SEC. 6. The directors, before entering upon the discharge of their duties, shall take an oath or affirmation faithfully and impartially to discharge their duties; choose a president from among their number, shall appoint such other officers and agents as shall be provided by the by-laws, determine up-, on the amount of any bonds that they may see proper to exact from any officer of the company, and pass upon their sufficiency; determine the amount of instalments to be called for upon subscriptions, declare dividends, and take the general charge and supervision of the affairs of said company. SEC. 7. It shall and may be lawful for said directors to enter upon and take possession of any lands, roads, streets, alleys, stone, timber and earth, necessary for the laying out and construction of said plank road, and all necessary appurtenances and appendages, doing no unnecessary damage, having first tendered or secured payment therefor; and in case any land or materials, as aforesaid, wanted to be appropriated for the purposes aforesaid, shall not be given or granted to said corporation, and the proprietor or proprietors cannot or do not agree with the directors as to the amount of damages or compensation which ought to be allowed or paid for the same, and shall not mutually agree on some person or persons to appraise the damages, it shall be lawful for the directors to apply to any judge of the court of common pleas of the county in which said damages shall arise, not a stockholder in said company, who shall appoint three disinterested freeholders of said county to assess the damages, and the directors shall give notice to said persons of their appointment, and also, to the claimant or claimants, his, her or their agent or attorney, or advertise the same in some newspaper in general circulation in the vicinity thereof; and it shall be the duty of the person so appointed, to attend at the time and place so specified in the notice, who, after being duly sworn or affirmed faithfully and impartially to discharge their duties, shall proceed, on actual view, to make, estimate and appraise any damages such owner or owners may sustain, taking into consideration the benefits such owner or owners may derive from said improvement, and shall make a certificate of such appraisement, with a particular description of the premises, if necessary, to which certificate they, or a majority of them, shall sign their names, and deliver to each party a copy, if requested, and immediately thereafter, if no damages are assessed, or on payment or tender of the money to the amount of damages assessed, to the person or persons entitled thereto, to his, her or their agent, attorney or legal representatives, the said directors may proceed to enter upon or occupy said lands, or use such materials, and a complete title thereto, to the extent and for the purposes set forth in, or contemplated by this act, shall be hereby vested, and forever remain in said company; Provided, however, that if either party shall consider themselves aggrieved by the decision of the appraisers, so as aforesaid made, such party may apply to the court of common pleas of the proper county, at the next succeeding term of said court, or if there should not be a quorum of said court disinterested, then to the supreme court, at their next term in said county, giving ten days' notice of such intention, to the adverse party, and the said court, upon good cause shown, shall appoint three disinterested freeholders, who shall, after being duly qualified, proceed to view and appraise the damages, and shall certify their proceedings in the same manner as the former appraisers, and their decision shall be final and determinate; but the pendency of any such application to the court, shall not in

the mean time hinder the progress of the work; and provided, further, that the said company shall not take possession of more than sixty feet in width for said road; Provided that said company shall be subject to the provisions of any general law which may be hereafter passed, regulating the mode of assessing damages for materials taken or for the right of way. SEC. 8. Said company shall have power to construct said road of plank, extending not less than eight feet in width across any part which may be adopted for the track; said plank to be not less than two and a half inches thick, and firmly bedded upon the ground so as to be even with the surface of said road bed.

SEC. 9. If said company shall deem it expedient in the selection of the route or line of said road, or in the construction of the same, to connect it with or use any road, street or bridge, made or erected by any company or persons incorporated or authorized by any law of this State, it shall be lawful for said company or persons, and they are hereby authorized to contract and agree with any such other incorporation, or persons, for the right to use such road, street or bridge, or for the transfer of any of the corporate or other rights or privileges of any such corporation, or persons, to the said company hereby incorporated; and all such other corporations and persons, incorporated by, or acting under the laws of this State, are hereby authorized to make such agreement, contract or transfer, by and through the agency of their corporate officers, or by such other persons as by any law of this State are authorized with the direction and management of such road, street or bridge; and every contract or transfer made in pursuance of the authority hereby granted, when executed by the several parties, under their respective corporate seals, or if they have no corporate seals, then by the parties entrusted with the direction and management of such road, street or bridge, under their proper hands and seals, shall vest in said plank road company all the rights and privileges vested in said corporation, or persons which shall be specified in the contract or agreement, so to be entered into as aforesaid.

SEC. 10. Whenever it shall be deemed necessary by said company, in the construction of said road, to intersect, use or cross any other road or highway lying in or across the route of said plank road, it shall be lawful for said company to construct their said road upon, along, or across the same; but said company, in so doing, shall make, place and keep such road or highway thus intersected and used, in such condition as not to impair its former usefulness, and such road or highway, so taken and used by said company, while they shall continue to occupy and use the same, shall be under their exclusive direction, control and management.

SEC. 11. Said company shall have the right to place one-fourth toll gates upon said road, as soon as two and one-half miles thereof shall have been completed, and to increase the number of said fourth toll gates as fast as said road shall be further completed, adding one for every two and onehalf miles; Provided, however, that no more than four fourth toll gates, or two half or one full toll gate shall be placed upon every ten miles of said road, said half toll gates to be five miles apart, and if one-fourth toll gates, the same to be two and one-half miles apart, and if full toll gates be placed thereon, the same to be ten miles distant from the half toll gates; and the directors of said company are hereby authorized and empowered to annu

!

ally establish and fix upon the rates of toll chargeable at each of said gates; Provided, however, that the rates of toll so by them established, shall in no case exceed the rates of toll chargeable by law for the time being upon the Maumee and Western Reserve Road.

SEC. 12. That said corporation shall have power to locate and construct any branch or branches of said plank road, from the main route to such other town or places in the counties of Cuyahoga and Summit as said company deem proper to locate and construct, which said branch or branches shall in all respects be subject to the provisions of this act.

SEC. 13. If said company shall not be organized within two years after the passage of this act, and shall not within four years thereafter, have at least ten miles of said road completed, then this act shall cease and be null and void.

SEC. 14. The said company shall be entitled to the benefit and shall be subject to all restrictions and penalties of all general laws for the protection of turnpike roads, and the collection of tolls, which have been or may be passed by the legislature of this State.

SEC. 15. That nothing contained in this act shall be so construed as to prevent the legislature from imposing such tax upon the capital stock and property of said company as may be imposed upon other property.

SEC. 16. That William B. Hillman, John P. Robinson, John Langnuirr, A. H. Comstock and their associates, are hereby constituted and declared a body politic and corporate, with perpetual succession, by the name and style of the Bedford Plank Road Company, for the purpose and with the power to construct a plank road from Main street in the town of Bedford, in the county of Cuyahoga, to such point of intersection with the Cleveland and Chagrin Falls plank road as the directors of said company may determine. The capital stock of said company shall consist of five thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of twenty-five dollars each, and the directors and stockholders of said company shall be vested with like powers, rights and privileges and shall be subject to like restrictions and limitations as are conferred or imposed by this act on the Cleveland and Aurora Plank Road Company, so far as the same may be applicable to the object and for the purposes herein set forth.

SEC. 17. The Cleveland and Chagrin Falls Plank Road Company are hereby authorized to increase their capital stock ten thousand dollars at such times and upon such terms as the directors of said company shall direct. BENJAMIN F. LEITER,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.
CHARLES C. CONVERS,

February 20, 1850.

2-L. L.

Speaker of the Senate.

AN ACT

Conferring [confirming] to the Toledo Plank Road Company the right to accept certain amend

ments to their charter.

WHEREAS, doubts are entertained as to whether the Toledo plank road company have the legal right now to accept an amendment to their charter, passed March 9, 1849; Therefore,

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That the stockholders of the Toledo plank road company shall have the same power and right to accept or reject at their next annual meeting, the act to amend their charter, passed March 9, 1849, or any part thereof, that they had at their last annual meeting.

BENJAMIN F. LEITER, Speaker of the House of Representatives. CHARLES C. CONVERS,

February 13, 1850.

Speaker of the Senate.

AN ACT

To incorporate the Clarksfield, New London and Ashland Plank Road Company.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That John Miller, J. J. Cobb, A. Yeatman, Henry King, Elihu Robinson, and A. H. Segar, of the county of Huron; William W. Granger, Isaac Gates, H. H. Johnson, A. L. Curtiss, G. H. Topping, and J. O. Jennings, of the county of Ashland, and their associates and successors, be and they are hereby declared a body corporate and politic, with perpetual succession, by the name and style of the Clarksfield, New London and Ashland plank road company, for the purpose of constructing a plank road from Clarksfield Hollow, in the county of Huron, to the village of Ashland, in the county of Ashland, by the way of New London, in the said county of Huron, with power to make such lateral branches from the main road in said counties to such other points in the same, as may be deemed expedi

ent.

SEC. 2. The capital stock of said company shall consist of eighty thousand dollars, to be divided into shares of fifty dollars each.

SEC. 3. So soon as one hundred shares of said stock shall have been subscribed, the corporators above named, or any four of them, shall call a meeting of the stockholders at the village of Clarksfield Hollow, by giving notice thereof in some newspaper or newspapers of general circulation in said counties of Huron and Ashland, at least fifteen days before the time appointed for said meeting; and the stockholders shall then and there proceed to elect five directors for the management of the affairs of said company, and said directors shall then and there proceed to elect a president of their own number, who shall hold his office for one year, and until his successor is elected and qualified.

SEC. 4. The act to incorporate the Milan and Richland plank road company, passed January thirty-first, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and forty-five, excepting therefrom the ninth and thirteenth sections of said act, and so much of the residue thereof as conflicts with the first, second and third sections of this act, shall be construed and taken to be part and parcel of this act, and the said corporation hereby created, shall be governed by the provisions, entitled to all the privileges, and subject to all the liabilities of said act, in the same manner and to the same extent as though the same were herein incorporated, subject to the exceptions herein specified, as aforesaid; Provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the General Assembly from taxing the corporation hereby created in the same manner as corporations for like purposes may be taxed.

BENJAMIN F. LEITER, Speaker of the House of Representatives. CHARLES C. CONVERS,

February 13, 1850.

Speaker of the Senate.

AN ACT

To incorporate the Marietta and National Road Plank Road Company.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, That Thomas W. Ewart, John O. Crane, George M. Woodbridge, Joseph E. Hall, M. P. Wells, Ephraim Gould, Jonathan Alden, John W. L. Brown and Harvey C. Hovey, of Washington county, William Steele, Reuben Hawkins, Samuel Round and Charles Hare, Benjamin L. Mott, of Monroe county, and George Dillon, of Guernsey county, Kileon Hager, of Belmont county, and such other persons and corporations as shall become associated with them by subscribing to the capital stock of said company, be, and they are hereby constituted and declared a body politic and corporate, with perpetual succession, by the name and style of the Marietta and National Road Plank Road Company, for the purpose of constructing a plank road from Marietta, in the county of Washington, to any point on the National Road, in the counties of Guernsey or Belmont; and for such purposes said company is hereby authorized and empowered to have and receive, purchase and possess, enjoy and retain, lands, rents, goods, chattels and effects of any kind, and to any amount necessary to carry into effect the objects of the corporation, and the same to use, sell, alien and dispose of at pleasure, to sue and be sued, defend and be defended, in all courts having competent jurisdiction; to have and use a common seal and to alter the same at pleasure; and to ordain and establish such rules, regulations and by-laws as may be necessary for the well being of said corporation, not inconsistent with the constitution or laws of the United States, or of this State.