Chap. 70.--An ACT to incorporate the Abingdon and Laurel Railroad
Company.

Approved November ‘22, 1884.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
it shall be lawful to open books of subscription in the town
of Abingdon, in the county of Washington, upon ten day’s
notice, under the direction of James C. Greenway, William
G. G. Lowry, 8. F. Hurt, G. V. Litchfield, Thomas G. McCon-
nell, Thomas P. Trigg, James L. White, F. B. Hulton, M. H.
Honaker, L. T. Cosby, and George W. Ward, Jr., or either of
them, and at Mock’s Mills, in the county of Washington,
under the superintendence of Robert Wright, John W. Mock,
John Ramsey, and Jacob H. Rhea, or either of them, and at
such other places as any three of the commissioners aforesaid
may select for receiving subscriptions of stock, in shares of
one hundred dollars each, to an amount not less than one
hundred, and not to exceed five thousand shares, to consti-
tute a joint capital stock, for the purpose of constructing a
railroad, which may be either a broad or a narrow-gauge
road, from Abingdon, on the Norfolk and Western railroad,
by way of the Laurel fork of Holston river, to the line
between Virginia and Tennessee: provided that said com-
pany shall not occupy the Laurel or any other mountain gap
to the exclusion of any other railroad line; but that said gap
or gaps shall be for the joint use of any other railroad com-

any.

P 2. Subscriptions of stock may be takey and paid in money,
or in lands and materials for the construction of the road, at
a fair cash valuation, to be ascertained by persons to be
appointed by the commissioners at the place where the sub-
scription is taken, the said persons first being duly sworn for
that purpose: provided that the said company shall not hold
more than ten thousand acres of land for longer than five
years after the completion of the road, except so much as
may be sufficient for its road and under its franchise for its
depots, and so forth.

3. Whenever one hundred shares of stock shall have been
subscribed by good and solvent parties, the subscribers, their
executors, administrators and assigns, shall be, and are hereby
declared to be a body politic and corporate, under the name
and style of The Abingdon and Laurel Railroad Company,
and shall have all the privileges, and be subject to all the
restrictions and provisions of the Code of Virginia of eighteen
hundred and seventy-three, applicable to internal improve-
ment companies, except so far as the same may be inconsis-
tent with the provisions of this act. |

4. And it shall be lawful, so soon as it is ascertained that
one hundred shares of the stock have been taken, for any
three of the said commissioners to call a meeting of the com-
pany at Abingdon, by giving one month’s previous notice of the
time and place of such meeting. A majority of said stockhold-
ers being present in person, or represented by proxy, they, then
and there, may proceed to organize the said company, by the
election of a president and five directors of their own body,
and do all such other acts as they may deem necessary and
proper to carry out all the objects contemplated in this char-
ter.

5. The said company shall have power to borrow money,
to any amount not exceeding five hundred thousand dollars;
to issue bonds, plain or coupon, for the payment of the same,
bearing a rate of interest not exceeding eight per centum per
annum, and to secure said bonds by mortgage upon the
whole, or any part or portion of their property. The income
or franchises thereof, and the sale of said bonds at less than
par, shall not be deemed an infraction of the usury law.
Said bonds may be made convertible into stock, at a time to
be specified therein, and their place of payment, principal, and
interest by the board of directors.

6. The work shall be commenced within two years, and
the road completed within five years from the first of Janu-
ary, eighteen hundred and eighty-five. But such road shall
not be commenced until at least ten per centum of the mini-
mum amount of capital stock hereinbefore specified shall have
been actually paid in cash.

7. That the said company by the acceptance of’ this char-
ter hereby agrees to pay all taxes, dues and demands, due
the state, that may be hereafter assessed against it in lawful
money of the United States, and not in coupons.

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