Chap. 212.—An ACT to incorporate the Kent’s Ridge coal and iron
company.

Approved May 14, 1887.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
Joseph Stras, Henry C. Stuart, Beverly W. Stras, A. J. May,
Joseph S. Gillespie, John W. Crochett, A. P. Gillespie, Goorge
W. Gillespie, L. D. Fulkerson, John D. Alexander, Alexander
St. Clair, S. D. May, C. A. Fudge, Augustus White and James
P. Kelly, 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 Kent’s Ridge 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 impleaded, defend and be defended in all courts
whether in law or equity, and may make and have a common
seal, and alter and 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; may make by-laws, rules, and regulations consistent
with the existing laws of the State for the government of
all under its authority, the management of its estates and
properties, and the due and orderly conduct of its affairs.

2. The capital stock of the said company shall not be less
than fifty thousand dollars, and may be inereased to any
amount not exceeding two million dollars, by subscription or
by the issue or sale of shares, the par value of which shal!
not be less than fifty dollars from time to time, under such
revulations and upon such terms as the board of directors of
the said company shall from time to time prescribe; and the
directors may receive real or personal property suited to the
business of the company in payment for subscriptions to the
capital stock, at such valuation as may be agreed upon be-
tween the directors and the subscribers.

3. The said company is authorized and empowered to
mine, purchase, ship, and sell coal, iron, anc other minerals;
to manufacture coke, iron, stecl and other metals, and arti-
cles composed wholly or partly of iron and steel, and to bore
for salt, oil, petroleum, and gas, and manufacture, transport,
and refine the samo, and to scll and dispose of the same, and
to erect furnaces, rolling mills, forges, mills, machinery, fix-
tures, buildings, and the necess: ary appurtenances required in
the conduct of its business; to lay out into lots and other-
wise improve lands; and to purchase, hold, own, lease, sell,
convey and control in any manner coal, iron ore, mineral,
and other lands in this State, and interest therein, and other
real and personal property, and to make leases and contracts
in regard thereto—such holdings of land in fee simple not to
exceed, however, thirty thousand acres in any one county ;
and in order to bring out the minerals and products of its
locality, and furnish ‘public transportation facilities, the com-
pany shall have the rigbt from time to time, of locating, con-
structing, operating, and maintaining a line of railroad or
railroads from any of the lands or works of the said com-
pany to any point on any railroad that is now or hereafter
may be located or constructed into or through the counties
of ‘Tazewell, Scott, Lee, Wise, Buchanan, Russell, or Dickenson:
provided tbat nothing in this section shall be construed as
exempting the said company from the provisions of chapter
sixty-one of the Code of cighteen hundred and seventy-three,
if it shall engage in constructing or operating any such rail-
road, and the said company may acquire by condemnation in
the mode provided by law, the lands necessary for the right
of way of its railroads and. necessary stations and depots for
their operation.

4. The persons first named in this act, or such of them as
shall accept the provisions thereof, shall constitute the first
board of directors of said company, and shall continue in office
until the first meeting of the stockholders thereof. At such
first mecting, and at every annual meeting, 80 many directors
Bhall be elected as may be prescribed by the by-laws and
regulations of the said company, who may be removed by the
stockholders in general meeting; but unless so removed, shall
continue in offico until their successors shall be elected and
qualified. Each stockholderin the company shall at all meet-
ings or elections thereafter, be entitled to one vote for each
share of stock registered in his name.

5. 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, unless
by removal; in which case the same shall be filled by the
stockholders in general meeting. 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 see fit.

6. The board of directors may establish offices and agencies
at such places as they may deem proper, but the principal
office of the company shall be located at some point within
the limits of the Stato of Virginia.

7. The annual meetings of the stockholders of the said
company shall be held at Jeffersonville, in Tazewell county,
Virginia, on the first Wednesday of May of each year, or as
soon thereafter as practicable, and on such other day and at
such other place as the stockholders may, by resolution
adopted in an annual meeting to take effect at the next an-
nual meeting prescribe. A general meeting of the stockhol-
ders ot said company may be held at any time as provided for
by the tenth section of chapter fifty-seven of the Code of Vir-
ginia, edition of eighteen hundred and seventy-three.

8. The said company shall issue certificates of stock in said
company to the subscr bers or purchasers thereof, in shares of
not less than fifty dollars each, signed by the president and
countersigned by the secretary of the company. The said
certificates shall be transferable only upon the books of the
company by the said subscribers, their personal representa-
tives, or duly autborized agent or attorney; and the said cer-
tificates when so transferred as aforesaid, may be returned to
the said company and cancelled, and new certificates of stock
shall be issued in lieu thereof to persons entitled thereto for
alike number of shares.

9. 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 may secure the payment
of said bonds by mortgage or deed of trust upon all or any
portion of its property or franchises, including its franchise
to be a corporation, and may reserve the right to the com-
pany or confer on the holder of any bond of the company
the right to convert the principal thereof into stock of the
company at any time; and it shall be lawful for said company
to subscribe to and hold shares in the capital stock of any
railroad company or other corporation, whenever the board
of directors of the company shall deem it to its interest to do
so, and any such corporation may guarantee or hold the
bonds and stock of said company.

10. No stockholder in said company shall be held liable
or made responsible tor its debts or liabilities in a larger
or further sum than the amount of any unpaid balance Cue to
the said company for stock subscribed for by said stock-
holders.

11. 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.

12. All taxes duc to the commonwealth by this company
shall be paid in lawful money of the United States, and not
in coupons.

13. This act shall be in force from its passage, but the
general assembly of the State of Virginia reserves the right
to modify, alter, or repeal this act at any time hereafter.