Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That an insurance company, to be called “The Kaskaskia Insurance Company,” is hereby created, with a capital stock of one hundred thousand dollars, which may be increased, at the will of the stockholders, to any amount not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars, divided into shares of one hundred dollars each, to be subscribed and paid for by individuals, companies, or corporations, in the manner hereinafter specified.

Sec. 2. Pierre Menard, Nathaniel Pope, David J. Baker, R. B. Servant, Seth Allen, Ferdinand Maxwell, Gabriel Jones, Joseph B. Holmes, William Brewster, Edmond Menard, Isaac Stone, Miles A. Gilbert, Francis Swanwick, James M. Wheeler, J. P. McGinnis, and David Hailman, or any three of them, be, and they are hereby, authorized to open books of subscription in Kaskaskia, for the capital stock of said company, on the first Monday in May next, and keep them open every day from ten o’clock A.M. till four 0’clock, P.M. for the space of six days; when the same shall be closed. If, within the said six days, five hundred shares shall have been subscribed for, it shall be lawful for the subscribers to meet, after ten days’ notice in the public prints of the time and place of meeting shall have been given, and choose their directors, who may, at any time after ten day’s public notice given, cause the subscription books to be re-opened, and continue open until the whole amount of said stock shall have been taken.

Sec. 3. The subscribers for the stock of the company aforesaid, their associates, successors, and assigns, shall be, and they are hereby, ordained, constituted, and declared a body corporate and politic, by the name and style of “The Kaskaskia Insurance Company;” and, by that name, they and their successors shall have continued succession, and shall be capable, in law, of contracting and being contracted with, of suing and being sued, of pleading and being impleaded, of answering and being answered unto, of defending and being defended against, in all courts and places whatever, in all manner of actions, suits, complaints, and causes; and they and their successors may have and use a common seal, the same to alter and renew at pleasure.

Sec. 4. The payment of stock subscribed shall be made and completed by the subscribers, respectively, at the time and in the manner following, that is to say: At the time of subscribing, there shall be paid on each share one dollar; after the election of directors, and before the company shall go into operation, there shall be paid, on each share, ten dollars; and the balance due upon each share shall be subject to the call of the directors; and the said company shall not be authorized to make any policy or contract of insurance until the whole amount of shares subscribed shall be actually paid, or satisfactorily secured to be paid, on demand, by approved notes, by hypothecated stock, or by mortgage on real estate.

Sec. 5. The corporation hereby created shall have full power and authority to make all kinds of insurances against losses on goods or merchandize in the course of transportation, whether happening on the land or on water; to make all kinds of insurance upon lives; and to make such other insurances as they may deem expedient; to grant and purchase annuities; to receive money in trust, and to accumulate the same, at a rate of interest not exceeding eight per cent. per annum, or to allow a rate of interest not exceeding eight per cent. per annum; to accept and execute all such trusts of every description as may be committed to them by any person or persons, corporation or corporations whatsoever, or may be transferred to them by any order of court of record whatever; to receive and hold lands under grants, with general or special covenants, so far as the same may be necessary for the transaction of their business; to lend money upon respondentia and bottomry; and to lend their surplus or unemployed money or capital to companies, corporations, and individuals, upon personal or real security, at such rates of interest as may now be done by the existing laws of this State; and, generally, to do and perform all necessary matters and things relating to or connected with their objects, or with either of them. They may also cause themselves to be insured against risks upon their interest which they may have in any vessels, goods, or merchandize, in virtue of any such loans on bottomry or respondentia.

Sec. 6. The stock and affairs of the company aforesaid or corporation shall be managed and conducted by not less than five directors, who shall hold their offices for one year, and until others shall be chosen to supply their places as directors; and the said directors, a majority of whom shall form a quorum for the transaction of business, shall elect one of their number to be a president of the board, who shall also be the president of the company, and shall preside until the next annual election; and in the case of the death or resignation of the president or any director, the vacancy may be filled by the board of directors.

Sec. 7. The annual meeting of the members of said company shall be holden, in each year, at the court house in Kaskaskia, or such other places as the directors for the time being may appoint; at which meeting, the directors shall be chosen by ballot, each proprietor being entitled to as many votes as he holds shares; and at least ten days’ notice shall be given, in some newspaper of general circulation published in this State, of the time, place, and purpose of such meeting.

Sec. 8. The directors may appoint, from their own body or elsewhere, one or more persons to act or assist in the performance of the business of the company, and also to appoint a secretary and such other officers and servants as they may deem expedient; and they shall also have power to declare and make dividends of the profits arising from the business of the company, and make and prescribe all such by-laws, rules, regulations, and ordinances as to them shall seem proper, touching the business and management of the affairs of the said company: Provided the same be not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this State and of the United States.

Sec. 9. It shall be lawful for said company to purchase and hold such real estate as may be convenient and necessary for the transaction of its business to an amount not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars; and also to take and hold any real estate as a security, or in mortgage, or in trust or pledge, or to secure the payment of debts due in good faith to said company; and also to purchase real estate at any sales made in virtue of any judgment at law, or decree in equity, made in favor of said company, and to hold all such real estate so long only as may be necessary to enable said company to make sale of the same for money or orther personal property.

Sec. 10. The stock of said company shall be considered personal property, and be assignable and transferable according to the by-laws of the company.

Sec. 11. This act shall be and is hereby declared to be a public act, and that the same shall be construed liberally for the benficial purposes herein intended, and the corporation hereby created.

Sec. 12. Nothing contained in this act shall be construed as to invest said company with banking powers, as to authorize them to make, emit, or utter any bank-note, or other

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thing to be used as a circulating medium, as or in lieu of money. This act shall continue in force for the term of twenty years from and after the date of its passage.

Approved, March 1, 1839.2