any property, real, personal, or mixed, or for dealing any otherwise than in such things as may be necessary and proper for the purposes of an institution of learning; and the whole property and estate of said corporation shall be applied exclusively and solely to that purpose; and said corporation shall not deal in exchange, discount of notes, or in commercial business or pursuits.

Sec. 2. The beforenamed trustees shall have power to fill all vacancies in their own body; to appoint a chairman of their board, a president and professor, and such other officers and servants under them as they deem necessary and proper, to hold their offices under such rules and regulations as the said trustees may prescribe; and to make, allow, and pay to the president, professors, and other officers and servants, such reasonable compensation for their services as to the said trustees may seem right and proper; and the said trustees shall have full power and authority to make by-laws, rules, and regulations, for the better government of said school, as they may judge expedient, and the same to annul, alter, or amend, at pleasure: Provided said by-laws, rules, and regulations, be not repugnant to the laws of this State, or inconsistent with the principles laid down in this act, as fundamental laws for the government of said school; and the said trustees shall have full power to do and perform any lawful matter or thing which they may deem conducive to the good of the institution.

Sec. 3. A majority of the trustees shall constitute a board competent to make pro tempore appointments, and the transaction of all business, except the permanent appointment or removal of officers; in which case a concurrence of two-thirds of the whole board shall be necessary.

Sec. 4. The board of trustees shall have the entire control of the system of manual labor, and shall determine the

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proportion of labor of each student; and no student shall be received as a regular member of the school unless he submits to the performance of such an amount of labor as is enjoined by the trustees; and the trustees shall account to each student for such labor, which shall be appropriated to the discharge of his expenses in said school.

Sec. 5. No religious doctrine peculiar to any one sect of christians shall be inculcated by any profession in said school; but said institution shall at all times be conduced upon free, liberal, and enlightened principles; and no student shall be excluded in consequence of his religious opinion, or those of his parents, guardians, or relations.

Sec. 6. It shall and may be lawful for the trustees of said school to receive, acquire, hold, and procure, from any individual or society, religious or otherwise, donations, gifts, or bequests, of any sum or sums of money, books, maps, charts, philosophical apparatus, or estate of any kind, which shall be applied wholly and exclusively to the uses and purposes that may be especially designated by the donors, respectively, or to the establishment and maintenance of one or more professorships to be appointed by the donors, to be separate and distinct from the internal concerns of said school.

Sec. 7. The first meeting of the trustees hereby appointed shall be held at the dwelling-house of Rufus Hubbard, on the first Monday of May next, or so soon thereafter as may be convenient; and the said trustees shall have at least one stated meeting in every year; and should any trustee hereby appointed, or hereafter to be chosen, refuse to serve, the seat of such trustee or trustees shall be declared by the board to be vacant, and they may proceed to fill the vacancy as herein provided.

Sec. 8. The lands, tenements, and hereditaments, to be held in perpetuity, in virtue of this act, by said corporation, shall not exceed five hundred acres: Provided, however, That if donations, grants, or devises in lands, shall from time to time be made to said corporation, over and above said five hundred acres which may be held in perpetuity as aforesaid, the same may be held and received by the said corporation for the period of five years from the date of every such donation, grant, or devise; at the end of which time, if the said lands, over and above the said five hundred acres, shall not have been sold by said corporation, then, and in that case, the lands so donated, granted, or devised, shall revert to the donor, grantor, or the heirs of the devisor of the same.

Approved, March 2, 1839.