Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That Levi Harlan, Elijah Sills, Thomas Kersey, R. C. Brown and Edward G. Minor, be, and they are hereby created a body corporate and politic, by the name and style of the “Trustees of the Winchester Common and Preparatory School,” and by that name and style to have perpetual succession; to make contracts, to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to grant and receive by its corporate name, and to do all such things as a natural person; may acquire, purchase, and in all lawful ways, to use, manage and dispose of the same; may have a common seal, and may alter or change the same at pleasure, and may make by-laws for its regulation not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States or of this State.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That Zalmon Carter, Doctor Metcalf, John Kirkpatrick, Ira Rowen, Barlem Brown, Thomas Cowhich, John E. Bell, James Rucker, Bennet Grey, and Thomas Smothers, be, and they are hereby created a body corporate and politic, by the name and style of the “Trustees of the Winchester Female Seminary,” and by such name and style shall have the same powers and privileges that are given to the trustees appointed and named in the first section of this act.

Sec. 3. The trustees of said institution shall have authority from time to time to prescribe the course of studies to be pursued in said institutions, to fix the rate of tuition and expenses, to appoint and employ instructors and such other officers and agents as they consider necessary to the proper management of the institutions, define their duties, and fix their compensation, and at the pleasure of a majority of the trustees, displace and remove them.

Sec. 4. The above institutions shall be located in the incorporate limits of the town of Winchester, Scott county, Illinois, on such lot or lots as may be chosen by a majority of the trustees of each institution separately.

Sec. 5. The trustees of the schools appointed by this act, shall hold their offices for one year after the organization of said schools, and until their successors are chosen.

Sec. 6. Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent either of the above named institutions from receiving their proper proportion of money appropriated by law for common school purposes, and the trustees named in the first and second sections of this act, and their successors in office, shall do and perform all acts required by law of the trustees of common schools.

Sec. 7. The trustees of the town of Winchester may levy and collect a tax not exceeding one per centum on all taxable property in said town, to be applied to purposes of education, as said trustees shall from time to time direct: Provided, That before any tax can be levied as aforesaid, and on application of twelve citizens of the town, the trustees shall cause an election to be held, where each inhabitant residing within the incorporate limits of said town, may have the privilege of voting for or against a tax, and if a majority of two-thirds of the votes given at said election shall be in favor of a tax, then and in that case the trustees may levy a tax and in no other.

Sec. 8. The trustees of the town shall prescribe the time, place and manner of holding and conducting said election, and the returns of the same, and make it a matter of record; they shall also provide for the collection, safe keeping, and distribution of the tax collected for school purposes; they may apportion the money raised by tax to the schools incorporated by this act exclusively, or to them and others as may best suit the convenience and interest of the inhabitants of the town.

Sec. 9. The trustees of the town are hereby authorized and empowered to enact and ordain such acts and ordinances in their incorporated capacity as shall be necessary to carry the provisions of this act into effect; and for the furtherance

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of the cause of education, such ordinance not to be inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, or of this State.

Sec. 10. That at any meeting of the bodies corporate mentioned in the first and second sections of this act, any three of the individual composing the same shall form a quorum to do and transact business.

Approved, February 27, 1841.