Chap. 193.—An AOT to Incorporate the Bristol Coal and Iron Narrow-
Gauge Railroad Company, and to transfer to it certain Franchises,
Rights, Privileges and Properties of the Virgipia and Kentucky
Railroad Company.

I Approved March 27, 1876.

Whereas, on the third day of March, erghteen hundred and
fifty-two, the general assembly authorized the Virginia and.
Tennessee railroad company to extend their road from at or
near Bristol to Cumberland Gap, and at the same time pro-
vided for the formation of an independent company by the
name of the Virginia and Kentucky railroad company, pro-
vided the said Virginia and Tennessee railroad company did
not accept the provisions of said charters at or before the
second annual meeting of their stockholders; and whereas,
in accordance with said charters, the Virginia and Kentucky
railroad company was organized, and proceeded to construct
their road, the board of public works subscribing for three-
fifths of the capital stock, in accordance with the charter
and the then invariable policy of the state, and the work of
construction of said road being suspended, and finally aban-
doned, owing to the financial condition of the country after
the late war; and whereas the said Virginia and Kentucky
railroad company, despairing of completing their road to
Cumberland Gap unaided, and the general assembly being
desirous of promoting the construction of said road, thereby
greatly enhancing the value of taxable property in the state,
increasing her revenues, and advancing the prosperity of a
very large number of her citizens in the act entitled an act
for the formation of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio rail-
road company, approved the seventeenth day of June, eigh-
teen hundred and seventy, intended to give effect and efficiency
to her railroad policy, did hope to further the construction
of the said railroad to Cumberland Gap, as by the terms of
the said act of June seventeenth, eighteen hundred and
seventy, will appear; and whereas the time within which
the said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad company was
privileged to complete the said road has very nearly expired,
and the general assembly having declared by an act passed
on the twenty-ninth day of April, eighteen hundred and
seventy-four, that it was not the policy of the state to com-
plete the Virginia and Kentucky division of the said road
unless and until there was a satisfactory assurance on the
part of the connecting railway system in Kentucky that the
said road would be met at Cumberland Gap, and the said act
having provided that should the company fail of a connection
at Cumberland Gap within the time prescribed for the com-
pletion of the Virginia and Kentucky railroad, then permit-
ting the said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad company
to use its resources reserved for the completion of said road
in extending their main line west, and in building branch
roads, absolving the said Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio rail-
road company from any further responsibility on that ac-
count as by the terms of said act of the twenty-ninth day of
April, eighteen hundred and seventy-four: therefore, .

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That James M.
Barker, James H, Wood, Joseph R. Anderson, Isaac B. Dunn,
W. W. James, and Z. L. Burson, of Goodson, Virginia; John
Jett, H. W. Holdway, H.S. R. Morrison, M. B. Wood, Ira P.
Robinett, John Wolfenbarger, R. B. Fugate, James H. Hor-
ton, and C. C. Duff, of Scott county; A. J. Litton, Peter C.
‘Allen, A. L. Pridemore, Patrick Hagan, William F. Edmunds.
Marion I). Richmond, and J. M. McElroy, of Lee county ;
Henry C. Slemp, Hiram Rtggs, Ellington Wells, Morgan T.
Lipps, George W. Kilgore, Jessee B. Hylton, H. H. Dodsen,
and Jeremiah Chase, their associates and successors, be and
they are hereby incorporated, and made a body politic and
corporate, by the name of’ The Bristol Coal and Iron Narrow-
Gauge Railroad Company, for the purpose of building, equip-
ping and operating a railroad, from Bristol-Goodson, in Wash-
ington county, via Hstillville and Speer’s ferry, in Scott
county, to a point at or near Big Stone gap, in Wise county,
Virginia.

2. That said company, when fully organized, shall have a
common seal, sue and be sued by its corporate name, and be
otherwise invested with all the powers, ric¢hts and privileges,
and subject to all the duties, restrictions and responsibilities,
imposed by the laws of Virginia on railroad companies.

3. The capital stock of the said company shall not, except
as hereinafter provided, exceed one million of dollars, to be
divided into shares of one hundred dollars each; but said
company shall, if found necessary to complete, fully equip
and put their road in operation, have power to issue its bonds,
and secure the same by mortgage on its property and fran-
chises, to the further amount of one million of dollars: pro-
vided, that no greater interest than ten per centum shall be
stipulated to be paid thereon.

4. That subscribers to the capital stock of the Virginia
and Kentucky railroad company, whether they have trans-
ferred their subscriptions to the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio
railroad company or not, are authorized to transfer their sub-
scriptions to the Bristol coal and iron narrow-gauge railroad
company, whenever it organizes under this charter, and shall
receive from said road certificates of stock, and have the
same rights and interest that they had in the Virginia and
Kentucky or Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad com-
panies; and the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad com-
pany shall execute to the parties so transferring their sub-
scriptions, a valid and sufficient release from any liability to
it, otherwise than as reserved and provided in the act of the
twenty-ninth day of April, eighteen hundred and seventy-
four, aforesaid.

5. Whenever the sum of fifty thousand dollars shall have
been subscribed to the capital stock of the said Bristol coal and
iron narrow-gauge railroad company, in accordance with the
provisions hereinbefore and hereinafter contained, then it
shall be lawful for the said company to organize and com-
mence operations. And whenever the said company shall
have organized, in accordance with the provisions of this
charter, then the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad com-
pany may subscribe to the capital stock of the same the sum
of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more, payable
in the first mortgage bonds of the said company, heretofore
set apart as and for a fund for the completion of the Virginia
and Kentucky railroad. When the said Atlantic, Mississippi
aud Ohio railroad company shall ‘have subscribed the afore-
said sum, it shall be entitled to cast one vote for every one
hundred dollars worth of stock so subscribed for.

6. That the said company is hereby authorized to construct
z road upon the road-bed surveyed and laid out for the

ginia and Kentucky railroad, and are authorized and em-
wered to use all the grading and masog#y done upon the
said line by the Virginia and Kentucky railroad company be-
fore their suspension, subject to all the liabilities of the same;
and the said Bristol coal and iron narrow-gauge railroad com-
pany, is placed in the enjoyment, and vested with all the
rights and privileges, and subject to all the obligations and
liabilities, of the said Virginia and Kentucky railroad com-
pany, before it was consolidated with the Atlantic, Mississippi
and Ohio railroad company, except in so far as they are modi-
fied and restricted by this act. |

7. Upon the organization of said eompany, the Atlantic,
Mississippi and Ohio railroad company shall turn over to it
all the property, real and personal, assets, and records re-
ceived by it of the Virginia and Kentucky railroad company,
including the records of all surveys and estimates made by
the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad company since the
seventeenth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy, and
all the surveys and estimates turned over to the said Atlantic,
Mississippi and Ohio railroad company when the same was
organized; on the said company being fully indemnified of
all just payments, expenditures, and liabilities made and in-
curred on account of the said road to Cumberland gap; and
if the two companies cannot agree upon a settlement accord-
ing to the provisions of this section, then it shall be the duty
of the board of public works to settle and adjust the same.

8. It shall be lawful for said company to extend its line
from any point on the same to Cumberland gap, at any time
when a majority of the stockholders shall deem it to the
interest of said company to do so; and for the purpose of
extending said line, the said company is authorized to enlarge
their capital stock or issue bonds, as they may elect, to the
amount of three million dollars. The said company is further
empowered to build branch roads to connect their line with
any other railroad, or other public highway, that they may
deem it to the interest of the road to connect with in this
state, and to any mines or manufactory affording tonnage to
justify the construction of a branch road.
9. The gauge of the said road shall not be less than three and
one-half feet, and it shall be lawful for the said company to
increase the width of the said road so that the same will cor-
respond with the gauge of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio
railroad, whenever two-thirds of the stockholders assembled
for that purpose shall so order. -

10. The governor of the state is hereby authorized and
directed to furnish to the said company, free of hire, as manly
of the able-bodied convicts, male and female, from the peni-
tentiary, as are on hand when applied for, and can, in his
opinion, be spared without detriment to the interest of the
state, upon such conditions as to safe-keeping as may, in his
Opinion, be necessary; such convicts to be used by the said
railway company or its contractors in the construction of
their said line of railway. ,

11. It shall be oe for the counties of Lee, Scott, Wi

and Washingtonf@jad the town of Goodson, to subscribe
the capital stock’ Of said company whenever they shall, in
the manner provided for counties, cities and towns to gub-
scribe to the capital stock of internal improvement compa-
nies; and it shall be lawful for any railroad company ope-
rating a line of road in this state, to subscribe to the capital
stock of said company.

12. Should the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio railroad
company commence the construction of the Virginia and
Kentucky division by the first day of November, eighteen
hundred and seventy-six, and prosecute the same to comple-
tion, then this act shall not take effect, but shall be null and
void.

13. This act shall be in force from and after the first day
of November, eighteen hundred and seventy-six.

Chap.194.—An ACT to incorporate The Tazewell, Smyth, and Grayson
Narrow-gauge Railroad Company.

Approved March 27, 1876.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly, That it shall be
lawful for Colonel Henry Bowen, Clinton Barnes, HE. L. Ro-
berts, William T. Campbell, P. Campbell Buchanan, William
B. Byars, Doctor E. B. Ward, James R. Hubble, A. G. Pen-
dleton, A. C. Hill, D. D. Hull, John P. Sheffey, Samuel Wil-
kerson, Robert C. Williams, William C. Parks, and William
P. Cecil, or any five of them, to open books of subscription
to the capital stock of the Tazewell, Smyth, and Grayson
railroad company, at such times and places as they may de-
termine upon; and whenever twenty-five thousand dollars
shall have been subscribed by persons and corporations able
to pay, the subscribers may organize the company ; and thence-
forth they, and such persons as may afterwards be lawfully
associated with them, shall be a corporation, under the name
of The Tazewell, Smyth, and Grayson Railroad Company,
for the purpose of constructing and operating a narrow-
gauge railroad from the coalfields in the Richlands, Tazewell
county, by way of the Cove Plaster Banks, and Marion,
Smyth county, and mouth of Wilson, in Grayson, to the
North Carolina state line, with the privilege of extension
east to the Virginia and North Carolina railroad, in the
county of Grayson, and north to the West Virginia, and west
to the Kentucky state lines; and shall be subject to all the
provisions of the Code of Virginia, applicable to railroad
companies, and not inconsistent with the provisions of this
act.

2. The capital stock of said company shall not be less than
twenty-five thousand nor more than: one million of dollars,
to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each; and
stockholders shall have one vote for each share of stock in
all meetings of stockholders.

3. Subscriptions to the stock of said company may be
made in money, materials, machinery, or land; and said com-
pany may also acquire land by gift or purchase, and shall
have power to hold and sell the same for the construction or
repair of their roads, for depots, and other necessary purposes,
or for purposes of immigration: provided, that the amount
of land so held, at any one time, shall not exceed two hun-
dred thousand acres, unless the company undertakes to con-
struct the extension authorized by this act; in that event a
ia rata increase in the number of acres authorized to be

eld is géanted; and at the expiration of ten ygars from the
completion of the road and its proposed extensions, only so
much land shall be held by said company as may be neces-
sary for the use of said company for depots, depot grounds,
and other necessary company purposes.

4, Subscriptions to the stock of said company may be made
by private individuals, mining, manufacturing and banking
companies; the counties of Tazewell, Russell, Buchanan,
Wise, Smyth and Grayson; and the proper authorities of said
counties may cause a vote to be taken therein on the subject
of such county subscription, at such time as the commission-
ers of subscription named in the first section of this act, or
the company, may ask such vote to be taken, in accordance
with the general law governing such elections. Should such
subscriptions be ordered, in accordance with the provisions of
such general law, the county board of supervisors shall make
such subscription; and to this end may issue bonds, bearing
a rate of interest not exceeding ten per centum, of such de-
nominations as said authorities may determine: provided,
that said bonds, so issued, shall be taken .by the company at
par, in payment of such subscription, and shall not exceed in
amount, in any county, the sum of one hundred thousand
dollars. ;

5. It shall be lawful for any railroad company, contiguous
to said. narrow-gauge railroad, to subscribe to and own an
amount of its stock not exceeding one-third part of the whole
thereof.

6. It shall be lawful for said railroad company to borrow
money for the construction or repair of its road, issue bonds,
and secure the same by mortgage upon its property and‘fran-
chises, or otherwise.

7. The said railroad shall be commenced within three years,
and completed from the Richlands, in Tazewell county, to the
North Carolina state line, within ten years from the passage

of this act. |
| 8. This act shall be in force from its passage.