Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the Mount Carbon Coal Company are hereby authorized and empowered to locate, construct, and finally complete a railroad for a double or single tract, not exceeding ten rods in width on level ground, commencing at the said company’s coal mines on the Big Muddy river, in Jackson county, thence to the Mississippi river or any other navigable stream in said county; and for the purpose of cuttings, embankments, stone, wood and gravel, may take as much more land as may be necessary for the proper security and construction of said railroad; Provided, That all damages that may be occasioned to any person or persons, or corporations, 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 be increased to one million of dollars, divisible into shares of fifty dollars each, on the terms and under the conditions and provisions specified and contained in the original act of incorporation of said company.

Sec. 3. A toll 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 on said railroad at such rates per mile as may be agreed upon and established from time to time by the directors of said company; and they are hereby authorized to erect toll houses, buildings, establish gates and demand toll upon the road when completed, and upon such points thereof as shall from time to time be completed.

Sec. 4. The said company shall be holden to pay all damages that may arise to any person or corporation by taking their land, stone, wood, and gravel for the use of said railroad, when the same cannot be had 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 railroad, the husband of such married woman, and the guardian of such infant or person, non compos mentis, may release all damages in relation to the land or other property to be taken, appropriated as aforesaid, as fully as they might do if the same were holden in their own rights respectively.

Sec. 6. If any person shall wilfully do, or cause to be done, any act or acts whatsoever, whereby any building construction or work of said company, or any engine, machine or structure, or any matter or thing appertaining to the same

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shall be stopped, obstructed, impaired, weakened, injured or destroyed, the person so offering (offending) shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall forfeit and pay to said corporation triple the amount of damages, sustained by means of such offence and injury, to be recovered in the name of said corporation, with costs of suit by action of debt, and shall be subject to indictment and punishment for high crimes and misdemeanors as in other cases.

Sec. 7. The said company shall commence the railroad hereby authorized to be made within two years from and complete the same within ten years, otherwise this act shall be null and void.

Sec. 8. The said corporation is hereby authorized to join any other railroad now or hereafter to be incorporated, and put in operation, at such place, and on such terms as may be mutually agreed upon by the said companies, or in case of disagreement by said companies, upon such terms and at such places as the court of chancery of the district where such connection is desired, shall decree, upon bill filed, or suit instituted for that purpose.

Sec. 9. That the quantity of land authorized to be held by said company shall be increased from two thousand acres to seven thousand acres.

Sec. 10. That if after the necessary surveys for the construction of said railroad shall have been made, it shall appear to said company that a canal from their said mines to said Mississippi river, or the making navigable the said Big Muddy river is preferable, that then, and in that case, said company are hereby authorized to lay off and construct a canal from the said mines to the said Mississippi river, or make navigable the said Big Muddy river, and the above enactments so far as the same are applicable, shall, and the same are hereby declared to be in full force and effect.

Sec. 11. This act shall be deemed and taken as a public act, and as such shall be taken notice of by all courts of justice in this State, without the necessity of pleading the same.

Sec. 12. At the next general meeting of the directors, (they) may adjourn to such place as may be adopted within said county as may promote the interest of the company and for the convenience of the directors.

Sec. 13. The stockholders of said institution shall always be held, severally, liable to (for) the debts of said company to the full amount of the stock held by them at the time of their joint indebtedness. 2

Approved, February 26, 1841.