Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That John Clark, Leander S. Walker, Thomas S. Hitt, Jacob B. Crist, C. Burr Artz, Samuel M. Hitt, John Wallace, Nathaniel Swingley, Anthony Pitzer, and James S. Beatty, and their successors in office, be, and they are hereby created a body politic and corporate, under the name and style of “The Rock River Seminary;” and henceforth shall be styled and known by that name; and by that name and style to remain and have perpetual succession. The number of trustees shall not exceed twelve, exclusive of the principal or presiding officer of the seminary, who shall ex-officio, be a member of the board of trustees.

Sec. 2. The object of said corporation shall be the promotion of the general interest of education, to qualify the youth of our country to engage in the several employments and pro-

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fessions of society, and to discharge, honorably and usefully, the various duties of life.

Sec. 3. The corporate powers hereby bestowed shall be such only as are essential or useful in the attainment of said object, and such as are usually conferred on similar corporate bodies, viz: To have perpetual succession—to make contracts—to sue and be sued, implead and be impleaded—to grant and receive, by its corporate name, and to do all other acts, as natural persons may do—to accept, acquire, purchase or sell property, real, personal and mixed, in all lawful ways—to use, employ, moneys (manage) and dispose of all such property, and all money belonging to said corporation, in such manner as shall seem to the trustees best adapted to promote the objects before mentioned—to have a common seal, and to alter and change the same—to make such by-laws, for the regulation of the corporation, as are not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States, and of this State.

Sec. 4. The trustees shall have authority, from time to time, to prescribe the course of study to be pursued in said seminary—to fix the rate of tuition, room rent and other seminary expenses—to appoint the principal of the institution, and such other professors and instructors, officers and agents, as may be needed in managing the concerns of the institution—to define their duties, powers and employments—to fix their compensations, and to displace and remove the principal or any of the professors, either of the instructors, officers or agents, as said trustees shall deem the interest of said seminary shall be required—to fill all vacancies in the board of instructors and among the officers and agents—to erect suitable and necessary buildings—purchase books, and chemical, philosophical and other apparatus, and other suitable means of instruction—to put into operation, if the trustees deem it expedient, a system of manual labor, for the purpose of promoting the health of the students and lessening the expense of education—to make rules for the general management of the affairs of the seminary, and for the regulation of the conduct of the students.

Sec. 5. The trustees shall faithfully apply all funds by them collected, or hereafter collected, according to their best judgment, in erecting suitable buildings—in supporting the necessary instructors, officers and agents—in purchasing books, maps, charts and globes, philosophical, chemical and other apparatus, necessary to aid in the promotion of sound learning in said institution.

Sec. 6. Any donation, devise or bequest, made for special purposes, in accordance with the objects of the institution, if the trustees shall accept the same, shall be faithfully and truly applied, in conformity with the express condition or conditions of the donor or devisor; the lands, tenements and hereditaments, to be held in perpetuity, in virtue of this act, shall not exceed one thousand acres: Provided, however, That grants, donations, or devises, in lands, which from time to time

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shall be made to said corporation, may be held for the term of ten years, from the date of any such grant, donation or devise; at the end of which time the said lands, over and above the before named one thousand acres, shall be sold by the corporation; and in case of neglect to sell, said lands, so donated, shall revert to the original donor or devisor, or to the lawful heirs of the same.

Sec. 7. The treasurer and all other agents of the institution, when required by the trustees, shall give bond, for the security of the corporation, in such penalty and such security as the board shall approve. And all process against said corporation shall be by summons, and service of the same shall be by leaving an attested copy with the treasurer, at least thirty days before the return day thereof.

Sec. 8. In its different departments of instruction, the seminary shall be open to all denominations; and the profession of any religious faith shall not be required, in order to admission; but those students who are idle or vicious, or whose characters are immoral, may be dismissed from the institution.

Sec. 9. Said seminary shall be located in town twenty-four north, range ten east of the fourth principal meridian, and on section twenty-seven, in Ogle county, Illinois2. The trustees shall hold at least one meeting in each year, for business, and may appoint other stated meetings of the board; special meetings may at any time be held, by order of the president or any three members of the board, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum, to do business; and it shall be lawful for the Rock River Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church to appoint, annually, a board of visitors, consisting of six persons, who shall have power to sit with the board of trustees, at their annual meetings, and participate with them, ex-officio, as members of the board, in the appointment of the board of instruction and filling vacancies in the board of trustees, as provided for in the tenth section.

Sec. 10. The filling of vacancies in the board of trustees, and the appointment of a principal to the seminary, professors and trustees, shall be made only at the annual meetings, as provided for in the ninth section of this act: Provided, That the trustees may fill any vacancy in the board of instructors, or employ additional annual teachers, when necessary, until the succeeding regular annual meetings.

Sec. 11. This act shall be in force from and after the time at which the persons named in the first section of the act, or a majority of two-thirds of them, as trustees of Rock River Seminary, shall accept the same; and the evidence of said acceptance shall be a copy of the order of the board ordering this act to be spread upon their journals, certified by the president and secretary of the board.

Approved, February 18, 1841.