Chap. 154.—An ACT to incorporate the Byrd creek iron company of
Virginia.

Approved May 6, 1887.

1. Be itenacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
Horatio Sickel, Ephriam Young, Charles Willard, Augustus
T. Lynch, Wilbur F. Van Gunder, William M. Foster, T. E.
Cowherd, and such other persons as may associate with them,
and their associates, be and they are hereby created a bod
politic and corporate, by the name, style, and title of the Byrd
creek iron company of Virginia, and by that name and title
they may be known, and have perpetual succession, and be
capable of suing and being sued, plead and being impleaded,
and of receiving, holding, granting, and conveying property,
real and personal, and mixed, and of improving the same by
the erection of houses, mills, smelting, and puddling furnaces,
forges, machinery, and so forth, and for the purpose of min-
ing, reducing, and working iron and other mineral ores, and
for general manufacturing purposes; also to lease, let or dis-
pose of in fee simple of the whole or any part of their pro-
perty; and also to build such bridges and dams, and to con-
struct such railways, tramways, and roads not excceding
fifteen miles, as they may decm advisable, with the privilege
of connecting with any other railroad or roads for the open-
ing and developing of the country in which they may now
or hereafter own lands: provided the said company shall at
no one time own more than one thousand acres of land.

2. The object of the said company shall be the production
of iron and other metals from ores, and manufacturing the
same into such marketable form and conditions as may be
deemed most advisable and profitable.

3. The capital stock of the company shall not be less than
fifty thousand dollars, with the privilege of increasing the
saine from time to time to two hundred thousand dollars, to
be divided into shares of not less than fifty dollars each.

4. The said company may purchaso land and other pro.
perty, and pay for the same in stock.

5. The said company shall have the power to issue bonds
and to create mortgage or mortgages upon any part or upon
the whole of its property, at a rate of interest not excecding
the legal rates, and may increase their resources from time
to time by borrowing money upon a pledge of its property,
or without pledges.

6. The said company shall have the right to fix the num-
ber of directors and its by-laws, a majority in interest of
whom shall constitute a quorum, one of whom shall be pres-
ident, to be elected by a majority in interest of the stock-
holders; and they sbali also elect a secretary and treasurer,
and may fix such compensation for such officers as a majority
of the stockholders may agree upon. The said directors and
officers shall hold their respective offices for such a period as
may be provided by the by-laws, and until their successors
shall have been elected and qualified. The principal office of
said company shall bein the State of Virginia, with such
other places of business as a majority of the said directors
may designate.

7. The said company shall be and are hereby authorized
to make all such laws and regulations to enable it to carry
out the object and business of the corporation, and may alter
ind amend the same at pleasure: provided the same be not
n conflict with the constitution and general laws of this
State or the United States. It may fix and appoint its own
officers and agents, and remove them at pleasure. It ma
.dopt a corporate seal, and alter the same if necessary. It
may make and issue capital stock, and fix the par value
s:hereof, and sell the same, and issue certificates therefor re-
presenting the value of its property in such form, and subject
fo such regulations and interest as it may from time to time
prescribe, and may do all such other acts and things as are
necessary to fully carry out the privileges herein granted.

8. All taxes and other ducs which may accrue from said
company to this commonwealth, shall be paid in currency,
and not in coupons.

9. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent or in conflict here-
with, are, for the purpose herein named, repealed.

10. This act shall bo in force from its passage.