Chap. 831.—An ACT to incorporate the Seawright lithia spring and Augusta
railroad company.

Approved March 6, 1900.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That E. L.
Edmondson, Isaac Witz, P. H. Trout, Edwin R. Edmondson, and Hugh
B. Spraul, their associates, successors, and assigns, be, and thev are
hereby, constituted and declared a body politic and corporate, by the
name and style of the Seawright lithia spring and Augusta railroad
company, with all the rights and privileges belonging or appertain-
ing to railway corporations under the laws of this state.

2. The capital stock of said company shall be fifty thousand dollars,
divided into shares of one hundred dollars each, and said capital stock
may from time to time be increased by the board of directors to an
amount not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars.

3. It shall be lawful for any county, city, town, or individual to
subscribe to the capital stock of said railway company in the manner
the law prescribes.

4. The said Seawright lithia spring and Augusta railroad companv
is hereby authorized and empowered to locate, construct, equip, and
operate a railroad of standard gauge, with one or more tracks, or a
narrow gauge with one or more tracks, from anv point it mav select
at or near the Seawright magnesian lithia spring, in Augusta county, to
a point at or near Fort Defiance, on the Valley railroad, in said county,
and also in a southerly direction from said spring to a point at, in,
or near the city of Staunton, in the same county, and in a northerly
direction from said spring to a point at, in, or near the town of Bridge-
water, in Rockingham county. Virginia; to operate the same with steam,
electricitv or any other mechanical power, for the purpose of trans-
porting passengers, freight, baggage, or mails for compensation, and
for such other uses and purposes as railroad corporations are chartered
to subserve in the state of Virginia; to estabhsh and maintain on or
near its line one or more electric plants for the purposes of said road.
and to erect and operate telegraph and telephone lines along its route,
and for the purposes mentioned in this section it shall have the right to
acquire any property or rights it mav need either by purchase or bv
condemnation proceedings such as are authorized by the general law of
the state.

5. Subject to the general law of this state, it shall be lawful for said
company to cross any other railroad, turnpike, or county road at grade,
or over or under any other railroad, turnpike, or county road now con-
structed or which may be hereafter constructed. It may unite its road
or consolidate the same with any other roads now in this state or that
may hereafter be built; and generally, save in so far as may be herein
specified to the contrary, the said railroad company shall enjoy all the
rights and privileges, and be subject to all the restrictions conferred
and imposed by the general laws of this state applicable to railway
corporations.

6. The said company shall have power to issue bonds, negotiable or
non-negotiable, with or without coupons, registered or non-registered,
of such denominations and for such amounts and at such times and on
such terms as the directors may deem expedient, and sell the same to
raise money for the purpose of carrying on its work and in the conduct
of its business, and for this purpose may borrow money in other usual
and lawful ways; and in order to secure the payment of any bonds or
securities it may issue, and to secure the repayment of any money it
may so borrow, mav execute mortgages or deeds of trust on its prop-
erty, including its chartered rights and franchises. And the said com-
pany may receive as subscriptions to its capital stock money, labor,
bonds, or other personal property and real estate, and any other thing
or things in which, by the laws of this state, subscriptions to the capital
stock of a corporation may be paid, as may be agreed upon by the said
company and the subscribers, and said company may exchange its bonds
for such property, and any real estate so acquired by it may be held,
improved, leascd, mortgaged, and sold by the company in such manner
as to it may seem best: provided, that it shall not hold real estate not
needed for the purposes of its creation longer than a period of thirty
years from the time it is acquired.

7. The incorporators named in this act shall be authorized to receive
subscriptions to the capital stock of the company, and they shall also
constitute the board of directors for the first year after the organization
of the company, and shall continue in office until their successors shall
be elected and qualified. They shall elect one of their number as presi-
dent of the board, and mav appoint such other officers as they mav
deem proper and fix the salaries of the officers for the first year, sub-
ject, nevertheless, to any change in the same which may be made at a
stockholders’ meeting reeularly and Jawfully called during the year.
They shall have power to fill any vacancy that may occur in the board
or in the office of its president. Whenever ten thousand dollars of
the stock shall have heen validly and lawfully subscribed said incor-
porators shall proced to organize the company by calling a. genera]
stockholders’ meeting for the purpose, to be held in the city of Staunton
or at some other convenient place in the county of Augusta, after pub-
lication of notice of the time and place when and where the same is to
be held in one or more of the newspapers of the citv of Staunton at
least once a week for at least four successive weeks, which stockholders’
mecting shall elect a president, vice-president, and secretary and treas-
urer of the company. but. as hereinbefore stated, the incorporators
herein named are to constitute the hoard of directors for the first vear
and until their successors are elected by the stockholders and duly
qualified, Thereupon the said company shall be considered legally
organized, and, as hereinbefore stated, shall have all the general powers
and shall be subject to all the restrictions and provisions conferred and
imposed upon corporations and chartered companies by the laws of this
state, save in so far as the same are modified by or are inconsistent
with the provisions of this act.

8. The board of directors of this company are authorized at any meet-
ing when a majority of the directors are present to change the name
of this company.

9. All taxes which may be assessed against said company shall be
payable in lawful money of the United States, and not in coupons.

10. The construction of the railroad hereinbefore authorized shall be
begun within two years from the passage of this act and shall be com-
pleted within five years from the passage of this act: provided, never-
theless, that if any one or two of the lines from the starting point at
or near the Seawright magnesian lithia spring to a point at or near
Fort Defiance, to a point at, in, or near Staunton, and to a point at,
in, or near the town of Bridgewater, respectively, shall be commenced
and completed within the times just stated, then the existence and
organization of the company shall be valid and continuing as to the
completed line or lines, notwithstanding one or two of said lines mav
not have been begun and completed within the prescribed times, and
its corporate rights and privileges shall cease and determine only in
respect to the line or lines as to which default may have been made in
beginning and completing the work thereon.

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