Chap. 59.—An ACT to incorporate the Fredericksburg and Lancaster railroad
company.

Approved January 22, 18M.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That Wil-
liam A. Little, junior, John E. Mason, Robert J. Washington, William
A. Jones, Lloyd T. Smith, Robert Mayo, Howard Hathaway, W. Mc-
Donald Lee, Benjamin Chambers, Henry T. Douglass, Walter R.
Crabbe, and their associates, successors and assigns, be, and they are
hereby, constituted and declared a body politic and corporate, by
the name and style of the Fredericksburg and Lancaster railroad
company.

2. The capital stock of said company shall be thirty thousand
dollars, divided into shares of one hundred dollars each, and said
capital stock may from time to time be increased by the board of
directors to any amount which may be deemed necessary for the
purpose of the corporation.

3. It shall be lawful for any county, city, town or individual to
subscribe to the capital stock of said railroad company, or any
branch thereof, in the manner the law prescribes.
4. The said Fredericksburg and Lancaster railroad company is
hereby authorized, empowered and permitted to locate, construct,
equip and operate a railroad, of standard or narrow gauge, with one
or more tracks, having for beginning any point it may select on the
Potomac river, Chesapeake bay or Rappahannock river, between the
Potomac and Rappahannock rivers; thence running in a northwest-
erly direction, by any route the directors may select, via Fredericks-
burg or Falmouth, Virginia, to the West Virginia state line.

5. Subject to the general railroad law of this state, it shall be
lawful for the said company to cross, at grade, over or under any
other railroad now constructed, or which shall hereafter be con-
structed within this state, to construct lateral or branch roads not
exceeding twenty miles each in length, subject to the same limita-
tions and restrictions as the main line.

6. It may-unite its roads with any other roads in the state, or that
may hereafter be built; may enter the grounds of such railroads
with the necessary sidings, switches, turnouts, conveniences and
facilities as will aid in the furtherance of the construction of the
said railroad, or facilitate the exchange or handling of passengers
and freight between the said railroad and other railways in this
state, but in all cases in which the said railroad company shall sub-
ject the real estate of any other company to its uses, or acquire any
of the same, it shall be in the mode prescribed by law.

7. The said company shall have power to issue and sell bonds at
such times and on such terms as the directors may deem expedient,
or to borrow money in such sums as they may deem necessary to
carry on its work, and in order to secure the payment of its bonds
or the payment of the money so borrowed, may create mortgages or
deeds of trust on its chartered rights, franchises and property. And
the said company may receive as subscriptions to its capital stock
any real or personal property that may be agreed on between the
said company and the subscribers, and may exchange its bonds for
such property, and such property may be chartered rights and fran-
chises, and it may hold, sell, improve and convey in such manner
as to the company may seem best, any real estate so acquired.

8. The said company may own, charter or otherwise employ ves-
sels, propelled by steam or sail, in order to facilitate and meet the
demands of trade and commerce along its line of road; and in con-
junction therewith to acquire and hold, by purchase or lease or by
condemnation, in the mode provided by law in such cases, such
lands on the Potomac river, Rappahannock river or Chesapeake bay,
as said company may deem necessary for wharves and yards for the
delivery and storage of coal and other articles of freight and com-
merce.

9. Subject to the laws of this state, the said railroad company may
consolidate, lease, purchase and acquire the franchises, works, privi-
leges and property of any other railroad company now existing in
this state or hereafter built, not a parallel or competing line, or it
may consolidate with, lease, purchase or acquire the franchises,
work, privileges and property of any other railroad without this state,
whose lines will thereby be made to connect with or be operated in
connection with the railroad hereby authorized to be built, and any
railroad company heretofore incorporated in this state, the line of
which connects with or will connect with the railroad hereby in-
corporated and authorized to be constructed, or which lies along its
route and could be utilized as a part of its lines, or in lieuof such
branch roads as this company may construct, is hereby authorized
to sell, to lease or convey its works, property, privileges and fran-
chises to the Fredericksburg and Lancaster railroad company on
such terms as the stockholders of the respective corporations or the
legally constituted authorities of said respective corporations shall
agree: provided that in such consolidation, sale or any other man-
ner, this corporation shall never lose its identity or cease to be a
domestic corporation, subject to the jurisdiction of the courts and
laws of this state.

10. The incorporators named in this act shall constitute the board
of directors for the first year, and shall continue in office until their
successors shall be elected and qualified; they shall have the power
and authority of a president and board of directors for the purpose
of organization and for all other purposes incident thereto; they
shall elect one of their number president of the board, and may ap-
point such officers as they deem proper; they shall fill any vacancy
that may occur in the board or in the office of president, and may
receive subscriptions to the capital stock of said company.

Whenever five thousand dollars of the capital stock shall have
been subscribed, the board of directors shall proceed to organize the
company by the election of a president, secretary, treasurer and such
other officers and agents as may be required.

The said company shall be then considered legally organized and
shall have all the general powers conferred upon corporations and
chartered companies by the laws of this state, and shall be subject
to all the provisions thereof, except in so far as the same are modi-
fied or’are inconsistent with this act.

11. The board of directors of this company are authorized, at any
meeting when the majority of the directors are present, if they deem
it advisable, to change the name of this company.

12. All taxes which may be assessed against said company shall
be paid in lawful money of the United States, and not in coupons.

13. The construction of said road shall be begun in two years
from the first day of April, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and
completed in five years thereafter.

14, This act shall at all times be subject to amendment, altera-
tion and repeal by the general assembly of Virginia.

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