In force, Jan. 27, 1840.
AN ACT to establish Insurance Offices in Morgan, Pike and Scott counties.
1
Insurance powers granted.
Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the following privileges and powers are hereby conferred upon and granted to the Winchester, Lynnville and Jacksonville Railroad Company, incorporated by an act passed on the eighteenth day of January, in the year eighteen hundred and thirty-six.
First. To use the stock and effects of said company, in the business of insurance, and to become to all intents and purposes an Insurance Company.
Location of offices
Second. To establish and keep in operation, insurance offices in Jacksonville and Winchester; all the business and operations of the company, to be under the direction of the rectors as heretofore.
By-laws to be changed
Additional by laws
Third. To change the by-laws of the corporation, so as to make them applicable and appropriate to the business and operations of an insurance company, and to make such additional by-laws, not inconsistent with the laws of the land, as may be found necessary to carry on the business of the company.
Exception
Sec. 2. Said company shall be authorized to make insurances upon vessels and their cargoes, or either, navigating the high seas or the lakes, and upon vessels and boats of any description and their cargoes, or either, navigating rivers and canals: to make insurance upon houses, mills and other buildings, (excluding distilleries) goods, chattels, wares, and merchandize, money, and every description of property usually insured by other companies in the State; also upon bottomry, loans, and upon lives, and also to cause itself to be re-insured against all risks or perils upon which it may have made insurance, and to make advances of money upon bottomry and respondentia, upon such terms as are authorized by the existing laws of this State.
Policies of insurance
Sec. 3. The directors shall prescribe in their by-laws the manner of executing their policies of insurance; the terms of insurance shall be such as may be agreed upon, as well as the provisions and times of payment.
Stockholders liable
When Directors shall be liable
Sec. 4. The stockholders shall severally be held liable to creditors, for the amount of stock subscribed. The liabilities of the company shall never exceed the amount of subscriptions of stock, and for all excess of liability the directors under whose authority or by whose permission such excess may arise, shall be jointly and severally liable for the same.
Capital stock
Proviso
Real estate sold for debts
Sec. 5. The real estate now owned by the company, shall be held as capital stock at its cost, and the company shall not hereafter purchase or hold any other real estate in fee simple, except one town lot in Jacksonville and one in Winchester, on which to erect the buildings necessary to the transaction of its business: Provided, however, that in cases
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where real estate may be sold to satisfy debts due the company, the same may be purchased in satisfaction of such debts, but all real estate so purchased, shall be offered for sale at public vendue, at least once in each year, and shall be sold whenever the amount of the judgment under which the purchase was made, shall be offered at any such sale.
Company not to deal in any other business
Sec. 6. Said company shall not directly or indirectly deal or trade in goods, wares or merchandize, or engage in any other business, or use its means for any other purpose than as expressly authorized by its charter.
Organization of company
Sec. 7. The present subscribers to the capital stock shall be entitled to the benefit of their subscriptions, and to all payments made thereon; and the organization of the company shall be deemed to have been conformable to law. The change in the charter authorized by this act shall not release or affect any liability of the company now existing against it; and all the powers and rights conferred upon said company, shall be continued so far as they may be consistent with the provisions of this act.
Powers to make roads rescinded
Sec. 8. Said company shall not have power, if this amendment is adopted to the charter, to make or construct any railroad, turnpike, McAdamized, or other description of road, or to have or hold the right of way for any such road, or to engage in the business of transporting property or persons upon any road whatever.
Losses shall be paid speedily
Sec. 9. The directors shall provide for the speedy adjustment and payment of all losses arising under any policy made by the company, and for all unreasonable and vexatious delays in payments, the company shall be liable to pay damages not exceeding per cent. per annum, in addition to legal interest.
Increase of capital stock
Sec. 10. Additional subscriptions to the capital stock of said company may be received hereafter upon the payment of one dollar upon each share subscribed, and the capital stock of said company may be increased two hundred thousand dollars.
Sec. 11. The said company may proceed to business under this charter, whenever the sum of ten thousand dollars shall have been paid to their treasurer, including the stock already held in real estate.
Records of company
Dividend
Sec. 12. Said company shall keep regular books, and enter therein all their accounts and transactions; and the accounts of the company shall be balanced half yearly, and the profits growing out of its business shall be divided half yearly among the stockholders according to their rights, but dividends shall not be paid except of profits actually realized.
Payment of stock, how to be secured
Sec. 13. It shall be lawful for stockholders to secure the payment of their stock to the company by mortgage upon real estate, and all such mortgages shall stand as security to creditors for moneys due from the company.

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This act to be part original charter
Evidence of adoption of this act
Sec. 14. This act as well as all others amending the original charter of said company, shall become to all intents and purposes a part of the act of incorporation, upon being agreed to by the President and Directors of said Company; and an entry of such agreement upon the record kept of the actings and proceedings of said board, shall be sufficient evidence of the adoption of such amendments; and of the right of the company to act under the same.
Pittsfield and Mississippi RR Company may establish insurance office in Pittsfield
Conditions
Sec. 15. The President and Directors of the Pittsfield and Mississippi Railroad Company, incorporated by an act passed on the first of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, are authorised to establish and keep in operation an insurance office in Pittsfield, and to use all of its stock and means in the business of insurance, and to become to all intents and purposes an insurance company, upon condition that said President and Directors agree that the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth sections of this act shall be adopted as an amendment to the charter of said company, except that said company shall not have any office in Jacksonville or Winchester.
Sec. fifteen of Winchester, Lynnville and Jacksonville RR Company repealed
Sec. 17. The fifteenth section of the original act incorporating the Winchester, Lynnville and Jacksonville Railroad Company, is hereby repealed.
Act to continue 20 years
Sec. 18. This act shall continue in force for twenty years from its passage, and no longer.
Approved, January 27, 1840.
1On January 13, 1840, Senator William O’Rear introduced SB 93 in the Senate, and the Senate referred the bill to the Committee on the Judiciary. On January 15, the Committee on the Judiciary reported the bill with several amendments, and the Senate concurred in those amendments and passed the bill. On January 24, the House of Representatives passed the bill. On January 27, the Council of Revision approved the bill and the act became law.
Journal of the House of Representatives of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Called Session, Begun and Held at Springfield, December 9, 1839 (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1839), 179-80, 242, 246; Journal of the Senate of the Eleventh General Assembly of the State of Illinois, at Their Called Session, Begun and Held in Springfield, December 9, 1839 (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1839), 107, 111, 173, 174, 184.

Printed Document, 3 page(s), Laws of the State of Illinois, Passed by the Eleventh General Assembly, at their Special Session (Springfield, IL: William Walters, 1840), 24-26, GA Session: 11-S,