Chap. 229.—An ACT to incorporate the Bedford Library Association.

Approved March 15, 1902.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, ‘That Mesdames
Dallas Tucker, Walter Ruan, J. F. Spencer, Nelson Sale, J. H. Walker,
J. W. Gish, C. W. Wharton, J. T. Davidson, W. W. Berry, R. B. Kelsey,
J. M. Smith, J. B. Campbell, W. S. Graves, J. C. Sitwell, J. L. Nichols,
Calloway Brown, J. S. Burks, 8S. R. Reading, Samuel Griffin, John
Thompson Brown, Fletcher Thomas, O. C. Rucker, M. P. Carder, E. B.
Stone, J. Thomas Gibson, Benjamin McGhee, Samuel Bolling, E. D.
Gregory, Misses Leila Smith, Blanche Tolley, and such other person and
persons as may hereafter be associated with them, be, and they are
hereby, created a body politic and corporate under the name and style of
the Bedford Library Association, and as such to have perpetual succes-
sion, be capable of suing and being sued, to have a common seal, and the
same to renew and alter at pleasure, and shall be able and capable, in law
and in equity, to take and hold for the use of said corporation any real
estate, goods, chattels, and sum or sums of money by gift, grant, bar-
gain, sale, will, devise, bequest, or otherwise from any person or persons,
corporation or corporations whatsoever; and the same to grant, bargain.
sell, and a good conveyance make for the use of said corporation, and
generally to do all and singular the matters and things which may be
lawful and necessary for it to do for the well-being and due manage-
ment of the affairs thereof: provided, however, that the real estate held
by said corporation shall at no time exceed one hundred acres.

2. The purposes and objects of said corporation shall be, generally, the
establishment and maintenance of a reference and circulating library,
reading rooms, literary and scientific lectures, and other means of pro-
moting the moral and intellectual improvement of its members.

3. The members of this corporation shall never at any time exceed
thirty in number, and any vacancies occurring in said membership by
death, resignation, or otherwise shall be filled by said members, sixteen of
whom shall constitute a quorum for the election of officers, directors,
members, or the transaction of any other legal business.

4. The control and disposal of the funds, property, and estate, and the
direction and management of the affairs and concerns of said corporation
shall vest in a board of fifteen directors. Eight members of this board of
directors shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

5. The members of this corporation shall annually elect from their
own number a board of fifteen directors, and shall designate four mem-
bers of said board for the offices of president, vice-president, secretary,
and treasurer, who shall be the officers of said corporation, and said
directors and officers shall serve for one year from the date of their elec-
tion and until their successors shall have been duly elected.

6. The annual election of officers and directors shall take place during
the month of November of each and every year, at such time and day as
may be fixed by the board of directors, notice of which said election shall
be given to all the members at least ten days before said election. After
one election and before the next election the board of directors shall have
power to fill vacancies in their own body or in the offices aforesaid for
the unexpired terms of said officers or directors.

%. The funds of said corporation shall be raised by annual dues from
its members, and by such other lawful means as may be provided by its
constitution and by-laws. And the members are authorized and em-
powered to make and adopt such constitution and by-laws prescribing
the duties of the officers and members of said corporation and for the
government thereof, which said constitution and by-laws may be changed,
modified, and amended as, from time to time, may be agreed upon and
adopted by said members: provided, however, the same be not incon-
sistent with the constitution and laws of the United States or of the
State of Virginia.

8. The said corporation shall be entitled to take any gift, grant, devise,
or bequest embraced in any will or other instrument made to it, and no
misnomer or misdescription of said corporation in any such will or other
instrument shall vitiate or defeat said gift, grant, devise, or bequest: pro-
vided, it shall be sufficiently described to ascertain the intent of the
parties.

9. The following shall compose the first board of directors, subject to
the preceding provisions of this act: Mesdames Dallas Tucker, Walter
Ruan, J. F. Spencer, J. W. Gish, Nelson Sale, J. L. Nichols, J. T. David-
son, J. C. Sitwell, C. W. Wharton, 8. R. Reading, F. O. Thomas, J. M.
Smith, Calloway Brown, J. H. Walker, and Miss Blanche Tolley.

10. All property, both real and personal, which may belong to said
corporation shall be exempt from all taxes, levies, and assessments, cor-
poration, county, or State. ,

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