Chap. 287.—An ACT to incorporate the Buck Horn iron and improve-
ment company.

Approved May 18, 1887.

1. Beit enacted by the gencral assembly of Virginia, That
Thomas Graham, John Graham, William Lathrop, A. P. Gil-
lespiec, Joseph Stras, Henry Bowen, John G. Watts, James
O’Keef, James D. Honaker, Martin Williams, 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
Buck Horn iron and improvement company; and by that
name shall be known in law, and shall bave perpetual suc-
cession, and have power to sue and be sued, plead and be im-
pleaded, 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 pertaining to
corporate bodies and necessary for the purposes of this act;

and 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 increased to any
amount not exceeding two million dollars, by subscription or
by the issue or sale of shares, the par value of ‘which shall
not be less than fifty dollars from time to time, under such
regulations and upon such terms as the board of directors of
said company shall from time to time prescribe; and the di-
rectors 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, and other minerals; to
manufacture coke, iron, stecl, and other metals, and articles
composed wholly or partly of iron and steel; and to bore for
salt, oil, petroleum and gas, and manufacture, transport, and
refine the same; and to sell and dispose of the same, and to
erect furnaces, rolling mills, forges, mills, machinery, fixtures,
buildings, and the necessary appurtenances required in the
conduct of its business; to lay out into lots and otherwise
improve lands; and to purchase, hold, own, lease, sell, convey,
and control in any manner, coal, iron ore, ‘mineral, and other
lands in the counties of Tazewell, Giles, and Bland, and else-
where in this State, and interest ‘therein, and other real and
personal property, and to make leases and contracts in regard
thereto, such holding of lands in fee simple not to exceed,
however, twenty 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 company shall
have the right from time to time of locating, constructing,
operating, and maintaining a line of railroad or railroads
from any of the lands or works of the said company to any
point on any railroad that is now, or hereafter may be located
or constructed in or through the counties of Tazewell, Giles,
and Bland: provided that nothing ia 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 engage in constructing or Operating
any such railroad, and the said company may acquire by con-
demnation, in the mode prescribed by law, the lands neces-
sary for the right of way of its railroads and necessary sta-
tions and depots for their operations.

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 mecting of tho stockholders thereof. At
such first mecting and at every annual meeting, so many di-
rectors shall be elected as may be prescribed by the by-laws
and revulations of the said company, who may be removed
by the stockholders in general meeting; but, unless so re-
moved, shall continue in ‘oflice until their successors shall be
elected and qualified. Each stockholder in the company shall,
at all meetings or elections thereafter, be entitled to one vote
for cach 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 presi-
dent, 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 procced to the transaction of business. Ihe 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 security as they
may see fit!

6. The board of directors may establish offices and agen-
cies at such places as they may deem proper, but the prin-
cipal office of the company shall be located at some point
within the limits of the State of Virginia.

7. The annual meeting of the stockholders of the said
company shall be held at Joffer sonville, in Tazewell county,
Virginia, on the second Monday 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 stock-
holders 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 bundred and seventy-three.

8. The said company shall issue certificates of stock in
said company to the subscribers or purchases thereof, in
shares of not less than fifty dollars each, signed by the presi-
dent and countersigned by the secretary of the company.
The said certificates shall be transferable only upon the books
ot the company by said subscribers, their personal repre-
sentatives, or duly authorized agent or attorney; and the
said certificates when so transferred as aforesaid, may be re-
turned to the said company and cancelled, and new certifi-
cates of stock shall bo issued in lieu thereof to the persons
entitled thereto for a like number of shares.
9. It shall be lawful for said company to issue and sell its
bonds from time to time fur 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 and franchises, including its franchise
to be a corporation, and may reserve the right to the com-
pany or confer on the bolder of any bond of the company the
right to convert the principal thereof into stock of the com-
pany at any time, and it shall be lawful for said company to
subscribe to and hold shares in the capital stock of any rail-
road 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 hald the bonds
and stock of said company.

10. No stockbolder in said company shall be held liable or
made responsible for its debts or labilitics in a larger or fur-
ther sum than the amount of any unpaid balance due to the
said company for stock subscribed for by said stockbolders

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

12. All taxes due the commonwealth by sald company
shall be paid in lawful money of tho United States, and not
in coupons.

13. This act shall bein 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 hereatter.