Chap. 344.—An ACT to Incorporate the Town of Occoquan.
Approved April 30, 1874.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That the town
of Occoquan, in the county of Prince William, shall be and
is hereby made a town corporate under the name and style
of the town of Occoquan, and by that name and style shall
have and exercise the powers hereinafter granted.

. 2. That the government of said town shall be vested in a
council of five, to be chosen annually, by ballot, on the first
Tuesday of May, cighteen hundred and seventy-five, and an-
muallv thereafter. Any persun entitled to vote in the-town-
ship of Occoquan residing within the corporate limits of said
town shall be entitled to vote at all elections under this act
of incorporation. The clerk of said council shall hold said
election between the hours of two and six post meridian, and
shall call in two members of said council to aid him in deci-
ding any contest in reference to the right to vote of ‘any in-
dividual, and to witness the counting of tbe ballots. In case
it is impossible to decide the five who have the highest num-
der of votes, by reason of a tie, the said clerk shall, in the
presence of the two councilmen aforesaid, decide by lot. Said
clerk shall immediately thereafter make out and deliver to
each one of the councilmen elect, a certificate of his election,
and shall administer to them the oath of office required by
the constitution and laws of Virginia.

3. Said councilmen, or so many of them as have qualiffed,
shall meet on the first week day of the July following, or as
soon thereafter as possible, and organize by choosing, by bal-
lot, a mayor, clerk, and sergeant, from among the residents of
the corporate limits, either of their own number or otherwise;
which officers shall hold their respective offices for one year
or until their successors have been elected and qualified. Said
officers shall qualify by taking the oath of office before the
clerk or other person authorized to administer oaths, and
may be removed from office by a unanimous vote of the coun-
cil. All the officers of the corporation shall serve without
compensation, except as hereinafter provided. The said
council shall appoint its own time of meeting; a quorum

n; Shall consist of a majority of those who have qualified, and
any vacancy among any of the officers of the corporation

- caused by neglect to qualify, or for other reasons, shall be
filled by the said council.

4. The mayor shall be the presiding officer of the council,
but shall have no vote except in case of a tie, or unless he be
one of the councilmen; he shall have the jurisdiction and

- authority of a justice of the peace of Prince William county,
and shall have the especial jurisdiction of the enforcement
of town ordinances; for all of which he shall be entitled to the
ordinary fees allowed by law; he may call special meetings
of the council, by giving notice to each member thereof.
The sheriff of Prince William county and the jailor thereof,
ehall respect and obey the warrant or mittimus of the said
mayor in the same manner as any magistrate of Prince Wil-

x liam county. ‘The clerk shall keep a correct record of the
proceedings of the council; shall provide the books and sta-
tionery ordered by the council, make out the list of all pro-
perty, real and personal, within the corporation, for assees-
ment; and shall issue tickets for the taxes voted by the coun-
cil, which tickets he sball deliver to the sergeant for collec-
tion; shall issue warrants upon the sergeant, ordered by the
council; shall have power to administer any oath required
under this act, or under any ordinance of the council; and

- for said work, he shall be allowed annually a sum to be de-
termined by the council, not to exceed fifty dollars.

5. The sergeant shall collect the taxes voted by the coun-
cil; and for collecting and paying out the same, he shall be
allowed two and one-half per centum; he shall have the
power and authority of any constable or collector of Prince

Villiam county, and shall be entitled to the same fees, except
as herein provided; he shall pay out the money of the town
in his hands, on the warrant of the mayor, and clerk certify-

e ing that it is drawn by the order of the council; he shall per-

* form all the duties of overseer of roads or streets within the
corporation, in accordance with the laws of Virginia, and the
ordinances of the town; and for this purpose the town of
Occoquan is hereby declared to be one of the road districts
of the township of Occoquan; no road tax shall be assessed

*X upon property within the corporation, except by the council
aforesaid, which road tux shall be laid out on the streets of
said town, or on the roads leading thereto, by the sergeant

. aforesaid, under the direction of the council. For his ser-

' vices as overseer of roads and streets, he shall be entitled to
the same compensation allowed by law to overscers of roads.

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Said sergeant shall have all the powers and duties belongin
to the overseers of roads, under thé general road law; and
the council shall have all the powers and duties belonging to
the commissioner of roads, or township board, under the

eneral road law. The town sergeant shall, before he per-
orms any of the duties of his office, execute a bond for the
faithful performance of his duties, in the penalty of one
thousand dollars. The sureties of ‘said sergeant shall justif
as to their sufficiency before the mayor, and said bond shall
be approved by the mayor and filed with the clerk.

6. The council shall have power to mark accurately the
bounds of existing streets; to lay off new streets, alleys, or
sidewalks; to regulate the width and grade of the same; to
direct the sergeant in regard to the same; to regulate or pro-
hibit the running at large of animals; to provide for shade
trees on the streets of the town, and their proper protection ;
to establish fire limits within which no new wooden buildings
shall be erected, upon the petition of three-fourths of the
owners of real estate within said limits; to prohibit the ob-
struction of streets and sidewalks; to provide for order and
quiet and the observance of the Sabbath within the corpo-
ration ; to regulate the sale of intoxicating drinks ; to acquire,
by purchase or otherwise, a cemetery for the buriai of the
dead, either within or without the bounds of the corporation ;
to dispose of burial lots in the same, and to provide suitable
regulations forwaid cemetery; to establish a fire department,
with suitable hooks, ladders, buckets, wells, cisterns, reser-
voirs, or engines for the same; to make suitable regulations
in reference to contagious diseases; to pass ordinances carry-
ing into effect the objects of this incorporation, and to punish
the violation of said ordinances by fine and imprisonment:
provided, that any fine imposed upon a minor shall be paid

y his parent or guardian: provided further, that if it be
found necessary to take private property for public use, and
the owner or owners are not willing thereto, the said pro-

erty can be taken in the manner now provided for by law
or the condemnation of private property for public use; and,
for that purpose, the mayor’s court of said town, shall have
the same jurisdiction for the condemnation of land for the
purposes of the corporation, as the county court has for con-
demuing land for roads within the county.

7. The clerk shall assess all the real and personal property
within the corporation, according to the best information ob-
tainable by him, and under such regulations as shall be pre-
scribed by the council; and for this purpose he shall have
access to the books of the township assessor. He shall assess
the cash value of said property, and, from his decision, an
appeal shall only bo allowed to the council. The corporation
may, annually, lay a tax for road or corporation purposes,
which shall not exceed, for all purposes, five mills on a dollar,
except that on a petition, in writing, signed by two-thirds
of the freeholders resident within said corporation, the coun-
cil may lay a tax, not to exceed the amount named in said
petition, toward building a bridge across the Occoquan river.
or for any other legal purpose named in said petition.

8. The following are hereby declared to be the bounds of
said town: Beginning at @ prominent stone, marked X. on
the south bank of the Occoquan river, one hundred and fifty-
two feet above the northwest corner of the cotton factory
building, and running thence, in a direct line, through Jan-
ney’s land, in a southwest direction, to a forked white oak,
and stone marked X, on Janney’s land, on the north side of
a small branch; running thence, in a direct line, southeasterly
to the corner of Janney and Selecman, on the west side of
the Deep Hole road; thence running, with Janney and Se-
lecman’s line, to the Occoquan river; and thence, with the
Occoquan river, to the place of beginning. The corporation
shall embrace all of said Occoquan river, cpposite to the
bounds above named.

9. John S. Powell, Jobn H. Hamill, John Underwood, Jo-
seph T. Janney and Thomas L. Selecman, or a majority of
them, are hereby empowered to qualify before any magis-
trate, and thereupon they shall constitute, until the first week-
day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy-five, the council
of said town of Occuquan, and, as such, may organize and
perform all the duties of said council.

10. The officers of said town, and the council thereof, shall
have all the powers granted to the officers and councils of
towns corporate of less than five thousand inbabitants, under

eneral laws not inconsistent with this act. Said town of

ccoquan shall continue to bear the same relation to the
township of Occoquan, as the territory to be included in said.
town now does, except as modified by this act.

11. This act shall be in force from its passage.