Lake City Navigation Company |
A Boat that improved navigation by dredging out or deepening the channel of a waterway
CHAPTER CCLXXXIV.
An Act to incorporate the Lake City Navigation Company, and to aid said Company to improve the navigation of Big Cypress Bayou.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That E. W. Taylor, J. T. Veal, D. B. Culberson, Wm. L. Crawford, W. M. Harrison, James L. Tarver, J. H. Cunliffe. J. J. Byrne, P. M. Graham, W. Q. Bateman, John Phelps, Thompson Camp, John A. Peele, J. P. Russell, W. H. Hay wood, V. H. Claiborne and N. A. Birge, and their associates and successors, be and are hereby created a body corporate and politic, by the name and style of "The Lake City Navigation' Company;" and by said name shall have succession and a common seal; with capacity to sue and be sued, plead .and be impleaded ; to make such by laws, rules and regulations as may be necessary for the management or maintenance of its rights under this act, consistent with the Constitution and 1aws of this State and of the United States. The above named corporation, or a majority of them, shall meet in the city of Jefferson within ninety days from the passage of this act, and elect such officers as may by them seem best to further the objects of the said company, and solicit and accept subscriptions of stock in, or donations to, said company, in cash, lands, or other property
Sec. 2. Said company is hereby authorized to open and improve the navigation of Big Cypress Bayou from the upper end of the wharf in the city of Jefferson up said bayou to such point as the same may be found practicable, not above the mouth of Boggy Creek, in Titus county; and to build or purchase such boats as may be found necessary to do the work and navigate the same ; to dredge out or deepen the channel of said bayou, and straighten the same, wherever deemed necessary to improve the navigation thereof; to construct and erect such dams and locks as necessity may require to further the objects of the enterprise ; provided, the owners of other boats, vessels or water craft shall have the right to use said stream and the navigation thereof, upon the payment to the said company the sum of not more than twenty-five cents per ton, on the tonnage of each vessel or boat, as per customhouse measurement, for each round trip made by the same in any portion of said bayou which said company may improve or make navigable under this charter, for the period of twenty five years; provided further, that no person or persons shall use said portion of said bayou for floating logs or rafts therein, to the detriment of the navigation thereof, or to the injury of the company's locks and dams ; nor without paying to the said company such rates of toll therefor as may be agreed, not to exceed the sum of one dollar for each thousand feet, board measure, contained in the rafts or logs so floated therein.
Sec. 3. That to effect the objects of this enterprise, the said company shall have the right, i.i their corporate name, to purchase, own, use, sell or lease such houses, machinery, water privileges and water powers, and other property and rights, not to exceed in value one million of dollars; to fix the capital stock of the same in any sum not to exceed two millions of dollars, in shares of one hundred dollars each, transferable as the by-laws of said company may direct; provided, that in the election of officers, and in making by-laws for the government of said company, each share shall entitle the owner thereof to on;; vote, which may be cast by the said owner, or by proxy, authorized by a written instrument.
Sec. 4. That said company shall permanently organize by the election of a president, vice-president, and not more than nine directors; and shall commence said improvement within eighteen months after the passage of this act. The president and vice-president shall he ex officio members of the board of directors, who shall hold their offices for one year, and thereafter until their successors qualify. The directors shall have power to appoint an executive board and other officers and agents, and confer such powers on the same as may be deemed best, or may authorize the president to do the same.
Sec. 5. That said company shall have the right to remove all timber within said stream, and on or within one hundred feet of the banks of the same, that may endanger the navigation of said stream ; and may use any timber and stone within said limits as may be necessary to further the objects expressed herein. Whenever complaint is made by any citizen to said company of any overflow caused by any dam constructed by said company, or for damages for cutting said timber, the said company shall not be enjoined in the prosecution of their said work, hut the damages, if any, shall be assessed by arbitration, under the laws of this State, and the parties to said arbitration shall be bound by the decision had thereby.
Sec. 6. That to aid in the construction of said work of internal improvements, said company shall be entitled to receive from the State ten sections of land, containing six hundred and forty acres each, for each and every mile of said bayou improved, as hereinafter described, from said point of beginning, the measurement to be made on the right bank of said stream. The conditions upon which said company shall be entitled to said lands shall be as follows, viz., that they shall, by the removal of the timber, stone, or other impediments to navigation, or by locks or dams, or by deepening the channel of said stream, make the same navigable for boats drawing not exceeding thirty inches of water, at such times as there may be good navigation in said bayou below the city of Jefferson: and whenever the Governor shall be informed that a section of five miles or more of said bayou has been improved as herein required, he shall at once require some competent person to inspect the same; and if. the report of the inspector, which shall be made without delay, shall be favorable, the Governor shall immediately give notice of the same to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, whose duty it shall be immediately to issue and deliver to said company certificates for ten sections of land, containing six hundred and forty acres each, for each and every mile completed or improved as aforesaid, and so on for each additional five miles thereof; which said certificates shall be located, surveyed and patented on the principle of alternate sections, as required by general law for the location of certificates granted to railroads ; provided, that the lands hereby donated by the State, except such portions thereof as may be necessary for protecting the right of way, and for operating the canal and stream, shall be alienated as follows: one-fourth in eight years; one fourth in twelve years ; one-fourth in sixteen years ; and the remaining one-fourth in twenty years, after the issuance of the certificates, and any failure to so alienate shall work a forfeiture of the lands so alienated; provided, further, that each section shall be inspected as aforesaid, before any certificates shall be issued ; provided, further, that in no case shall the State be in any way liable for deficiency of public domain; and provided, further, that said company shall be entitled to have, own, use and enjoy any of the public domain contained within one hundred feet of the said bayou, on that part which they may improve; and that this act be in force from and after its passage. Passed June 2d, 1873.
[NOTE.—The foregoing act was presented to the Governor of Texas for his approval on the second day of June, A. D. 1873, and was not signed by him, or returned to the house in which it originated, with his objections thereto, within the time prescribed by the Constitution, and thereupon became a law without his signature.—James P. Newcomb, Secretary of State.]
Laws Passed by the ... Legislature of the State of Texas - Page 752
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Texas- 1873