1838. names. illustrate its history and institutions, or to mark the progress of society, arts, and letters, in the United States, have a tendency to enlarge the sphere of human knowledge, aid the advancement of science, to perpetuate the history of moral and political events, and to improve and interest posterity--therefore, SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, That John Rowan, George M. Bibb, Corporators Henry Pirtle, George D. Prentice, Reverend James F. Clarke, Reverend Benjamin O. Peers, Simeon S. Goodwin, George Keats, Professors John H. Harney, James Brown and Leonard Bliss, jr., and Humphrey Marshall, sr., Wilkins Tannehill, and Edward Jarvis, M. D., and such others as may associate with them for the purposes aforesaid, be and they are hereby constituted a society, and body politic and corporate, in law, by the name and style of the Kentucky Historical Society; and that they and their successors, and such other persons as shall be legally elected by them, shall be and continue a body politic and corporate by that name forever. Name and style, and cor porate powers. SEC. 2. That the members of said society, shall have power May elect to elect a President, Vice Presidents, and such other officers President and as they may determine to be necessary; and said society shall vice presidents. have one common seal, and the same may break, alter and renew at pleasure; and that the said society, by the name aforesaid, as a body politic and corporate, may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in all the courts in this Commonwealth. May make by-laws, &c. holding for meetings. SEC. 3. That the said society shall have power to make rules and by-laws for the government of its members, and managing its property, not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this State, and of the United States; and may expel, disfranchise, or suspend, any member, who, by misconduct, shall be rendered unworthy. SEC. 4. That said society may, from time to time, establish May appoint rules for electing officers and members, and, also, to appoint time and place times and places for holding meetings; and shall be capable, in law, to take and hold real or personal estate, by gift, grant, devise, or otherwise, and the same, or any part thereof, to alien and convey; provided that the annual income of any real estate held by said society shall never exceed the sum of fifteen hundred dollars; and that the personal estate, exclusive of books, papers, and articles in the cabinet of said society, shall never exceed the value of ten thousand dollars. SEC. 5. That said society may elect honorary and corresMay elect ponding members, residing in and without the limits of this honorary mem- Commonwealth; and that the Honorable Henry Pirtle, of the city of Louisville, be and is hereby authorized and empowered to call the first meeting of said society, at such time and at such place, in the city of Louisville, as he may desig bers. nate. SEC. 6. That the library and cabinet of said society shall be kept in the city of Louisville. Approved February 16, 1838. 1838. CHAP. 896--AN ACT to incorporate the Kentucky Bridge Company. Name and SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, That there be and is hereby incor- style of compa porated a company, entitled "the Kentucky Bridge Company," who are authorized to construct a bridge across the Kentucky river, at Cleaveland's landing, provided the individual stockholders in the Richmond and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, by vote of a majority of their Board of Internal Improvement of the State, release the State from obligations to said company, and assent to the building of said bridge by the separate company incorporated by this act. SEC. 2. That William Rodes, Waller Bullock, John Brennan and John Brand, of the county of Fayette and city of Lexington; and Edmund L. Shackleford, Thomas C. Howard, William C. Goodloe, and James Walker of the town of Richmond, be and are hereby constituted Commissioners, who are authorized on the first Monday in May next, to open books for subscription of stock in said company, and adjourn from day to day till the stock be subscribed for. Commission ers appointed. Limitation as SEC. 3. That no subscriber shall, in his own name, or in the name of another, hold more than twenty five hundred to stock. shares. SEC. 4. That the Commissioners above named shall, at an early day as may be, call together the shareholders in said company, who shall elect, by vote, one President and two assistants for said company, to be styled the Directory, in whom shall be vested all the powers of said company; and the said Directory shall have an annual election of their successors, to be made by a written notice to the stockholders of the time and place of holding such election, and by a majority of the legal voters present, and in the case of the death, resignation or other disqualification of any one or two of said Directors, the remaining Director shall have all the power of the original three, till the vacancy shall be supplied at the annual election. SEC. 5. That the stock in said company shall be divided into five hundred shares of one hundred dollars per share. SEC. 6. That such Directory shall elect their own Treasurer and other officers. Meeting of stockholders to be called. Stock to be divided. Treasurer. How stock to SEC. 7. That such Directory may proceed to construct said bridge so soon as they have funds enough to complete the be paid in. same; and shall call on the stockholders for their subscription not exceeding twenty per cent. for every three months. SEC. 8. That said bridge shall be made upon the Wernwag plan, with a double track, and covered in, and the piers so placed and built so high as not to obstruct, in the opinion of Manner of construction. 1838. Tolls. May purchase the ferry site for bridge. Limitation for completing. the Board of Internal Improvement, the navigation of said river by steam or flat boats. SEC. 9. That the said company shall erect a toll gate across the said bridge, and receive toll from all passengers at a rate not exceeding fifty per cent. above the present established prices of the ferry at said Cleaveland's landing. SEC. 10. That the Directors of said bridge company shall be empowered to purchase from the ferry owners at said landing, the right of building said bridge; and in the event that the said company and the said ferry owners do not agree, and no sale of the ferry privileges can be effected on terms mutually satisfactory, the right hereby vested in said company to construct said bridge at the place herein before specified, is hereby taken away. SEC. 11. That said bridge shall be commenced within five years and completed within ten years from the passage of this act. Approved February 16, 1838. clerks. CHAP. 897-AN ACT to authorize the transcribing of certain record books in the Circuit and County Court Clerks offices in Scott County, and for other purposes. WHEREAS, recently the Clerks offices of the Scott county and Circuit Court have been burnt, together with many of the papers and records thereof, but some of the will books, deed books, order books, papers and records, in the County Court office has been preserved, and some of the order books, execution books, and papers, belonging to the Circuit Court office have also been preserved; but in both offices the books and records, thus preserved, are in such a mutilated and damaged condition as to render their use impracticable, and their own preservation insecure-for remedy whereof, SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the ComDuties of the monwealth of Kentucky, That it shall be the duty of the Clerks of the Scott County Court and Circuit Court, as soon as practicable, to transcribe and copy, in well bound books, carefully and accurately, such will books, deed books, order books, execution books, records, and papers, or parts thereof, as shall remain in their respective offices, under the direction of Commissioners hereinafter appointed. Records, &c to be taken as evidence. SEC. 2. That said books, records, and papers, when so transcribed, shall be taken and received, in all cases, as evidence when the originals would have been such; and that all copies taken from said books, and records, and papers, when so transcribed and legally certified, shall be taken and received in evidence in all cases when legally authenticated copies from the original would have been evidence. SEC. 3. That in all cases within this Commonwealth, a copy, or record, or part of a record or paper, remaining amongst the burnt records and papers of said offices, so certified by the Clerk of said court, shall be evidence of the fact of the existence of such record, paper, or part thereof, so copied and certified. 1838. Copies to be evidence, &c. Clerk may a deeds. SEC. 4. That it shall be lawful for the Clerk of the Scott County Court, when any original deed, with the endorsement gain thereon of the Clerk that the same has been recorded, shall be presented to be again recorded, to surrender said deed when recorded in the manner now authorized to deliver original deeds; and that when original deeds are presented, as provided in this act, to be again recorded, the claimant, under such deed, shall pay in advance the price for copying said deed, at the rate allowed by the Commissioners for other copying done under this act. SEC. 5. That it shall be the duty of the Governor of this Commonwealth to furnish to the Clerks of each of the offices aforesaid all the books that other Clerk's offices are entitled to. SEC. 6. That James F. Robinson, William L. Sutton, and Elijah Hawkins, or any two of them, are hereby appointed Commissioners for the County Court office, and James F. Robinson, Joseph G. Lyle, and M. V. Thomson, or any two of them, are appointed Commissioners for the Circuit Court office, whose duty it shall be to examine said offices, and ascertain what part of said books, records, and papers, whether the whole or part thereof, ought to be transcribed. record Books to be furnished. Commissioners appointed. Commission clerks. to SEC. 7. That the Commissioners aforesaid, shall make to each of said Clerks, for transcribing the records aforesaid, ers to make alsuch allowance as they may deem reasonable, provided the lowance same does not exceed one cent for every twenty words so copied; and the compensation, so allowed said Clerks, shall be jointly paid by the Scott County Court and by the Public Treasury; but before any warrant is drawn on the Treasury for any portion of said services, it must appear to the Auditor of Public Accounts that at least the sum of five thousand dollars has been levied by the Scott County Court for that purpose, and upon such information being filed with the Auditor, he is authorized to issue his warrant upon the Treasury for one half of the services actually performed, and certified by said Commissioners, to be paid quarterly: provided, that the sum to be drawn from the Public Treasury for that object shall in no event exceed the sum of five thousand dollars. County court SEC. 8. That in order to enable the Scott County Court to raise the amount necessary for the purpose of compensating may levy a tax. said Clerks, said court shall have power to levy a tax not exceeding ten cents on each hundred dollars' worth of property now subject to taxation for revenue purposes in said county, and that said levy may be laid at any term of said court. SEC. 9. That if, in the opinion of the Commissioners any of the record books, aforesaid, have been so injured by fire as to render it necessary to bind them, it shall be their duty to Commission to be books 1838. cause said books to be re-bound; or, if a part of the manuscript has been so injured by fire as to render it unfit to be bound, then such part only shall be copied and re-bound, with that which is entire, unless they shall be of opinion that so much of the manuscript has been rendered unfit for binding as to make it more economical to copy the whole. Approved February 16, 1838. CHAP. 898.-AN ACT to establish a system of Common Schools in the State of Kentucky. SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, That the interest upon eight hundred Fund provi- and fifty thousand dollars, of the fund set apart by the Com ded, ers, &c. missioners of the Sinking Fund, under the provisions of an act, approved February 23, 1837, and all moneys or other property hereinafter provided for, or which may hereafter be appropriated to the use of common schools, shall be, and the same is hereby constituted a common school fund for the State of Kentucky; to the benefits of which, the several counties shall be entitled, in proportion to the number of children therein, on the terms and conditions hereinafter provided: Provided, That if, at any future time, the fourth instalment of the surplus revenue of the United States shall be paid over to the State of Kentucky, or such portion of it as may be her distributive share, the sum of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of said fund shall be, and is hereby dedicated and forever set apart to the purposes of education, under the provisions of this act. SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That the Secretary of State, Board of ed- the Attorney General for the State of Kentucky, and a Suucation, who to perintendent of Public Instruction, to be nominated by the consist of, how Governor and approved of by the Senate, shall be, and they are appointed, and corporate pow- hereby constituted a body politic and corporate, by the name and style of the Board of Education for the State of Kentucky, who shall have perpetual succession, and by the name and style aforesaid, may hold and possess property of every kind, for the use of common schools, may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, defend and be defended, in all courts of record, or any other place whatsoever; and also to make, have and use a common seal, and the same to break, alter and renew, at their pleasure, and generally to do and execute all acts, matters and things, which a corporation, or a body politic in law, may and can lawfully do and execute. The superintendent of public instruction shall be president of the board of education, and all bonds, notes, obligations, transfers, or other instruments of writing, made or executed by the board, shall be signed by him, and when necessary, sealed with the corporate seal of the board, which board shall be subject, nevertheless, to legisla tive modification, alteration or repeal. |