Chap. 268.—An ACT to incorporate the Virginia and Louisa improvement
company.

Approved February 16, 1901.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That W. EF.
Bibb, J. E. Bibb, L. A. Walker, J. F. Walker, and J. F. Bickers, their
associates and successors, be, and they are, hereby constituted and made
a body, politic and corporate, by the name and style of the Virginia and
Louisa improvement company, and by that name and style shall have
all the privileges, rights and powers conferred by, and be subject to all
the provisions of the general law of this state in reference to corpora-
tions and chartered companies so far as the same may be applicable, and
not inconsistent with this act.

2. The capital stock of the company shall not be Jess than five thou-
sand dollars nor more than fifty thousand dollars, divided into shares
of one hundred dollars each, and within said limits may be fixed and
increased from time to time as the board of directors shall determine;
and the board may issue shares of stock and sell the same at’ such prices
as in their discretion they shall think fit, whether below the par or face
value of said stock or not. Subscriptions to the stock of the company
may be paid for in labor, services, money, land, options, or any other
property, real or personal, at such prices as the board of directors shall
think best, and the board is authorized to issue stock to represent en-
hanced value of the company’s property. No stockholder shall be held
liable on account of his stock or contract of subscription beyond the bal-
ance he may owe of the price at which he subscribed or bought of the
company. ‘The said company may increase its capital stock to any
amount not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars, by application to
the circuit court of the city of Richmond, and shall, before such issue.
pay to the auditor of public accounts the tax on this charter on the
maximum so to be issued.

3. The regular annual meeting of the stockholders of the company
shall be held on the second Tuesday of February of each and every year
at the principal oflice of the company, which shall be located in Louisa
county, in the state of Virginia; but the time and place of holding the
regular annual meeting, or any special meeting, as well as the location
of the principal office, may be changed by the stockholders in general
meeting.

4. The board of directors shall consist of five members, though their
number may be increased by the stockholders in any general meeting.
They shall hold office for one year, or until their successors are elected
and qualify. They shall elect from their number a president and vice-
president. secretary and treasurer, and shall have the power, except in so
far as they may be restricted by a resolution or by-law of the stockholders,
io appoint such officers and agents as they may deem necessary. The
persons named as incorporators in the first section of this act, or such
of them as shall accept the provisions of this act, or their successors in
office, shall constitute the board of directors of the company for the
first year, and as such shall, in addition to their other duties, have sole
charge and control of the organization of the company under this char-
ter, and may dispense with the giving and publishing of notice of the
opening of the books of subscription to the capital stock.

5. The company is authorized and empowered to mine and produce
for manufacture or market koaline, plumbago and all other earths or
clavs useful for manufacturing purposes; also coal, iron, lead. gold.
silver, copper, barytes, pyrites, marl and all other minerals. ores or
metals, and to carrv on the business of mining and manufacturing all
kinds of ores, minerals, metals, earths and clay from its own mine or
the mines of others, manufacturing everything that can be manufactured
from such products; and moreover, manufacturing chemicals. com-
pounds, fabrics, and articles of all kinds and description of any and everv
material whatever; to build all necessary plants and factories and honses
for its employees and others, and to operate the same, and to establish
and conduct all necessary agencies for the sale of the product of its
mines or factories; to search for and develop mineral properties of all
kinds and descriptions, and to sell or work the same; to acquire by pur-
chase, lease or otherwise, such mineral and other lands or the ores, mine-
rals, metals, earth and clay rights therein; and such mines and manutfac-
turing plants in this or any other state of the United States or in for-
eign countries as may be necessary or uscful for the purposes above men-
tioned, or any of them, and to hold. work and operate the same.

3. The said company is authorized and empowered to buy, build, or
have built, own and run freight and chartered vessels, barges and boats
propelled by sail, steam or any other mamner, and establish all necessary
wharves and landing-places; also acquire by purchase from any company
or corporation now doing business in Virginia, any or all of its assets.
including its franchises, rights to be a corporation, and any company or
corporation doing business in Virginia, is hereby authorized to sell its
assets of any description, including its franchises and right to be a cor-
poration to this company.

7. The said company is authorized and empowered to purehase, 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 may own at any one time five thousand acres of land,
and may deal in goods, wares and merchandise; and the said company is
authorized and empowered to lay out its lands, or 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 dispose
of same in such manner and upon such terms as the said company may
think proper, and may contract for, purchase, lease, hold, construct,
operate and maintain anv works of public or private improvements in
this state or elsewhere, within the scope of its powers, as authorized by
this charter, with the right and power of laving out, constructing, ac-
quiring and operating by steam, electricty or other motive power any
railroad or railroads in this state, not to exceed ten miles in length, and
may acquire rights of way therefor, including the right of wav to any
land belonging ‘to, attached to the site and used for the purposes of any
incorporated college, schools or any other seminary of learning: provided,
however, that the same shall not run within three hundred fect of any
building now constructed and used for school purposes, by purchase or
hy condemnation, but such condemnation shall be pursuant to the general
law of this state regulating the same, except as herein provided: pro-
vided, however, that nothing in this section shall be construed as ex-
empting the said company from the provisions of chapter fifty-one of
the code of Virginia, edition of eighteen hundred and cighty-seven.

8. Said company is authorized and empowered, as often as it sees fit.
to exchanve, barter, mortgage, Jease, sell and convey its lands, mines,
plants, railroads, rights, franchises, including its franchise to be a cor-
poration, and other property, or any part thereof: and may sell its mort-
gage bonds from time to time at such prices and upon such terms as its
board of directors may deem expedient and proper in the prosecution of
any of its works or business.

9. Any other company may hold shares of stock in this company, and
this company may in like manner hold shares of stock in any other in-

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corporated company or corporation, in all respects as if it were a natural
person.
10. All of the taxes which may be assessed against the said company
shall be paid in lawful money of the United States and not in coupons.
All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby re-
pealed.
12. This act shall be in force from its passage.