Chap. 217.—An ACT to incorporate the Virginia Boom and Log
Company.

Approved February 24, 1886. ~

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
Charles L. James, E. G. Abbott, J. M. Barker, S. Lawrence
French, J. M. Bailey, Creed F. Flanary, H.S. K. Morrison, J.
H. Wood, and William G. Sheen, or such of them as may ac-
cept the provisions of this act, their associates and successors,
be and they are hereby incorporated and made a body politic
and corporate, under the name and style, The Virginia Boom
and Log Company, and by that name shall be known in law,
and shall have perpetual succession, and have power to sue and
be sued, plead and be impleaded, defend and be defended in all
courts, ‘whether in law or equity, and may make and have a
common seal, and may alter or renew the same at pleasure;
and shall have, enjoy and exercise all the rights, powers and
privileges pertaining to corporate bodies, and necessary for the
purposes of this act; and may make by-laws, rules and regu-
lations, consistent with existing laws of the state, for the gov-
ernment of all under its authority; the management of its prop-
erties, and the due and orderly conduct of its affairs.

2. The capital stock of said company shall not be -less than
five thousand dollars, nor more than two hundred thousand
dollars, as may be determined by the stockholders at any gen-
eral meeting, and shall be divided into shares of one hundred
dollars each; and the directors may receive real or personal
properties, or services, in payment for subscriptions to the
capital stock, at such valuation as may be agreed upon between
the directors and the subscriber. |

3. The said company is authorized and empowered to pur-
chase, hold, own, lease, and control in any manner, grant,
bargain, sell, mortgage, convey, and otherwise dispose of real
and personal estate, in this state or elsewhere; and the said
company is authorized and empowered to lay out said lands,
vor any part thereof, into parcels or lots of convenient size, with
intervening roads, lanes, streets and alleys, and develop, work,
improve and cultivate, or otherwise use or dispose of the
same, in such manner and upon such terms as the said company
may think proper; and the said company may erect and main-
tain booms upon or across the Clinch, Powel’s, and the north
fork of the Holston rivers, or upon any of the tributaries to
them, at such point or points within the state of Virgjnia as
the directors of the said company may determine, for the pur-
pose of stopping and securing logs and other lumber and tim-
ber floating upon said rivers, or the tributaries thereto, and
may erect piers and side or branch booms, and such other
structures and appliances as the company may deem necessary
for the proper prosecution of its business. And the said com-
pany having erected a boom or booms at any point or points
on the abovementioned streams, shall thereafter keep the said
boom or booms open and in good order to receive any and all
logs and other timber and lumber floating down the said rivers:
provided, that after the erection of a boom upon any of the
said streams, every person running, driving or placing logs in
the stream, or any of its tributaries, above the point where the
said boom is located, shall affix a distinguishing brand or mark
upon all and every the logs or pieces of timber placed in said
stream, which brand or mark shall be described and recorded
in the clerk’s office of the county wherein the said boom shall
be situated; and like description of each person’s brand or mark
shall also be furnished to the said company. The said com-
pany shall be entitled to receive a compensation for catching,
securing and holding said logs, lumber and other timber, a
sum in the discretion of the company not exceeding two dol-
lars per thousand feet, board measure, which toll or boomage
shall be due and payable within thirty days from the time the
logs or other lumber is received in any of the said company’s
booms; and the said company shall have a lien on each brand
or mark of logs or other lumber received within any of its
booms for the toll or boomage aforesaid, and if the said toll or
boomage shall remain unpaid for over thirty days after the said
brand or mark of logs shall have been received in the boom or.
booms of the said company, then the said company shall ad-
vertise the said brands or marks of logs or other lumber for:
two weeks in a newspaper published in the county where the
boom is ‘situated, setting forth the kind and amount of each
brand or mark of logs or other lumber, together with the time
and place where the said brands or marks of logs or other
lumber shall be sold at public auction; and from the proceeds,
after paying the expenses of advertising and conducting the
sale, and the-toll or boomage, and all other lawful or proper
charges, the residue, if any remains, shall be paid to the owner
or owners of the brands or marks sold.

4. The company is hereby authorized and empowered to
drive all logs and other lumber that may be in any of the
streams above mentioned, upon which the company may have
executed, and is at the time maintaining a boom or booms, down
to and secure the same in the said boom or booms. For doing
such driving, and for delivering and securing said logs or other
lumber as aforesaid, the company shall be entitled to an amount
not exceeding one dollar per thousand feet, board measure, in
addition to the toll or boomage hereinbefore mentioned: pro-
vided, that the company shall have no authority to take posses-
sion of any raft properly secured, or upon which there are men
or a man in charge, except upon the request of the parties in
charge of the same.

5. For the purpose of carrying out the above provisions, the
said company shall have the power, right and authority to
clean out the channel of the said streams, and to remove all
rocks or trees or other obstructions which may exist in the
said streams, or upon any island in said streams, or upon the
banks thereof; and for the purpose of improving the naviga-
tion of the said streams, it may build dams, make and con-
struct canals or cut-offs, and do whatever may be necessary to
accomplish the said purpose.

6. And for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this
section, and for erecting the said boom, appliances and other
necessary structures, the said company, or any of its servants
or agents, shall have the right to enter upon any lands along-
side or adjacent to the said streams, or for the purpose of re-
moving any logs or timber which may have been floated thereon
by high water or advance currents. And the said company
shall have the right to acquire such tracts of land, not exceed-
ing five acres in any one parcel, as the company may deem
necessary for the transaction of its business; and if the com-
pany and owner or owners thereof cannot agree as to the com-
pensation to be paid for the said tracts or parcels of land.

7. The matter shall be settled as is provided in chapter fifty-
six, Code of Virginia, eighteen hundred and seventy-three ;
and for the purpose of building piers, dams and other structures,
the company shall have right to take earth, rock, timber or
other materials, as is provided in chapter fifty-six, Code of eigh-
teen hundred and seventy-three, section twenty-eight, with
reference to internal improvement companies.

8. The said company is authorized and empowered to mine
and quarry coal, iron ore, marble and other mineral substances,
and to prepare and manufacture the same for use and sale in
all manner of forms it may adopt, and to manufacture and pre-
pare for market and sale all other raw materials, mineral or
vegetable; and for this purpose may erect and operate all kinds
of furnaces, mills, manufactories, coke-ovens, works and ma-
chinery necessary for the enjoyment of the privileges herein
granted, to the fullest and most ample extent.

g. The five persons first named in this act, shall constitute
the first board of directors of the said company, and they shall
continue in office until the first meeting of the stockholders
thereof. Each stockholder ir? the company shall, at all meet-
ings or elections, be entitled to one vote for each share of stock
registered in his name.

10. If any person or persons shall wilfully and maliciously,
and to the injury of the said company, cut, break, damage,
throw down or destroy any of the company’s booms or works
erected or made under the authority of this act, or shall re-
move, deface or alter the brands upon any logs or other lum-
ber in or upon the banks of the aforesaid rivers or their tribu-
taries, such person or persons shall be guilty of a misdemeanor,
if the loss or injury sustained by such act does not exceed one
hundred dollars, and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding
one hundred dollars, and be confined in the county jail not ex-
ceeding one year. But when the loss or injury caused by such
act shall exceed one hundred dollars, the person so offending
shall be guilty of a felony, and punished by confinement in the
penitentiary not less than one nor more than five years.

11. The board of directors may establish officers and agen-
cies at such places as they may deem proper, but the annual
meetings shall he held and the principal office shall be located
in the state of Virginia.

12. No stockholder shall ever be liable or made responsible
for its debts and liabilities in a large or further sum than the
amount of any unpaid -balance due to the said company for
stock subscribed for by the said stockholders: provided, that
nothing herein contained shall be construed so as to authorize
the company in any way to interfere with the free navigation of
the said rivers by flat boats or other craft.

13. The charter hereinbefore granted, except as to matters
herein specially provided for, is hereby declared to be subject
to the provisions of the general law in regard to chartered
companies and corporations, as expressed in the Code of Vir-
ginia, edition of eighteen hundred and seventy-three, chapters
fifty-six, fifty-seven fifty-eight, fifty-nine, and sixty-one.

14. Whenever this corporation shall exercise any of the pri-
vileges conferred by this act, it shall be liable to the same taxes
as may be imposed by law upon other like corporations: and
it is further provided, that the said taxes shall be paid in the
lawful money of the United States, and not in coupons.

15. The said corporation shall not be liable for the loss of
any logs or other lumber which may pass out of or by said
boom or booms, or escape therefrom, unless such loss is occa-
sioned by their neglect or default, or the neglect or default of
its agents or servants: provided always, that said corporation,.
their agents or servants, shall be bound to use all due diligence
to follow and secure all such logs and other lumber which may
pass out of or by, or escape from said boom or booms.

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