Chap. 52.—An ACT to incorporate the Cripple Creek Iron and Steel
company.

Approved April 6, 1887,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
John W. Robinson, (reorge T. Mills, George R. Dunn, J. B.
Baskerville, H. G. MeCouch, L.S. Calfee, W. W. Coe, Martin
Williams, M. B. Tate, Ch arles H. Mellon, or such of them as
may accept the provisions of this act, their associates and suc-
cessors be, and they are hereby incorporated and made a
body politic and corporate under the name and style of the
Cripple Creck Iron and Steel 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 in
equity, and may make and have a common seal, and alter or
renew the same at pleasure, and shall have, enjoy, and exer-
cise all the rights, powers, and privileges pertaining to cor-
porate bodies and necessary for the purposes of this act, and
make by-laws and rules and regulations consistent with the
existing laws of the State for the government of all under its
authority, the management of its estate and properties, and
the due and orderly ‘conduct of its affairs.

2. The capital stock of the said company shall not be less
than fifty thousand dollars, and may be increased to any
amount not exceeding two million five hundred thousand dol-
lars by issue and sale of shares, the par value of which shall
not be less than fifty dollars, from time to time, under such
regulations as the board of directors of said company shall
from time to time, prescribe; and the directors may receive
real or personal property suited to the business of the com-
pany in payment of subscriptions to the capital stock, at such
valuations as may be agreed upon between the directors and
subscribers.

3. The said company is authorized and empowered to mine
coal, iron ore, or other minerals, to prepare the products
thereof for market, to make coke and transport and sell the
same, to manufacture iron and steel and other metals and
articles composed wholly or partly of iron and steel and other
metals or wood, to bore for salt, oil, or was, and manufacture,
transport, and refine the samo, and to sell and dispose of the
same, and to erect blast furnaces, rolling mills, forges, mills,
machinery, fixtures, buildings, and the necessary appliances
and appurtenances required in the conduct of theit business ;
and to make Jeases or contracts for these or anv of these pur.
poses; and the said company shall have the right, from time
to time, to purchase, lease, hold, and control, in any manner,
grant, bargain, sell, and convey iron ore, mineral and lime-
stone, and other lands and rights, and interest in lands situate
in the counties of Bland, Wythe. and Smyth,and the counties
adjacent thereto in the State of Virginia, not exceeding, how-
ever, thirty thousand acres of land in any one county ; to lay
out, develop, and improve the same, and the said company
may locate, construct, and operate a line of railroad or rail-
roads from any of its land or works to any point on any rail-
road now or hereafter constructed in or to the said counties
in which it is authorized to hold lands: provided, nothing
herein contained shall be considered as exe.npting the com-
pany from the provisions of chapter sixty-one of the Code of
eighteen hundred and seventy-three, if it shall enyage in the
construction or operation of any railroad, and the said com-

any may acquire by condemnation in the mode prescribed
by law, the lands necessary for the right of way of its railroad
and necessary stations and depots.
4. The persons first named in this act, or such of them as
shall accept the provisions thereof, shall constitute the first
board of directors of the said company, and shall continue in
office until the first meeting of the stockholders thereof. At
such first meeting, and at every annual meeting, so many di-
rectors shall be elected as may be prescribed by the by-laws
and regulations of said company, who may be removed by the
stockholders in general meeting; but unless so removed, shall
continue 1n office until their successors are elected and quali-
fied. Each stockholder in the company shall, at all meetings
or elections thereafter, be entitled to one vote for each share
of stock registered in his name.

5. The board of directors shall be stockholders of said
company. They shall appoint one of their number president,
and may fill any vacancy that may occur in said board, un-
less by removal, in which case the same shall be filled by the
stockholders in general mecting. Whenever the minimum
amount of capital stock herein named shall have been sub-
scribed, and the board of directors shall have elected a presi-
dent, said company shall be considered legally organized, and
may proceed to the transaction of business. The board shall
appoint, to hold during its pleasure, the subordinate officers
and agents of the said company, prescribe their compensa-
tions, and take from them such bonds with good security as
they may deem fit.

6. The board of directors may establish offices and agencies
at such places as they may decm proper, but the principal
office of the company shall be located at some point within
the limits of the State of Virginia.

7. The annual meeting of the stockholders of the said com-
pany shall be held at Wytheville, Wythe county, in Virginia,
on the first Wednesday of May of each year, or as soon there-
after as practicable; and on such other day, and at such other
place, as the stockholders may, by resolution adopted in any
annual meeting, to take effect at the next annual meeting,
prescribe. A gencral meeting of the stockholders of the said
company may be held at any time, as provided for by the
tenth section of chapter fifty-seven of the Code of Virginia,
edition of cightcen hundred and seventy-three.

8. The said company shall issue certificates of stock in said
company to subscribers therefor, in shares of not less than
fifty dollars each, signed by the president and cofintersigned
by the secretary of said company. The said certificate shall
be transferable only upon the books of the company by the
said subscribers, their personal representatives, or duly au-
thorized agent or attorney; and the said certificates, when
so transferred as aforesaid, may be returned to the said com-
pany and cancelled, and new certificates of stock shall be
issued in lieu thereof, to the person entitled thereto for a like
number of shares.

9. It shall be lawful for said company to issue and sell its
bonds, from time to time, for such sum and on such terms as
its board of directgrs may deem expedient and proper in the
prosecution of any of its work; and may secure the payment
of said bonds by mortgages or deeds of trust upon all or any
portion of its property and franchises, including its franchise
to be a corporation, and the company may reserve the right
to the company or confer on the holder of any bond the right
to convert the principal thereof into the stock of the com-
pany at any time; and it shall be lawful for said company to
subscribe to and hold shares in the capital stock of any rail-
road company or other corporation whenever the board of
directors of the company shall deem it to its interest so todo,

10. No stockholder in said) company shall be beld Hable or
made responsible for its debts and liabilities ina larger or
further sum than the amount of any unpaid balance due to
‘the said company for stock subscribed for by said stockholder.

11. Whenever this corporation shall exercise any of the
privileges conferred by this act, it shall be liable to the same
taxes as may be imposed by law upon other like corporations
or persons exercising like privileges.

12. This corporation shall be exempted from the terms,
limitations and conditions of section: thirty-six of chapter
fifty-seven of therCode of Virginia of cighteen hundred and
seventy-three, for the space of five years from the date of the
passage of this act; and all taxes and debts due or to become
due the State by the company shall be paid in lawful money
of the United States, and not in coupons.

13. This act shall bein force from its passage, but the gen-
eral assembly of the State of Virginia reserves to itself the
right to modify, alter, or repeal this act at any time here-
after.