Chap. 166.—An ACT incorporating the Willis River Improvement
Company, for the purpose of the improvement and navigation of Wil-
lis river, in Cumberland county, Virginia.

Approved November 29, 1884.

Whereas, the navigation company, incorporated by act of
assembly, dated March eighteenth, eighteen hundred and sev-
enty-two, under name and title of the Willis Navigation Com-
pany, for clearing, improving, and extending the navigation
of Willis river, have failed to comply with the provisions of
said act of incorporation of March eighteen, eighteen hundred
and seventy-two, as amended March fourth, eighteen hundred
and seventy-eight, and according to the terms thereof the
rights and franchises of the said company are forfeited; and
whereas it is of vast importance to the industrial interests of
that section of the state that the said navigation should be
restored; now, therefore,

1. Beit enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
J. S. Adams, J. F. Prettyman, J. K. Jones, T. C. Leake,
junior, Thomas J. Parrish, N. T. Payne, Randolph Harrison,
and such other persons as they may hereafter associate with
them, shall be, and they are hereby made and constituted a
body corporate and politic, under the name and style of the
Willis River Improvement Company, and as such corporation
shall have power to construct and maintain dams on Willis
river, and also any other works which may be necessary and
expedient to perfect and maintain slack-water navigation
upon said river, and be vested with all the rights, privileges,
and franchises heretofore granted to the Willis navigation
company, and the free use of all the dams, locks, canals and
improvements now in the said Willis river, or adjacent thereto,
and shall have all the rights, privileges, and be subject to the
regulations and restriction prescribed by chapters fifty-six,
fifty-seven, and sixty-one of the Code of Virginia, except as
hereinafter provided. ,

2. Any corporation may subscribe to, acquire and hold
stock in said company.

3. The capital stock of said company shall not be less than
five thousand dollars, nor more than fifty thousand dollars,
and shall be divided into shares of one hundred dollars, and
each share of stock shall be entitled to one vote in all meet-
ings of the company.

4. Said company may borrow money, tor the purpose of
aiding in the construction of its works, and may for this pur-
pose mortgage or otherwise pledge all its works, property,
and franchises, and in case of sale under said mortgage or
pledge, and conveyance of all such works, property, and fran-
chises, the purchasers shall take the same with all the rights,
privileges, and powers prescribed in sections forty-four and
forty-five of chapter sixty-one of the Code of Virginia.

5. When the said company shall have restored the naviga-
tion of the said river, the same shall, so far as improved, be
deemed and taken to be a public highway, and in considera-
tion of the expense of restoring, improving, and maintaining
the said navigation, it shall be lawful for said company, and
it is hereby empowered, after said river has been made navi-
gable from its mouth to Trent’s mills, to collect tolls on all
commodities transported up or down Willis river, at rates
not greater than those given in the following table:

First. Dry goods, notions, hardware, boots and shoes,
leather, flour, eggs, apples, wool, machinery, nails, iron, agri-
cultural implements, liquors, seeds, meal, mill offal, drugs,
confectioneries, manufactured tobacco, hats, woodenware,
groceries, produce, merchandise of all kinds, one-half cent per
hundred pounds per mile. |

Second. Leaf tobacco and grain of all kinds, one-fourth cent
per one hundred pounds per mile. :

Third. Fertilizers, lime, pig-iron, salt, hoop-poles, hoops,
staves, heading, and dressed timber of all kinds, four cents
per two thousand pounds per mile.

Fourth. Stone, iron ore, and other ores, bark, lumber and
rough timber of all kinds, two cents per two thousand pounds
per mile.

Fifth. Every boat or vessel, five cents per mile.

6. The said tolls may be collected at any place or places on
Willis river, or at any pointon James river, within five miles
of the mouth of said Willis river, which may be most con-
venient for said company. In case any person shall refuse or
neglect to pay the tolls at the time of offering to pass the
place appointed tor the payment thereof, the collector of said
tolls may lawfully refuse passage to the vessel of such person,
and if any vessel shall pass without paying toll, then the said
collector may seize such vessel wheresoever found, and sell
the same at public auction for cash, applying the proceeds
first to the payment of said tolls, and all expenses of seizure
and sale, the remainder, if any, to be paid to the owner of
the vessel, and the person owning, or managing such vessel,
shall be liable for any excess of toll or expenses not paid by
the sale of the vessel. The said company may contract with
any person or persons, or with any corporation (and any in-
corporated company is hereby authorized so to contract) for
the work of improving the navigation of said Willis river, or for
maintaining and operating such improvements as herein pro-
vided, and for collecting and retaining the tolls to be received
for the use of such improvements, upon such terms as may
be agreed on, and any person or persons, or corporation un-
dertaking to maintain and operate said improvements, shall
be entitled to all the rights and privileges, and be subject to
all the regulations and restrictions herein prescribed.

¢. If the said company shall not begin work on Willis
river, within two years from the passage of this act, or shall
not reopen navigation as herein provided, from the mouth of
Willis river to Trent’s mills, within four years from the period
of such commencement, they shall then and thereupon for-
feit all rights and special privileges hereby conferred upon
them.

8. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provis-
ions of this act, are hereby repealed.

9. This act shall be in force from the passage.