Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Matilda Flanigan, Harriet Brent, Mary King, Jerusha Barber, Margaret King, Josephine G. Barber, Mary A. Powers, Martha Tyler, Martha Brawner, Catherine Murray, Ellen Vocherine, and Catherine Rublout,2 and their successors, be, and they are hereby, created a body politic and corporate, to be styled “The Menard Academy of Kaskaskia;” and in that name to remain in perpetual succession, with power to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded; to acquire, have, and convey property, real and personal; to have and to use a common seal, and to alter the same at pleasure; to make and alter, from time to time, such

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by-laws as they may deem necessary for the government of said institution, its officers and servants: Provided such by-laws are not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of this State and of the United States.

Sec. 2. Said corporators shall have power to fill such vacancies in their own body as may happen by death, resignation or otherwise, and shall hold the property of said institution, solely for the purposes of female education, and not as a stock for the individual benefit of themselves, or of any contributor to the endowment of the same; and no particular religious faith shall be required of those who become students of said institution.

Sec. 3. Said institution shall remain located in the town of Kaskaskia, in the county of Randolph; and the corporators and their successors shall be competent, in law and equity, to take to themselves, in their said corporate name, real, personal, or mixed estate, by gift, grant, bargain and sale, conveyance, will, devise or bequest of any person or persons whomsoever; and the same estate, whether real or personal, to grant, bargain, sell and convey, demise, let, place out at interest, or otherwise dispose of the same for the use of said institution, in such manner as to them shall seem most beneficial to said institution. Said corporators shall faithfully apply all funds collected, or the proceeds of the property belonging to said institution, according to their best judgment, in erecting and completing suitable buildings, supporting the necessary officers, instructors and servants, and procuring books, maps, charts, globes, and philosophical apparatus necessary to the success of said institution: Provided, nevertheless, That in case any donation, devise, or bequest shall be made for particular purposes accordant with the design of the institution, and the corporation shall accept the same, every such donation, devise, or bequest shall be applied in conformity with the express conditions of the donor or devisor: Provided, further, That said corporation shall not be allowed to hold more than two hundred acres of land at any one time, unless the said corporation shall have received the same by gift, grant, or devise; and, in such case, they shall be required to sell or dispose of the same within three years from the time they shall acquire such title; and, on failure to do so, said land shall revert to the original donor, grantor, devisor, or their heirs.

Sec. 4. The treasurer of the institution and all other agents, when required, before entering upon the duties of their appointments, shall give bonds for the security of the corporation, in such penal sums and with such securities as the corporators shall approve; and all process against the corporation shall be by summons, and the service of the same shall be by leaving an attested copy thereof with the treasurer, at least sixty days before the return thereof.

Sec. 5. The corporation shall have power to employ and appoint a principal for said institution, and all such instructors

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and instructresses, and all such servants as may be necessary, and shall have power to displace any or either of them, as they may deem the interest of the institution requires; to fill vacancies which may happen by death, resignation, or otherwise, among said officers and servants, and to prescribe and direct the course of study to be pursued in said institution.

Sec. 6. If at any time the corporation shall act contrary to the provisions of this act, or shall in any manner abuse the powers herein granted, it shall be the duty of the Attorney General to file an information, in the nature of a quo warranto, for the purpose of vacating and annulling this act and the powers herein granted.

Approved, January 24, 1839.