CHAP. 128.—An ACT to incorporate the Norton land and im-
provement company.

Approved January 31, 1890.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That Ex Norton F. J. Kimhall, J.D. Probst, J. H. Dingee,
Joseph J. Doran, Clarence H. Clark, Harold M. Sill, Sam-
uel Fulton, or such of them as ‘may accept fhe provis-
ions 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 of the Norton
land and improvement company, and by that name
shall be, known in Jaw, and shall have perpetual suc-
cession, 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 and renew the same at pleasure,
and shall have, enjoy and exercise all the rights, powers
and privileges pertaining to corporate bodies and neces-
sary for the purpose of this act.

2. The capital stock of said company shall not be less
than two hundred thousand dollars, and may be increased
to any amount not exceeding one million dollars by sub-
scription or by the issue and sale of shares, the par value
of which shall not be less than fifty dollars, from time to
time under such regulations and upon such terms, as the
board of directors of such company shall from time to
time prescribe; and the directors may receive labor, sup-
plies, and materials, lands, water rights and other prop-
erty, real or personal, in payment for subscriptions to the
capital stock at such valuation as may be agreed upon
between the directors and subscribers.
3. The said company is authorized to purchase, hold and
convey lands and interests in lands in Wise county, in
this state, such lands, however, held in fee simple not to
exceed at any one time five thousand acres; to till, mine
. and quarry upon the same; to construct. lease and sell their
dwellings, stores and other buildings; to erect and main-
tain bridges, dams, and ferries, and otherwise use, develop
and improve the same; to furnish light and water, or
either, to such persons, partnerships, and corporations
residing or doing business in the county of Wise, or in
any city or town therein as may desire to use the same;
to provide, locate, purchase, erect and maintain all works
necessary to furnish light and water, including wires, pipe
lines, and conduits for the reception and distribution of
the same; provided, that nothing in this act shall author-
ize the company to hold and improve real estate or furnish
light and water outside of the county of Wise.

4. The persons first named in this act, or such of them
as shall accept the provisions hereof, 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 directors shall be elected as
may be prescribed by the laws and regulations of said
company, who may be removed by the stockholders in gen-
eral meeting, but unless so removed shal! continue in office
until their successors shall be elected and qualified. Each
stockholder in the company shall, at all meetings or elec-
tions 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 presi-
dent, and may fill any vacancy that may occur in said
board unless by a removal, in which case the same shall
be filled by the stockholders in general meeting, whenever
the minimum amount of capital stock herein named shall
have been subscribed and the board of directors shall have
elected a president, 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 compensations, and take from
them such bonds in security as they may see fit.

6. The board of directors may establish offices and
agencies at such places as they may deem proper, but the
principal office of the company shall be located at some
point within the county of Wise in this state.

7. The annual meeting of the stockholders of the said
company shall be held on the first Wednesday in Novem-
ber of each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, and
on such other day and at such other place as the stock-
holders may, by resolution adopted at any annual meeting,
to take effect at the next annual meeting, prescribe. A
general meeting of the stockholders of said company will
be held at any time, as provided by the eleven hundred
and fourteenth section of chapter forty-seven of the code
of Virginia of eighteen hundred and eighty-seven.

8. The said company shall issue certificates of stock in
said company to the subscribers or purchasers thereof in
shares of not less than fifty dollars each, signed by the
president and countersigned by the secretary of said com-
pany. The said certificates shall be transferrable upon
the books of the company by the said subscribers, their
personal representatives or duly authorized agent or attor-
ney; and the said certificates when so transferred, as
aforesaid may be returned to the said company and can-
celled, and new certificates of stock shall be issued in lieu
thereof to the persons entitled thereto for a like number
of shares.

9. It shall be lawful for said company to issue or sell
its bonds from time to time for such sum and on such
terms as its board of directors may deem expedient and
proper in the prosecution of its operations; and may se-
cure the payment of said bonds by mortgage or deeds of
trust upon all or any portion of its property and fran-
chises, including its franchises to be a corporation, and
may reserve the right to the company, or confer on the
holder of any bonds of the company,the right to convert the
principal thereof into stock of the company at any time;
and it shall be lawful for said company to subscribe to and
hold shares in the capital stock of any railroad company or
other corporation, whenever the board of directors of the
company shal] deem it to its interest to do 80, and any
such corporation may guarantee or hold the bonds or the
stock of the said company.

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

11. The said company for the purpose of locating, lay-
ing, constructing and operating its wires, conduits, and
pipe lines, and acquiring the lands and rights of way re-
quired therefor, may enter upon lands and acquire by con-
demnation, according to the laws of Virginia, the lands
and rights of way required by the company from time to
time therefor.

12. All taxes and debts due and to become due the com-
monwealth by the said company shall be paid in lawful
money of the United States and not in coupons.

13. This act shall be in force from its passage, but the
general assembly of the state of Virginia reserves the right
to modify, alter, or repeal this act at any time hereafter.

23
CuaP. 129.—An ACT to authorize the trustees of the Lynchburg
female seminary to re-convey tothe trustees of the first Presby-
terlan church of Lynchburg the property heretofore conveyed
to the former by the latter.

Approved January 31, 1890. '

Whereas by an act approved March ninth, eighteen hun-
dred and eighty, the legislature declared that it shall be
lawful for the trustees of the first Presbyterian church of
Lynchburg to convey and turn over to the Lynchburg fe-
male seminary any property held by them and heretofore
used for educational purposes, including the house and
lot on the corner of Main and Church (meaning Main and
Thirteenth streets) in said city, conveyed to said trustees by
the late Samuel McCorkle; and whereas said conveyance
and transfer was accordingly made; and whereas the con-
sideration of said conveyance no longer exists, the school
conducted by said Lynchburg female seminary having been
definitely discontinued; and whereas the trustees of said
Lynchburg female seminary have asked that power be given
them to re-convey said property back to the trustees of
said church; now, therefore,

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That the Lynchburg female seminary be, and it is here-
by, authorized and empowered to re-eonvey to the trustees
of the first Presbyterian church the lot and ground lying
at the corner of Main and Thirteenth streets, adjoining the
lot of said church, so that said property may thereafter
be vested in and held by said trustees as it was before they
conveyed the same under the provisions of said act of
March ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty.

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

CHAP 130.—An ACT to amend and re-enact sections 1, 8, 10, 25,
and 50 of an act approved January 31, 1884, entitled an act to
provide a new charter for the city of Roanoke.

Approved January 31, 1890.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That sections one, eight, ten, twenty-five, and fifty of an
act approved January thirty-first, eighteen hundred and
eighty-four, entitled an act to provide a new charter for
the city of Roanoke, be amended and re-enacted so as to
read as follows:

$1. The territory contained within the following limits, to wit:
Beginning at the intersection of the present corporation line
with the road leading tv Colonel Tayloe’s residence ; thence
along said road to the eastern corner of the lands of the Belmont
land company ; ‘thence with the southeastern boundary line of
same, and continuing same course through the land of the Ro-
anoke land and improvement company to the middle of Roan-
oke river ; thence up the river, along iniddle of same, to the old
ford above the iron bridge ; thence along Franklin road to the
present corporation line at Gish’s road-gate; thence with the
present line of the Lewis farm, now enclosed, in a westerly
_direction to the Gish land ; thence with the lines between said
Lewis and Gish lands to the middle of Roanoke river ; thence
up the river, along centre line of same, to the western boundary
of the Roanoke tron company’s land ; thence along same and
crossing the Norfolk and Western railroad to north boundary of
said road ; thence along north side of said railroad land to the
Sexton farm ; thence with western boundary of said farm to the
Salem turnpike at the southwest corner of land of Melrose land
company ; thence with western and northern boundary lines of
said company’s land to the Salem turnpike and present corpo-
ration line; thence, with present corporation line, to the Lin-
wood tract ; thence with western and northern boundary lines of
same and crossing the Shenandoah Valley railroad to Tinker
creck ; thence down the same to present corporate line; thence
with same to the beginning be deemed and taken as the city
of Roanoke; and the inhabitants of the city of Roanoke,
for all purposes for which towns and cities are incorpo-
rated in this commonwealth, shall continue to be one
body politic, in fact and in name, under the style and de-
nomination of the “City of Roanoke,” and as such shall
have, exercise, and enjoy all the rights, immunities, pow-
ers, and privileges, and be subject to all the duties and
obligations now incumbent on and appertaining to said
city as a municipal corporation: provided, however, that the
said city of Roanoke shall pay to the county of Roanoke in
nine equal annual payments (the first of which payments to be
made August first, eighteen hundred and ninety), that propor-
tion of nine thousand dollars which the value of the real estate
taken in by reason of the extension of the corporate limits of
said city under this act sustains to the value of the whole of the
real estate so taken in, and that of Roanoke county, as ascer-
tained by the assessment of eighteen hundred and ninety.

§8. He shall, by virtue of his office, possess all the juris-
diction and exercise all the power and authority in crimi-
nal cases of a justice of the peace of said city, in addition
to the powers hereby given him by virtue of this act, but
he shall receive no fees for his services as justice of the
peace: provided, however, that in every case tried by the said
mayor, arising either under the general laws of the state or the
ordinances of the city of Roanoke, there shall be an appeal of
right to the hustings court of said city whenever the fines and
costs shqll amount to a sum in excess of five dollars, the proceed-
angs upon such appeal to be the same as are provided for in the
case of appeal from a justice of the peace.
§10. He shall exercise constant supervigion over the
conduct of all subordinate officers, have power and author-
ity to investigate their acts, have access to all books and
documents in their offices, and may examine said officers
and their subordinates on oath. He shall also have
power to suspend or remove such officers for misconduct
in office or neglect of duty; but no such removal shall be
made without reasonable notice to the officer complained
of and an opportunity be afforded him to be heard in his
defense. On the removal or suspension of such an officer,
the mayor shall report the same to the city council at
their next stated meeting for their consideration; but in
no case shall it be final until ratified by three-fourths of
the members of the council present.

§25. Whenever any street, alley or lane in said city
shall have been opened to and used by the public for the
period of five years, the same shall thereby become a
street, alley or lane for public purposes, and the council
shall have the same authority and jurisdiction over, and
right and interest therein, as they have by law over the
streets, alleys and lanes laid out by them. And any street,
lane or alley reserved in the division or subdivision into
lots of any portion of the territory within the corporate
limits of said city, by a plan or plat of record, or filed with
the clerk of the hustings court of said city, shall be deemed
and held to be dedicated to public use, unless it appears
by said plat or plan that said street, lane or alley is reserved
for private use, but upon the petition of a majority of the
persons interested in sazd street, lane or alley so reserved the
city council shall have power to open the same for public
use.

850. The city council may, in the name of and for the
use of the city, contract loans or cause to be issued cer-
tificates of debt or bonds; provided, that no such certifi-
cate of debt or bonds shall be issued except by a two-thirds
vote of the council, endorsed by two-thirds of the free-
hold voters voting on the question; but such loans,
certificates, or bonds shall not be irredeemable for a period
greater than thircy-four years; provided, further, that said
council shall not contract said loans or issue such certifi-
cates of debt or bonds for the purpose of subscribing to
the stock of any company incorporated for a work of
internal improvement, or other purpose, without being
first authorized so to do by three-fourths of the freehold
voters of the city voting on the question; provided, further,
that in no case shall the aggregate debt of the city at any
one time exceed fifteen per centum of the assessed value
of the property, real and personal, within the city limits:
and, provided, further, that the said council shall not en-
dorse the bonds of any company whatsoever witheut the
same authority. All contracts for the erection of public
improvements or buildings within the jurisdiction of the
city council shall be let to the lowest responsible bidder,
and notice shall be given at least thirty days before the work 18
finally let by advertising in one or more newspapers published
an the city, and the party to whom said contract shall be
let shall give such bond as the council may require; but
in no event shall any contract be let to any member of
the city council, nor shall any member have any interest
in such contract.
2. This act shall be in force from its passage.

CuapP. 131.—An ACT to revive, extend, amend and re-enact the
charter of the city gas light company of Norfolk.

-. Approved January 31, 1890.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That an act to incorporate the city gas light company of
Norfolk, passed January eleventh, eighteen hundred and
fifty, as amended by an act entitled an act to extend,
renew, and amend the charter of the city gas light com-
pany of Norfolk, approved January eighteen, eighteen
hundred and eighty-four, be and the same hereby is
revived, extended, amended, and re-enacted so as to read as
follows:

2. That Tazewell Taylor, Frederick W. Southgate, A. T.
M. Cooke, Thomas Newton, Richard Dickson, Cincinna-
tus W. Newton, Walter H. Taylor, Charles 8. Allmand, G.
R. Drummond, Thomas Baltimore, W. C. Dixon and
Joseph T. Allyn, and such other persons as may be now or
hereafter associated with them, shall be, and they are
hereby, incorporated and made a body politic and corpo-
rate, under the name and style of the “city gas light com-
pany of Norfolk,” with full power to construct or purchase
and to maintain suitable works and machinery, either in
Norfolk city or in Norfolk county, or in both, for the man-
ufacture, distribution, and sale of gas, electricity, or other
thing from bituminous coal or other substances or mate-
rials, for the purpose of public and private heating, illu-
mination, and for power, any or all, both within the cor-
porate limits of Norfolk city and without the same in
Norfolk county; and for the purpose of carrying into
effect the objects herein provided for, the said company
shall have power to purchase and hold such real estate
not exceeding twenty acres, located either in the city or
county of Norfolk, or both, as they may deem necessary
for their works and the proper carrying on of their busi-
ness; and said company shall have all the general powers
and be subject to all the general restrictions conferred
and imposed, and be governed by the provisions of chap-
ters forty-six and forty-seven of the code of Virginia of
eighteen hundred and eighty-seven, so far as they are
applicable and not inconsistent with the provisions of this
act.

3. The capital stock of the “ city gas light company of
Norfolk” shall not be less than twenty thousand dollars
nor more than five hundred thousand dollars, divided into
shares of one hundred dollars each, to be raised by sub-
scription, and may he from time to time increased, as the
stockholders may determine, provided the maximum
above mentioned be not exceeded; and said company shall
also have power to make, execute, issue, and sell or nego-
tiate its bonds to an amount not exceeding one-half of the
paid up capital stock outstanding at the time of such
issue, which bonds shall bear such rate of interest not
exceeding six per centum per annum, and shal] be in such
form and shall be payable at such time as the said com-
pany shall prescribe; and shall have also power to secure
said bonds by amortgage or deed of trust on all its works,
property and franchises, or any part thereof; and for the
purpose of receiving subscriptions to said capital stock, if
the same be not otherwise subscribed, books may be opened
under the superintendence of Charles S. Allmand, Rich-
ard Dickson, George R. Drummond, Thomas Baltimore,
and W. C. Dickson and such other persons as may now or
hereafter be associated with them, or under the superin-
tendence of any two of said persons or their associates,
in conformity with the law in such case made and pro-
vided, and in case said capital stock is at any time in-
creased as above provided, those persons who are stock-
holders at the time of such increase shall have the privi-
lege of subscribing for the amount of such increase before
any other person is allowed to subscribe.

4. That each and every share of the stock in the said
company shall entitle the owner thereof to one vote there-
on, 1n person or by proxy.

5. That the said company shall be authorized to open
the streets, avenues, highways and public parks and squares
of the said city and county, for laying pipes, planting poles
or placing and working such apparatus as shall be neces-
sary to carrv on the business of the said company; pro-
vided, that the same shall be repaired by the said compa-
ny, at its own cost and expense; that portion of said work
in said city to be done under the supervision of the board
of street, sewer and drain commissioners, or other officer
designated by the councils thereof, and that portion of the
work in said county to be done under the supervision of
the board of supervisors of Norfolk county; and provided,
also, that no poles shall be planted in the streets of the
city by the said company until the consent of the councils
thereto shall have been first had and obtained.
6. That any person who shall wilfully open a communi-
cation into the street gas main or other gas pipe of said
company without authority from the president and direc-
tors thereof, or who shall wilfully let on the gas after it
has been stopped by order of the said president and direc-
tors for repairs or other purposes, or who shall put up any
pipes in addition to the pipes originally put up and in-
epected, or wilfully introduce gas into them or disconnect
any meter without authority as aforesaid, or shall wilfully
do, or cause to be done, any actor acts whatever whereby
the works of the said company, or any pipe, conduit, plug,
cock, reservoir, meter, gas-caps of the cock boxes, or any
engine, machine, structure, poles, lamp or wire or any mat-
ter or thing appertaining to the same, shall be obstructed,
injured, or destroyed, the person or persons so offending
shall be subject to a penalty of not less than ten nor more
than twenty dollars for each and every such other offense
or injury, to be recovered by warrant before the mayor
or any justice of the peace of the city of Norfolk, one half
to be paid to the informer and the other half to the said city
for its own use, and shall, moreover, forfeit and pay tothe
said company double the amount of damages sustained by
means of such offense or injury to be recovered in the name
of the said company, with cost of suit, by action to be
brought in any court of record in this state; or, if the
damages do not exceed twenty dollars, by warrant before
any justice of the peace thereof.

7. That the councils of the city of Norfolk shall have
power to pass ordinances for the protection from injury by
adequate penalties, not exceeding twenty dollars in any
one case, of the works and property of the said company.

8. That this act shall be construed as retroactive as well
as prospective, and shall have the effect of reviving, con-
tinuing, and ratifying the existence and organization of
the said company formed under the said act entitled an
act to incorporate the city gas light company of Norfolk,
passed January eleventh, eighteen hundred and fifty.

9. This act shall continue in force for the period of thir-
ty years from and after the passage thereof.

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

CHapP. 132.—An ACT to incorporate the Northern Neck railroad
and transportation company.

Approved January 31, 1890.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That Frederick W. Claybrook, Romulus M. Saunders, and
R. Tunstall Pierce, of the county of Lancaster; John A.
Palmer, James J. McDonald, Benjamin Chambers, and
William R. Claughton, of the county of Northumberland;
Richard H. Lyell, William A. Jones, Lawrence Mitchell,
and J. F. Garland, of the county of Richmond; John KE.
Crabbe, William W. Walker, Robert M. Mayo, James P.
Jenkins, and Robert J. Washington, of the county of
Westmoreland; Edward S. Ruggles, F. W. Payne, William
B. K. Price, Benjamin R. Grymes, J. J. Mason, C. H.
Ashton, J. E. Mason, T. H. Bivan, and Thomas T. Arnold,
of the county of’King George; C. A. Bryan, Doctor James
H. Ball, and W. S. White, of the county of Stafford; and
William A. Little, junior, A. K. Phillips, junior, and M. B.
Rowe, of the townof Fredericksburg, their associates and
successors, be and are hereby made a body corporate and
politic under the name and style of the Northern Neck
railroad and transportation company.

2. The said company may use a corporate seal, which

it may alter or renew at its pleasure; may sue and be
sued, plead and be impleaded, contract and be contracted
with, and make by-laws, rules, and regulations not incon-
sistent with the existing laws of the state.
_ 3. It shall be lawful for the said company to construct,
operate, and maintain a line of railway from some point
at or near the mouth of the Rappahannock river, with the
privilege of building branches either to the Potomac or
the Great Wicomico rivers, thence through either or all of
the following counties, to wit: Lancaster, Richmond,
Northumberland, Westmoreland, King George, and Staf-
ford to the town of Fredericksburg. And it shall be law-
ful for said company to bridge the Rappahannock river
(so as not to interfere with navigation of said river),
either at or below the said town, and to pass through the
counties of Caroline and Spotsylvania.

4. The said company may purchase, hold, grant, or
otherwise dispose of real and personal estate: provided
that not more than twenty thousand acres of land shall
be owned by it in any one of the counties through which
it may pass. It shall also be lawful for any of the coun-
ties through which the said road may be built to subscribe
to the capital stock of the said company whenever such
subscription shall be authorized by the vote of the people
of any such county which shall be carried by a majority
of the voters voting, including a majority of the freehold-
ers voting. The election shall be conducted according to
the general law of Virginia in such cases made and pro-
vided, not inconsistent with this act; for the payment of
such subscription, it shall be lawful for said counties to
issue bonds and to secure the payment of interest and
principal of the same by a specific tax on such property
as is now subject to taxation under the laws of Virginia.

5. The said company shall have power and may estab-
lish a line or lines of steamships, steamboats, or vessels
propelled by any other than steam power, to run between
any ports of Virginia and the ports of the United States,
Europe, or elsewhere, and may operate a ferry between the
terminus or termini of said road to any point or points
across the Chesapeake bay; to build docks and wharves;
to erect warehouses adjacent thereto for the receipt and
discharge of cargoes of ships and other vessels; to store
goods, wares, and merchandise, and grant certificates
therefor in such forms and under such rules and regula-
tions as such company may from time to time adopt; and
to transport goods, wares, and merchandise either by land
or by water.

6. The capital stock of the Northern Neck railroad and
transportation company shall not. exceed five million dol-
lars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each,
each share subscrikted to be entitled to one vote in all
meetings of the said company, and one hundred thousand
dollars shall be taken as the minimum subscription on
which said company may be organized.

7. That the aforesaid incorporators, or any seven of
them, whenever one thousand shares of the stock of said
company shall have been subscribed, may organize the
company by electing a president and board of directors,
and electing or appointing such other officers as may be
necessary for the management of the affairs of the com-
pany; and thereupon they shall have and exercise all the
general powers and functions of a corporation.

8. The said company shall have power to cross at grade,
unite, consolidate, merge, or connect with any other rail-
way constructed, or which may hereafter be constructed
in this state; but not with a competing line.

9. It shall be lawful to receive subscriptions to the stock
of the company from any connecting railroad company,
or in land in any of the counties through which the road
may pass.

10. This act shall be subject to legal amendment, alter-
ation, or repeal at any time hereafter by the general as-
sembly of Virginia. All taxes shall be paid in lawful
money of the United States and not in coupons.

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