Chap. 859.—An ACT to incorporate the Southside railway and development
company,

Approved March 3, 1898.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That James L.
Robinson, George Kk. Gary, E. L. Johns, Augustine Royal, E. H.
Wells, and D. L. Toney, and such other persons as may hereafter be
associated with them, their successors and assigns, be, and they are
hereby, created and constituted a body politic and corporate, to be
known by the name of the Southside railway and development com-
pany, and by such name shall have perpetual succession, may contract
and be contracted with, sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, and
may have, make, and use a common seal, and the same break, alter,
and renew or change at pleasure, and may make, ordain, establish,
alter or amend such by-laws, ordinances, and resulations concerning all
matters of organization and business not herein specitically prov ided for
as they may think proper, and generally may do every act and thing
necessary to carry this act into effect or to promote the objects and de-
signs of the corporation: provided such by-laws, ordinances, and regu-
lations or acts be not inconsistent with the laws of this state or of the
United States.

2. The capital stock of said company shall not be less than fifty thou-
sand dollars, to be divided into shares of one hundred dollars each; and
the same may be from time to time increased by additional subscriptions
or the issue and sale of shares to an amount not exceeding five hundred
thousand dollars. And said company may givea preference to portions
of its capital stock over the residue thereof as to the dividends and the
payment thereof, and may create or issue two or more classes of stock, ac-
cording to the preference or preferences so given, and designate the same
accordingly. Subscription to the capital stock may be received by the
corporators herein named, or any three of them, at such time and place
as they may appoint, and with or without public notice, as they may
deem best, and as soon as the minimum capital stock “has been sub-
scribed the aaid subscribers may organize as a corporation by the election
of five directors, of whom one shall be elected as president, to remain
in office one year, and until their successors are elected, unless sooner
removed by the stockholders. After the organization as aforesaid, the
stockholders may adopt such by-laws, ordinances, and regulations as
may be proper for the management of the affairs of the company, and
thereafter further subscription to the capital stock may when authorized
by stockholders holding a majority of the stock issued be received by
the board of directors. Subscriptions to the capital stock may be paya-
ble either in money, land, labor, services, materials, rights, or other
property, or in the capital stock of other corporations, upon such terms
und at such price as may be agreed upon between the said company and
the subscriber. The stockholders may at any general meeting change
the number of its board of directors. The board of directors may ap-
point such subordinate agents and officers of the company as they may
deem necessary for the proper dispatch of the business of the company.
There shall be one or more vice-presidents of said company, who shall
be chosen as provided in its by-laws. |

3. The said company shall be, and is hereby, empowered to promote,
establish and maintain the business of a general electric and railway
company; to erect, establish, maintain and operate, or sell a plant or
plants in the city of Manchester, or in any of the cities and towns of the
state of Virginia, and in the counties and villages of said state, for the
generation of electricity, and the supply of the electric current, for its
own use and for the sale to persons, natural or artificial, desiring to use
the same for heat, light or power, or any and all other uses to which the
electric current may now, or at any time hereafter, be applied or appli-
cable, and may manufacture, use and sell, distribute, and furnish the
same for all said purposes to all and any persons, parties and corpora-
tions desiring to use the same, upon such terms as may be agreed upon
between the contracting parties.

4. It may build, purchase, rent, or otherwise acquire, and maintain,
and operate in the streets, ways, alleys, avenues, public highways, and
waterways of the said city of Manchester, or of any of the other towns,
cities, villages, or counties of Virginia, subject only to the consent or
authorization thereof by any incorporated town or city, and to such con-
ditions, restrictions and limitations as may be imposed by said town or
citv, and subject to the consent or authorization thereof by the county
judges of the county courts of the several counties of the state, and the
boards of supervisors thereof, who are hereby vested with the power so
todo, within and through which said poles, wires, subways, underground
conduits and submarine cables, and other electrical conductors may be
constructed, such or any line or lines of poles and wires, and of under-
ground conduits or subways and submarine cables or other conductors
and conduits for the carriage or support of electrical wires, with the nec-
essary fixtures, stations, terminals, or other facilities connected there-
with, as may be necessary and suitable for the proper, full, and conve-
nient carrying on of the business of the company, and the same may sell,
lease, and otherwise dispose of as they may deem best; and to take and
acquire by purchase, condemnation, lease or otherwise, and to hold or
thereafter to sell or otherwise dispose of such lands, not exceeding the
amount hereinafter limited and provided for, and such easements therein,
or rights appurtenant thereto, riparian or otherwise, as may be necessary
and convenient for any of the uses of said company, the mode of con-
demming any such lands or rights being the same provided for the con-
demnation of lands by companies incorporated for works of internal
improvement, the land in which the easement is to be given or to which
the right is appurtenant being used for purposes of description in the
oath and all the proceedings. But the power to condemn is hereby lim-
ited to the acquisition of land necessary for construction of all hydraulic
works and for conveying electricity to any corporate limits, but no con-
demnation of land in any city shall be allowed.

do. The said company may utilize for its purposes steam and water-
power or any other available power, and in order to do so may acquire,
construct, maintain and operate, lease, sell, and otherwise dispose of all
buildings, structures, shops, and machinery that may be convenient and
suitable for the business of the company; it may construct, purchase or
acquire, own, maintain and operate, or sell canals or canal ftlumes, or
parts thereof, and any other structures or devices for the utilization of
waterpower, including water wheels, dams and sluices, waterways, waste-
ways, and gates in the beds of the streams and rivers of the state and
through the intervening country; it may acquire by purchase from any
individual or company any rights he or it may have to use the waters of
the James river or of any other streams in the state, and power is given
to any company desiring to sell such rights to it to do so: provided,
however, that on such gale taking place all statutory duties, obligations,
and conditions incident to the exercise of such right shall be, and they
are hereby, transferred from the company, an individual previously sub-
ject to such duties, obligations, and conditions, and imposed upon the
said Southside railway and development company, and shall be binding
on it alone. But it is not intended by any provision herein to grant
any power to said company to build any dam, gates, sluices, canal,
waterway or wasteway, or to do any other act whatever which shall in
any way diminish or interfere injuriously with the stream or flow of
water necessary for the waterworks or its appurtenances, or the water
supply of any town or city. The said company may construct, own,
maintain and operate, or sell electric railways in said city of Manchester,
or form the operation in any other of the towns, cities, and counties of
the state of Virginia, and may take reasonable tolls for the transporta-
tion of persons or property, and may construct, maintain, own and
operate, or sell bridges, viaducts, and aqueducts of wood, stone, iron,
or other suitable material for its uses or for the use of the public, and may
take tolls from persons or corporations using the same: provided, how-
ever, that the councils of said city of Manchester and the municipal
authorities of any other city or town where those rights are exercised,
and the judges of the county courts of said counties and the boards of
supervisors thereof, who are hereby vested with the authority so to do
shall consent to the location of said railways on the streets and highways
and through the country within their respective limits or jurisdiction;
and all lines of railway built by the said company or owned, controlled,
and operated by it shall be at all times subject to all restrictions, condi-
tions, and limitations of whatsoever nature, which may be imposed
respectively by the councils of said cities and towns or by the judges of
said county courts as to so much of said railway as may be within the
limits or jurisdiction of said cities, towns, and counties respectively.
Whenever any part of a railroad constructed under this charter shall
hereafter be brought within the limits of a city or town by extension of
the corporate limits it shall then be subject to the limitations and condi-
tions to which the connecting portion of its line in such city or town
may then be subjected; and the said company may construct, maintain,
and operate its railways over bridges across the James river and other
rivers of the state of Virginia, already constructed or to be constructed,
subject to such reasonable limitations and agreements which may be 1m-
posed by the persons or corporations owning and controlling the same,
or by the officials having control of such bridges and having power to
make such contract.

6. The company hereby incorporated may acquire by lease, purchase,
subscription to, or purchase of, its capital stock or otherwise, and use
and operate the works, property, franchises, rights, privileges and im-
munities of any other electric railway company or companies, or of any
company or companies incorporated for the purpose of manufacturing
or purchasing electricity or having the power so to do; and the com-
pany hereby incorporated may unite and consolidate with such other
company or companies upon such terms as may be agreed upon between
them; and power is hereby conferred on such other company or compa-
nies to transfer by sale or lease their works, property, franchises, rights,
privileges and immunities to the company hereby incorporated, or to
unite and consolidate with it upon such terms as may be agreed upon
between them.

The amount of real estate to be owned and held by the said com-
pany, exclusive of its roadbeds and canals, shall not exceed ten acres
in each incorporated city or town, nor one hundred acres in each county
in the state of Virginia, in or through which it may be operating or
intending to operate.

8. The principal office of the company shall be in the city of Man-
chester, but it may establish branch offices In other sections of the state
wherever it may be convenient or necessary for the use of the company
and the conduct of its business.

9. The company may dispose of the whole or any part of its pro-
perty, however acquired, by sale, leave or otherwise; may borrow
money and may issue bonds , either registered or coupon, and may se-
cure the payment of the same ‘by mortgage or deed of trust upon the
whole or any part of its property, works, rights, franchises and = privi-
leges: provided, that nothing in this aet shall be construed as allowing
or authorizing the construction of a line between the cities of Richmond
and W ashinuton: and provided, further, that nothing in this act shall
be so construed as to entitle the said company to construct any street
railway on any street within the limits of the city of Norfolk nearer than
two squares to any street in said city now oceupicd by a street railway,
or on which any railway company shall have heretofore applied for or
procured from the councils of said city permission to ah ace, construct and
maintain its tracks, or to include the county of ) Norfolk, or any city,
town or village within the limits of said county.

10. The said corporation shall pay all taxes in lawful money of the
United States and not in coupons.

11. The right to construct railways under this act must be exercised
within at least two vears from January first, eighteen hundred and

ninety-eight, and shall not be exercised after the expiration of ten years
from this date.
12. Nothing in this act contained shall beso construed as to authorize
the company hereby incorporated, its successors and assigns, to acquire
by condemnation any of the works, property, easements, rights or
privileges of any other work of internal improvement, or to construct
or do any work which would interfere with or obstruct the safe and
reasonable maintenance and operation of such other work of internal
11n provement.

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