CHAP. 492. and voting, shall submit the same to a vote of the legal voters of the city, and the legal voters of the city in legal ward meetings, shall, by a vote of two-thirds of all the votes thrown in the city at such meetings, adopt the same. But if within two years from the approval of this act said city shall accept said act by such concurrent vote of said city council and of said legal voters as aforesaid, then said act shall be in force thereafter, and be binding upon said city according to its true tenor and effect, but not otherwise. Said ward meetings shall be called, notified, held, returns made, declared and recorded, agreeably to the provisions of the city charter of said city for calling and holding ward meetings for the choice of city officers, and returns thereof.

Ward meetings, how called, notified, &c.

SECT. 14. This act shall take effect when approved.

Approved March 19, 1870.

Corporators.

Name.

Powers and liabilities.

Navigation of

improvement of, authorized.

Chapter 492.

An act to incorporate the Ship Pond Stream Navigation Company.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as follows:

SECT. 1. William H. Smith, Joseph L. Smith, George M. Weston, Dudley F. Leavitt, Eben S. Coe, Abraham Sanborn, George K. Jewett, Jeremiah Fenno, George R. Smith, David Dole, Hiram H. Fogg, their associates, successors and assigns, are hereby constituted a body politic and corporate by the name of the Ship Pond Stream Navigation Company, with all the privileges, powers and liabilities of similar corporations.

SECT. 2. Said company are authorized to improve the navigaShip Pond stream, tion of Ship Pond stream in Piscataquis county, by deepening the channel, removing obstructions, erecting piers and dams and making locks for the purpose of boat navigation, and for that purpose to do whatever may be necessary in and upon said waters and the bed, shores and banks of same to accomplish said object; provided all the improvements set forth in this act are completed within two years from the first day of January, eighteen hundred and seventy.

Capital stock.

Tolls granted.

SECT. 3. The capital stock of said company shall be ten thousand dollars.

SECT. 4. Upon all cargoes and merchandise transported in boats on and over said waters the said company may receive such tolls as the legislature may hereafter grant and authorize.

SECT. 5. Said company shall not charge tolls on logs driven on said stream, nor obstruct by their works the driving of logs on the

same.

CHAP. 493.
May take land

for certain
purposes.

Value thereof to

be assessed by

county commis

sioners.

SECT. 6. Said company may take such land as may be necessary for their purposes as herein authorized, upon payment to the owners thereof of the value of the same, to be assessed by the county commissioners of Piscataquis county after such notice to the parties as they may judge reasonable; and either party aggrieved by such assessment of said county commissioners may appeal to a jury, as is provided in the case of parties aggrieved by Appeal to jury the assessment of county commissioners of the damages for the taking of lands for county roads; provided, that if any dam is erected under the authority of this act upon the property of others, Dam, erection of, the water raised by such dam shall be used by said company only for the purpose of locking boats.

SECT. 7. This act shall take effect when approved.

Approved March 19, 1870.

may be taken.

and use of water.

Chapter 493.

An act to amend chapter three hundred and thirty-eight of the special laws of eighteen hundred and fifty relating to ways in Vinalhaven.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as follows:

SECT. 1. Section one of chapter three hundred and thirty-eight of the special laws of eighteen hundred and fifty, is hereby amended, by adding after the word "farms," in the last line of said section, the following words, 'except the road from Carver's harbor to Bodwell, Webster and Company's stone quarry at City Point, so called; and the road leading from Carver's harbor to the Thoroughfare, so called, between Vinalhaven and North Haven ; and the road from Carver's harbor to Calderwood neck, so called; and across district number one to the town landing, the road from Carver's harbor across districts number three, seven and two to the town landing, near land of Benjamin Coombs, and the road. from district number two to the town house in said town,' so that the section as amended, shall read as follows:

'Sect. 1. Each owner or owners of land in the town of Vinalhaven, in the county of Knox, are hereby authorized to erect permanent gates across all roads in said town now traveled, and across all such roads as may hereafter be established at such places and under such directions as shall be considered by such town, at its annual meeting in March or April, most expedient for keeping their cattle, and the further improvement of their respective farms, except the road from Carver's harbor to Bodwell, Webster and Company's stone quarry at City Point, so called, and

CHAP. 494. the road leading from Carver's harbor to the Thoroughfare, so called, between Vinalhaven and North Haven and the road from Carver's harbor to Calderwood's neck, so called, and across district number one to the town landing, the road from Carver's harbor across districts number three, seven and two to the town landing near land of Benjamin Coombs, and the road from district number two to the town house in said town.'

Gates across roads excepted by this

tinued.

SECT. 2. The owner or owners aforesaid who have erected or act to be discon- maintain gates as aforesaid across the roads excepted by this act, shall immediately discontinue the same, and all such owners who, in consequence of such discontinuance, shall be under the necessity of fencing out said road or roads, shall have reasonable damages allowed them, to be ascertained and allowed in conformity to the laws of this state providing for the allowance of damages when lands are taken for highways.

SECT. 3. This act shall take effect when approved.

Approved March 21, 1870.

Corporators.

Name.

Rights and privileges.

Chapter 494.

An act to incorporate the Georges Valley Railroad Company.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in Legislature assembled, as follows:

SECT. 1. Nahum Thurston, A. H. Wentworth, James Creighton, Edward Burgess, R. F. Alexander, Thomas Storer, R. Patterson, Hiram Bliss, William Hunt, William Gleason, Daniel Lane junior, William B. Conant, Harrison Hayford, Zuinglius Collins, Isaac Cauklin, Francis Keating, M. F. Hanly, John Arnold, William H. Hodgman, Martin B. Hunt, T. W. Robinson, S. H. Jackson, Ziba Simmons, William G. Hawes, Alexander Woodman, Charles B. Farrar, H. P. Bean, Edwin Smith junior, William McCullum, Lewis Hale, Edward S. Young, James Lewis, William Ayer, Charles B. Gilmore, George Alexander, Moses R. Mathews, Christopher Young, Joseph M. Gleason, Joseph Eastman, Sumner Leach, George Y. Creighton, their associates, successors and assigns, are hereby made and constituted a body politic and corporate by the name of the Georges Valley Railroad Company, and by that name may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, and shall have and enjoy all proper remedies at law and in equity to secure and protect them in the exercise and use of the rights and privileges, and the performance of the duties hereinafter granted and enjoined, and to prevent all invasion thereof, or interruption in exercising and performing the same. And the said corporation is hereby

privileges.

May take land for struction and operation of road.

location, con

Earth, gravel,

stone and timber,

may be removed.

Proviso.

authorized and empowered to locate, construct, and finally com- CHAP. 494. plete, alter and keep in repair, a railway with one or more sets of Location. rails or tracks, with all suitable bridges, tunnels, viaducts, turnouts, culverts, drains, and all other necessary appendages, from some point on the Knox and Lincoln Railroad in the town of War- Route. ren, through the towns of Warren, Union, Appleton and Searsmont, thence by the most practicable route to the city of Belfast. And said corporation shall be and hereby is invested with all the powers, privileges and immunities, which are or may be necessary Powers and to carry into effect the purposes and objects of this act as herein set forth. And for this purpose said corporation shall have the right to purchase, or to take and hold so much of the land or other real estate of private persons and corporations as may be necessary for the location, construction and convenient operation of said railroad; and they shall also have the right to take, remove and use for the construction and repair of said railroad and appurtenances, any earth, gravel, stone, timber or other materials, on or from the land so taken; provided however, that said land so taken shall not exceed four rods in width, except where greater width is necessary for the purpose of excavation or embankment; and provided also, that in all cases said corporation shall pay for such lands, estate or materials so taken and used, such price as they and the owner or respective owners thereof may mutually agree on; and in case said parties shall not agree, then said corporation shall pay such damages as shall be ascertained and determined by the county commissioners for the county where such land or other property may be situated, in the same manner and under the same conditions and limitations as are by law provided in the case of damages by the laying out of highways. And the land so taken by said corporation shall be held as lands taken and appropriated for public highways. And no application to said commissioners to estimate said damages shall be sustained unless made within three years from the time of taking such lands or other property; and in case such railroad shall pass through any woodlands or forests, the said company shall have the right to fell or remove any trees standing therein, within four rods of such road, which from their liability to be blown down, or from their naturally falling, might obstruct or impair said railroad, by paying a just compensation Compensation to therefor, to be recovered in the same manner as is provided for the recovery of other damages mentioned in this act. And furthermore, said corporation shall have all the powers, privileges and Powers and immunities, and be subject to all the duties and liabilities, provided and prescribed respecting railroads in chapter eighty-one of the revised statutes, not inconsistent with the express provisions of this act.

60

In case of disages shall be

greement, dama

ascertained by county commissioners.

Application for

estimate of dama

ges to be made

within three

years.

Trees standing

within four rods

of road may be

removed.

be paid therefor.

liabilities.

CHAP. 494.

Guardians of

SECT. 2. When said corporation shall take any land or other property as aforesaid, of any infant, person non compos mentis, or may settle claims feme covert, whose husband is under guardianship, the guardian

certain persons

for damages.

Capital stock and shares.

Directors, how
chosen, &c.

Tenure of office.
Quorum.

President, clerk and treasurer.

Oath.

Bonds.

Subscription

of such infant, or person non compos mentis, and feme covert, with the guardian of her husband, shall have full power and authority to agree and settle with said corporation for damages or claims for damages by reason of taking such land or other property as aforesaid, and give good and valid releases and discharges therefor.

SECT. 3. The capital stock of said corporation shall consist of not less than five thousand or more than fifteen thousand shares, of one hundred dollars each, and the immediate government and direction of the affairs of said corporation shall be vested in seven, nine or thirteen directors, who shall be chosen by the members of said corporation, in the manner hereinafter provided, and shall hold their offices until others shall have been duly elected and qualified to take their places; a majority of whom shall form a quorum for the transaction of business; and they shall elect one of their number to be president of the board, who shall also be president of the corporation, and shall have authority to choose a clerk who shall be sworn to the faithful discharge of his duty, and a treasurer who shall be sworn, and also give bonds to the corporation, with sureties to the satisfaction of the directors, in a sum not less than twenty thousand dollars, for the faithful discharge of his trust. And for the purpose of receiving subscriptions to the said stock, books shall be opened under the direction of the nine persons by whom opened. first named in the first section of this act, at such time as they may determine, in the city of Belfast, the several towns through which the road is located, and at such other places as they may appoint, to remain open for twenty successive days, of which time and place of subscription, public notice shall be given in some newspaper printed in Knox and Waldo counties fourteen days at least previous to the opening of such subscription; and in case the amount subscribed shall exceed fifteen thousand shares, the same shall be distributed among all the subscribers, according to such regulations as the persons having charge of the opening of the subscription books shall prescribe before the opening of said books. And the nine persons first named in the first section of this act are hereby authorized to call the first meeting of said corporation, by giving notice in one or more newspapers published in each of the counties above mentioned, of the time and place and the purposes of such meeting, at least twenty days before the time mentioned in such notice.

books, when and

Notice, how given.

First meeting, how called.

By-laws.

SECT. 4. Said corporation shall have power to make, ordain and establish all necessary by-laws and regulations consistent with the constitution and laws of this state, for their own government