CHAP. 618.—An ACT to incorporate the Drake’s Branch Land
and Improvement company.

Approved March 6, 1890.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia,
That L.S. Jackson, H. C. Hudson, R. V. Gaines, J. H.
Hardy, Robert Payne, W. C. Scott, B. S. Faris, W. G.
Friend, J. H. Overby, T. A. Proctor, T. W. Scott, W. G.
Friend, W. H. Woods, Green, and E. S. Cook, 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 Drake’s Branch land and im-
provement 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 in 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 cor-
porate bodies and necessary for the purposes of this act.

2. The capital stock of said company shall not be less
than five thousand dollars, and may be increased to any
amount not exceeding fifty thousand dollars, by subscrip-
tion or by the issue and sale of shares, the par value of
which shall be not 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

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time prescribe, and the directors may receive labor, sup-
plies and materials, lands, water rights, and other prop-
erty, real or personal, in payment for subscriptions to the
capital stock, at such valuation as may be agreed upon
between the directors and subscribers.

3. The said company is authorized to purchase, hold,
and convey lands and interest in lands in the counties of
Charlotte, Halifax, Campbell, Appomattox, Prince Ed-
ward, Lunenburg and Mecklenburg, in this state, or in
elther of such counties, such lands, however, held in fee
simple, not to exceed at any one time ten thousand acres:
to till, mine, and quarry upon the same; to construct,
leasv, and sell dwellings, factories, stores, and other build-
ings; toerect and maintain bridges, dams, and ferries,
and otherwise use, develop, and improve the same.

4. The persons first named in this act or such of them
as shall accept the provisions hereof, shall constitute the
first board of directors of the said company, and shall
continue in office until the first meeting of the stock-
holders thereof. At such first meeting, and at every
annual meeting, 80 many directors shall be elected as may
be prescribed by the laws and regulations of said com-
pany, who may be removed by the stuckholders in general
meeting; but unless so removed shall continue in office
until their successors shall be elected and qualified. Each
stockholder in the company shall, at all meetings or elec-
tions thereof, be entitled to one vote for each share of
stock registered in his name.

5. The hoard of directors shall be stockholders in said
company. They shall appoint one of their number prest-
dent, and may fill any vacancy that may occur in said
board, unless by a removal, in which case the same shall
be filled by the stockholders in general meeting. When-
ever the minimum amount of the capital stock herein
named shall have been subscribed, and the board of direc-
tors shall have elected a president, 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 agenta of
said company, prescribe their compensation, and take
from them such bonds in security as they may deem 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 at Drake’s Branch, in
Charlotte county, in this state.

7. The annual meeting of the stockholders of said com-
pany shall be held on the first Wednesday of May of each
year, or a8 soon thereafter as practicable. A general meet-
ing of the stockholders of said company will be held at
any time, as provided for by the eleven hundred and four-
teenth section of the code of Virginia of eighteen hundred
and eighty-seven.

8. The said company shall issue certificates of stock in
said company to the subscribers or purchasers thereof, in
shares of not less than fifty dollars each, signed by the
president and countersigned by the secretary of said com-
pany. The said certificate shall be transferable upon the
books of the company by the said subscribers, personal
representatives, or duly authorized agent or attorney; and
the said certificates, 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 the
person entitled thereto to a like number of shares.

9. It shall be lawful for said company to issue or 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 work, and may
secure the payment of said bonds by mortgages or deeds
of trust upon all or any portion of its property and fran-
chises, including its franchise to be a corporation, and
may reserve the right to the company, or confer on the
holder of any bonds of the company, the right to convert
the principal thereof into the stock of the company, at
any time; and it shall be lawful for said company to sub-
scribe 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 hold the
bonds or the stock of said company.

10. All taxes due the commonwealth by said company
shall be paid in lawful money of the United States and
not in coupons. -

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