Chap. 546.—An ACT to incorporate the Stock Creek Coal and Iron
Company.

Approved March 19, 1884.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
W. W. James, W. D. Jones, J. H. Horton, R. A. Ayers, and
H. R. Mitchell, or such of them as may accept the provisions
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 Stock Creek Coal and Iron
Company; and by that name shall be known in law, and shall
have perpetual succession, and have power to sue and be sued,
plead and be impeaded, defend and be defended, in all courts,
whether in law or equity, and may make and have a common
seal, and alter or renew the same at pleasure; and shall have,
enjoy, and exercise all the rights, powers, and privileges per-
taining to corporate bodies and necessary for the purposes of
this act, and make by-laws, rules, and regulations consistent
with existing laws of the state, for the government of all
under its authority, the management of its estates and prop-
erties, and the due and orderly conduct of its affairs.

2. The capital stock of said company shall not be less than
ten thousand dollars, and may be increased to any amount
not exceeding one million dollars, by issue and sale of shares
thereof, not less than ten dollars each, from time to time,
under such regulations as the board of directors of said com-
pany shall, from time to time, prescribe; and the directors
may receive real or personal property in payment for sub-
scriptions to the capital stock, at such valuation as may be
agreed upon between the directors and the subscriber.

3. The said company is authorized and empowered to pur-
chase, 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 the said
company is authorized and empowered to lay out said lands,
or any part thereof, into parcels or lots of convenient size,
with interyening roads, lanes, streets, and alleys, and develop,
work, improve, and cultivate, or otherwise dispose of the
same, in such manner and upon such terms as the said com-
pany may think proper; and may contract for, purchase,
ease, hold, construct, operate, and maintain any work of
public or private improvement in this state, or elsewhere, with
the right and power of laying out, constructing, and operating
any railroad or railroads, or other road, from any of the lands
or works of said company, to any point on the Norfolk and
Western railroad, the South Atlantic and Ohio railroad, or
any other railroad that is now or may hereafter be construc-
ted, in orthrough the counties of Lee, Wise, Buchanan, Dick-
enson, Scott, Russell, Tazewell, and. Washington: provided
however, that no such road or railroad shall be constructed
or operated as aforesaid, except in the counties above named,

nor shall any such railroad be constructed or operated by
said company to the line between Tennessee and Virginia,
‘nor within five miles of such line: and provided further, that
nothing in this section shall be construed as exempting the
said company from the provisions of chapter sixty-one of the
Code of eighteen hundred and seventy-three, if it shall engave
in constructing or operating any work of internal improve-
ment in this state.

4. The said company is authorized and empowered to mine
and quarry coal, iron ore, marble, and other mineral sub-
stances, and prepare and manufacture the same for use and
sale in all manner of forms it may adopt; and to manutac-
ture and prepare for market and sale all other raw materials,
mineral or vegetable, produced by its own lands or obtained
from others; and for this purpose may erect and operate all
kinds of furnaces, mills, manufactories, coke-ovens, works,
and machinery necessary for the enjoy ment of the privileges
herein granted to the fullest and most ample extent. The
said company shall also have power, and may manufacture,
purchase, sell, ship, and deal in goods, wares, and merchan-
dise, and may contract for, build, and maintain pipe-lines,
warehouses, and elevators, and may store goods, wares, and
merchandise, and grant certificates therefor, in such form
and under such rules and regulations as the said company
may, from time to time, by by- law, prescribe, and to trans-
port goods, wares, and merchandise, either by land or water.

5. The five persons first named in this act shall constitute
the first board of directors of the said company, and shall
continue in office until the first meeting of the stockholders
thereof. Atsuch first meeting, and at every annual meeting,
so many directors shall be elected as may be prescribed by
the by-laws and regulations of said company, who may bo
removed by the stockholders in general meeting; but, unless
so removed, shall continue in office until their successors shall
be elected and qualified. Hach stockholder in the company
shall at all meetings or elections thereafter, be entitled to one
vote for each share of stock revistered in his name.

6. The board of directors shall be stockholders of said
company. They shall appoint one of their number president,
and may fill any vacancy that may occur in said board, un-
less by removal, in which case the same shall be filled by the
stockholders in general mecting. Whenever the minimum
amount of capital stock herein named shall have been sub-
scribed, and the board of directors shall have elected a presi-
dent, 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 compensa-
tions, and take from them such bonds, with such security as
they may deem fit.

7. The board of directors may establish offices and agen-
cies at such places as they may deem proper; but the princi-
pal office of the company shall be located at some point within
the limits of the state of Virginia.

8. The annual meeting of the stockholders of the said
company shall be held at Goodson, in Washington county,
Virginia, on the first Wednesday of February of each year,
or on such other day, and at such other place, as the stock-
holders may, by resolution adopted in any annual meeting,
to take effect at the next annual meeting, prescribe. A gene-
ral meeting of the stockholders of said company may be held
at any time, as provided for by the tenth section of chapter
fifty-seven of the Code of Virginia, edition of eighteen hun-
dred and seventy-three.

9. The said company shall issue certificates of stock in said
company, to the subscribers thereof, in shares of not less than
ten dollars each, signed by the president, and countersigned
by the secretary of said company. The said certificates shall
be transferable only upon the books of the company, by the
said subscribers, their personal representatives, or duly autho-
rized ayont or attorney; and the said certificates, when so
transferred as aforesaid, may be returned to the said com-
pany and cancelled, and new certificates of stock shall be is-
sued in lieu thereof, to the person entitled thereto, for a like
number of shares.

10. It shall be lawful for said company to issue and sell its
bonds from time to time, for such sums, and on such terms,
as its board of directors may deem expedient and proper, in
the prosecution of any of its works; and to secure the pay-
ment of said bonds by mortgages or deeds of trust upon all
or any portion of its property or franchises, including its
franchise to be a corporation; and it shall be lawful for said
company to guarantee the payment of the interest, or prin-
cipal and interest, of any bonds, or any other evidences of in-
debtedness, that may be issued by any railroad company, or
other incorporated company, or subscribe to and hold shares
in the capital stock of any such company, whenever the board
of directors of the Stock Creek coal and iron company shall
deem it to its interest so to do.

11. No stockholder in said company shall ever be held lia-
ble, 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-
holder. °

12. Whenever this corporation shall exercise any of the
privileges conferred by this act, it shall be liable to the same
taxes as may be imposed by law upon other like corporations,
or persons exercising like privileges.

13. The charter hereinbefore granted, except as to mat-
ters herein otherwise snecially provided for, is hereby de-
clared to be subject to the provisions of the general law in
regard to chartered companies and incorporations, as ex-
pressed in the Code of Virginia, edition of eighteen hundred
and seventy-three, chapters fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight,
fifty-nine, and sixty-one.

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