Citizens to

"against a poor house"

directors elected under this act. And the justices of the peace and sheriff of said county, are hereby required and enjoined to pay to said directors, to be by them applied to the support of the poor and house of employment aforesaid, the aforesaid fines, forfeitures and penalties, within the time and in the manner prescribed by the said act, for the payment thereof in other counties, to the overseers of the poor, and to give notice of the receipt thereof to the said directors, within the time and in the manner aforesaid; and for any neglect or refusal to perform any of the duties enjoined on them by the said act, the said justices of the peace and sheriff of said county, shall be subject to all fines, penalties and forfeitures, to which justices and sheriffs in other counties, by the said act, are subject or liable.

66

SECTION 15. For the purpose of ascertaining the sense of vote "for" and the citizens of Allegheny county, as to the expediency of erecting a poor house, it shall be the duty of each of the inspectors for the several wards, townships and boroughs, at the next general election, to receive tickets, either written or printed, from the qualified voters thereof, labelled on the outside poor house," and in the inside "for a poor house" or against a poor house;" and if it shall appear, upon casting up the votes in the different districts, at the court house, on the same day that other returns are made out, that a majority of those who voted are for a poor house, then the foregoing act to take effect, but if a majority of the votes are found to be against a poor house, the foregoing act to be and the same is hereby declared null and void. And the sheriff of said county, shall cause this section thereof to be published in all the newspapers printed in said county, at least six weeks previous to the next general election; the expenses of which publication, shall be paid out of the county treasury.

Duty of co commission'rs

Repeal

SECTION 16. The commissioners of the said county, are hereby authorized and required, to cause this act to be published in not less than three of the public newspapers of the city of Pittsburg, on or before the first of September next.

SECTION 17. So much of the laws of this Commonwealth, relating to the poor, as are by this act altered or supplied, be and the same are hereby repealed, so far as they effect the county of Allegheny.

WM. A. CRABE,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

JN. H. EWING,

Speaker of the Senate.

APPROVED-The twenty-second day of April, one thousand

eight hundred and forty-one.

DAVID R. PORTER.

[No. 106.]

AN ACT

To enable Religious Societies to purchase and hold real estate, and for other purposes.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That it shall and may be lawful for any religious society within this Commonwealth, to purchase, take, receive, Religious and hold by gift, grant, or otherwise, lands for burying grounds, societies may hold lands for erecting churches, schools, and alms houses, for any estate burial ground whatsoever: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to permit any religious society, or any Proviso person in trust for them, unless specially authorized by its charter, to purchase, take, receive, or hold real estate, except for the purposes aforesaid.

Part of former

SECTION 2. So much of the act of the sixth February, one thousand seven hundred and thirty-one, entitled "an act for the enabling religious societies of protestants, within this prov- law repealed ince, to purchase lands for burying grounds, churches, houses of worship, schools, and so fourth, as is inconsistent herewith, be and the same is hereby repealed.

WHEREAS, The Union Burial Ground society, of the city and county of Philadelphia are the owners of a lot of ground Preamble adjoining their burial place, the same having been vested in them by the vacation of Washington street, in the district of Southwark, in the county of Philadelphia, and are desirous to extend their cemetery so as to include said ground, and lay out the same as burial lots, Therefore

SECTION 3. Be it enacted, That the Union Burial Ground

Union burial

society of the city and county of Philapelphia be, and are groundsociety hereby authorized and empowered to extend their burial ground Phila. to exover and upon the whole lot above referred to, and to lay out tend their the same as cemetery lots according to the form, and subject burial ground to the restrictions set forth in their charter, and that their title thereto be held and deemed valid.

school district

SECTION 4. That the territory now occupied by John White, William H. Wray, Daniel Keely, James Leech, and Indiana coalso a farm belonging to Matthias Rombach, in Conemaugh Sultsburg township, Indiana county, be and the same is hereby attached enlarged to the borough of Saltsburg, for school purposes, and that hereafter the school directors of said borough shall have autho

Preamble

rity to levy and collect all school taxes on the territory aforesaid, and be authorized to receive the State appropriation for common schools, to which such territory may be entitled.

SECTION 5. WHEREAS, 'There is a certain large tract of land situate in the township of Kingsessing, in the county of Philadelphia, and in the township of Tinicum, in the county of Delaware, contained within the following bounds, commencing at the fast land of John H. Andrews, in said township of KingKingsessing and Tinicum sessing, at the west end of a certain cross bank, which sepaMeadowlands rates the northern from the southern district of the Kingsessing meadows; thence along the said bank including the same to the river Schuylkill; thence down the said river to the fast land near Penrose's ferry; thence along the inner edge of the said fast and following the courses thereof to the river Delaware, near the old Lazaretto; thence down the said last mentioned river to the fast land of Thomas Smith, Esquire, in the township of Tinicum, near the new Lazaretto; thence along the edge of the fast land of the said Thomas Smith, and Richard Willing, Esquire, to Longhook dam; thenee over said dam and along the old bank of Longhook creek, to Darby greek; thence along the said last mentioned creek to the fast land of William Davis, late of Christopher Elliott, thence along the edge of the fast land, following the courses thereof to the place of beginning, the whole of which (saving and excepting two certain tracts of fast land, included within the aforesaid boundaries, known by the names of Carpenter's Island, and Boon's Island) is marsh meadow land, and is subject to destructive inundations, from breaches in, or overflows of the meadow banks of the Schuylkill river, in consequence of the insufficiency of the cross bank above mentioned, to protect the said traet of marsh meadow land from said inundations: And whereas, It has been found by experience that the provisions heretofore made by law, for the maintenance of the said cross bank, are inequitable in their operation, and inadequate for the purpose, Therefore

Owners incorporated

Name

tien

SECTION 6. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the owners, occupiers, and possessors of marsh meadow land in the above described tract, shall be called and named the company for the support of the cross bank in Kingsessing.

SECTION 7. That it shall and may be lawful for the said Annual elec- company, or as many of them as shall think fit to meet together on the first Monday of May next, and on the first Monday of April in every year thereafter, (until the cross bank herein< after provided for shall be completed) at the Blue Bell tavern, in the said township of Kingsessing, or such convenient place as may be hereafter appointed by the managers to be chosen

under this act, at which time and place due notice shall be given by the treasurer, so also to be chosen, and then and there by a majority of those present, to choose by ticket, in writing, three fit persons, owners or possessors of marsh meadow land within the above described tract, to be managers, and one fit person to be treasurer of the said company, for the year next Managers, &e ensuing.

SECTION 8. That the said treasurer shall, if so required by Treasurer the said managers before he takes upon him the execution of his office, enter into an obligation in such form as said managers shall direct, conditioned that he will well and truly account, adjust, and settle with them for and concerning all moneys which may come into his hands, by virtue of this act, and that he will well and truly pay the balance to such persons, and for such uses, as the said managers, or any two of them may appoint, and not otherwise; that he will do and execute all other matters and things as treasurer of the said company, according to the true intent and meaning of this act, and that he will at the expiration of his office, well and truly pay over and deliver all moneys then in his hands, together with the books of accounts relating to the same, and all other papers and writings in his keeping, belonging to the company, to his successor in office.

Managers

duties

SECTION 9. That the said managers, or any two of them, shall and may forthwith, proceed to reconstruct and repair the said cross bank, in such sufficient and substantial manner, and of such form and dimensions as they may deem advisable for the protection of the aforesaid tract of marsh meadow land, from inundation; and it shall and may be lawful for the said managers, their agents and workmen, to enter upon any lands Materia's they shall deem necessary, and procure and carry away any stone, earth, gravel, or other material, excepting wood or timber, which they shall require for the construction or repair of the said cross bank: Provided nevertheless, That no such Proviso stone, earth, gravel, or other material, shall be taken from any land without the consent of the owner thereof, until the said managers shall have given security to the satisfaction of the court of common pleas of the city and county of Philadelphia, for the payment for the same, when the value thereof shall have been assessed in the manner hereinafter provided.

Assessments

SECTION 10. That it shall and may be lawful for the said managers, or any two of them, to lay and collect such assess- for repairs ments and taxes upon each and every acre of said lands within said tract of marsh meadow land, which are now subject to taxation under the existing laws, for the drainage and maintenance of the banks thereof, and upon all lands therein, of a character similar thereunto, which may not hitherto have been so taxed by law, or which are yet unincorporated, as they shall judge necessary for the purpose of constructing or

repairing the said cross bank provided for in the fourth section. of this act.

SECTION 11. That if any of the said owners of marsh meadow lands, within the said described bounds as aforesaid, Assessments shall neglect or refuse to pay the several sums of money that how collected shall from time to time be rated, assessed, or imposed by the major part of the managers chosen as aforesaid, for the space of thirty days, after demand made by the treasurer of the said company, for erecting the said cross bank, it shall and may be lawful to and for the said treasurer, by the direction of the major part of the managers, for the time being, in his own name, to sue for and recover the several sums of money so charged, assessed, or imposed, in the same manner as debts of equal amount are by law recoverable.

Damageshow settled and paid

Proviso

2d proviso

Managers to repair

Proviso

SECTION 12. If the said managers cannot agree with the owner or owners of any lands from which they may have ta ken or may be about to take any stone, earth, gravel, or other material, upon the rate of compensation for the same, it shall and may be lawful for the parties to refer all matters in dispute to three disinterested persons, whose award shall be final and conclusive on the parties, and if they cannot agree upon such persons, the court of common pleas for the city and county of Philadelphia, on application thereto by either party, shall award a venire directed to the sheriff of the said county, to summon a jury of six judicious and disinterested men of the said county, in order to ascertain and report to the said court what damages, if any have been sustained, or may be sustained by the said owners of such materials taken, or to be taken; which said jury of valuers having been duly sworn or affirmed, and having viewed the premises shall make their assessment, and report to the said court, which report being confirmed, judgment shall be entered thereupon, and have the same force and effect as judgments in other cases: Provided nevertheless, That either party may appeal to the court within thirty days after such report shall have been filed in the prothonotary's office of the said county, in the same manner as appeals are allowed in other cases: Provided also, That if the said managers, or either of them, at any time before application made to the court, shall tender to any person aggrieved a sum of money in full compensation for his damages, or for his stone, earth, gravel or other material so taken, the said company or the managers thereof, shall not be liable for costs on any subsequent proceedings, unless such person shall recover an amount thereby, greater than that previously tendered by the said manager or managers.

SECTION 13. That it shall be the duty of the managers of the company of the southern district of the Kingsessing meadows, when the said cross bank shall have been completed, to maintain and keep the same in good and sufficient order and repair: Provi