Chap. 245.—An ACT to Incorporate the Petersburg and Richmond Steam-
boat Company.

Approved July 9, 1870.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of the common-
wealth of Virginia, That John Lyon, Reuben Ragland, J.
Pinckney Williamson, Daniel Dodson, David A. Lyon, Robert
D. Mecllwaine, T. T. Brooks, Thomas B. Booth, Daniel W.
Lassiter, and John P. Branch, and their associates and succes-
sors, be and they are hereby made, constituted, and estab-
lished, a body politic and corporate under the name and style
of The Petersburg and Richmond Steamboat Company, with
all the rights and privileges conferred, and subject to all the
obligations and duties imposed by the Code of Virginia upon
chartered companies and works of internal improvement, ex-
cept as herein otherwise provided.

2. The capital stock of the said company shall not be less
than fifty thousand dollars nor more than five hundred thou-
sand dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars
each; and within the limits aforesaid, the amount of the capi-
tal stock may be fixed and provided for, from time to time, by
the stockholders in general meeting.

3. It shall be lawful for the corporators aforesaid, or a ma-
jority of them, either in person or by proxy, to convene in the
city of Petersburg, within sixty days after the passage of this
act, and subscribe among themselves, in such amounts as they
may agree upon, for the minimum capital stock of fifty thou-
sand dollars; and when said sum shall have been subscribed, it
shall be lawtul for the subscribers to proceed forthwith to the
election of a president and directors, and otherwise organize
the company as required by law.

4. The said company shall have the right to own and use
steamboats and other vessels, to transport between Petersburg
and Richmond, and elsewhere upon the James and Appomat-
tox rivers and their tributaries, passengers, merchandise, aad
other freights; and also to tow, or otherwise furnish motive
power for, barges and other vessels.
5. It shall be lawful for said company to construct and
maintain across the county of Chesterfield, between the Ap-
pomattox and James rivers, a canal extending from some
point on the Appomattox river, within two miles from the

oint of Rocks, to some point on the James river, within two
miles of Warebottom Church, and to this end may procure
and hold in fee simple, either by purchase or condemnation, a
strip of land between the points aforesaid not exceeding one
mile in width: provided, that in case of condemnation no
more land shall be taken than may be necessary for the canal
and a tow-path fifty feet wide on each side thereof. But said
company shall provide and maintain across said canal, when
constructed, good and sufficient draw-bridges, with proper
attendants, for the accommodation of persons traveling the
public roads that may be intersected by said canal. And said
company shall have the right to charge and collect tolls of
and from all vessels passing through its said canal, not exceed-
ing, however, for each passage, five cents per ton of the regis-
tered tonnage of each vessel; and also to rent, lease, sell, and
convey or hold such lands bordering on said canal as may
have been procured either by purchase or condemnation as
aforesaid.

6. That the work of construction on the said improvement
shall be commenced within two years and completed within
five years.

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