Chap. 323.—An ACT to incorporate the Valley and Southwest railroad
company.

Approved March 7, 1884.
1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That

Robert W. Hunter, E. P. C. Lewis, E. C. Gordon, F. C. Clarke,
S. H. Letcher, W. A. Glasgow, J. D. Johnson, Robert Barnes,
Harmon Newberry John B. McLin, Charles C. Meade, J. B.
Richmond, G. C. Gose, A. L. Pridemore, Denton McCartney,
and G. W. Kilgore, and such other persons as may become
associated with them, and accept the provisions of this act,
be, and they are hereby incorporated and made a body politic
and corporate, under the name and style of the Valley and
Southwest Railroad Company, and by that name shall be
known in law, and shall have perpetual succession, and shall
have, enjoy and exercise all the rights, powers, and privileges
pertaining to corporate bodies, and necessary for the pur-
poses of this act, and locate, construct, operate and maintain
a railroad of standard gauge, to begin ‘at or near the town of
Lexington, Virginia; thence through the counties of Rock-
bridge, Botetourt, Craig, Giles, Bland, Tazewell, Washington,
Smyth, Russell, Scott, and Lee, to a point on the Tennessee
or Kentucky state line; or through the counties of Rock-
bridge, Botetourt, Roanoke, Montgomery, Floyd, Carroll, and
Grayson, or Smith, to a point on the Tennessee or North
Carolina state line.

2. The capital stock of said company shall be five hundred
thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred
dollars each, but may be increased at any mecting of the
stockholders called for that purpose—not less than three-
fifths of the stockholders voting therefor—to such amouat
as may be necessary to accomplish the purposes of this act,
and the completion of said railroad, not exceeding ten mil-
lions of dollars: provided however, that none of the rights,
privileges, and franchises herein granted shall vest until at
least ten per centum of the minium amount of capital stock
shall have been actually paid in.

3. The persons named in this act, or such of them as may
accept its provisions and participate in the organization of
the company, shall constitute the first board of directors of
said company, and shall continue in office until the first
meeting of the stockholders thereof. At such first mecting,
and at every annual meeting, s0 many directors shail be
elected as may be hereafter prescribed by the by-laws and
regulations of said company.

4. In order to secure a continuous line of railroad to be
operated under one management, without change of cars, or
break of bulk, and for no other purpose, it shall be lawful for
said company to merge and consolidate its franchises, rights,
and properties with any connecting railroad companies w hich
have been or may hereafter be chartered in this or other
states, and may adopt another name for the companies so
consolidated. Full power and authority is hereby given such
other companies, to make and carry out such consolidation
and merger: provided it shall not merge or consolidate with
any parallel or competing line: provided further, that the
principal office of said company shall be in the state of Vir-

inia.
6 5. Subscriptions to the capital stock of said company may
be made by persons or corporations, counties and cities, in
money, credit, labor, material, machinery or land: provided
that said company shall not own land in any county unless
the said road or any of its branches pass into or through the
same, and shall not hold at any one time in any such county
more than twenty thousand acres.

6. The said company may have power to acquire, own,
operate, or lease any quarries, mines, coal-beds, lumber-yards,
or furnaces, in any of the counties through which its road
may pass, or in any adjoining county, and to build branch
roads, not exceeding twenty miles in length, each, to any
quarries, coal-beds, mines, lumber-yards, or furnaces 80 owned,
acquired, operated, or leased.

7. Any county or incorporated city or town, may subscribe
to the capital stock of said road under the general law regu-
lating such subscriptions.

8. No rights shall vest under this act unless the construc-
tion of the said road shall be begun within two years, and
completed within ten years from the passage of this act.