at some suitable place within said corporation on the first Monday in April next, and annually thereafter, and then and there proceed to elect by ballot a mayor and four councilmen, and a recorder, who shall hold their offices for one year and until their successors shall be elected and quali fied; the mayor and any two of the councilmen shall be a board for the transaction of business, but a less number may adjourn from time [to time]; provided, that in case of [196] the death or absence of the mayor, the councilmen may choose a mayor pro tem. from their. own body.

SEC. 3. Judges of election-polls opened-notice. At the first election to be held under this act there shall be chosen by the electors present three judges and a clerk of said election who shall each take an oath or affirmation faithfully to discharge the duties required of them by this act; and at all subsequent elections the councilmen or any two of them shall be judges, and the recorder clerk of election. At all elections holden under this act the polls shall be opened between the hours of 9 and 10 o'clock in the forenoon and closed at five in the afternoon of the same day and at the close of the polls the votes shall be counted, and a true statement thereof proclaimed to the electors present by one of the judges, and the clerk shall give notice. to the persons elected of their election. And it shall be the duty of the recorder at each annual election to give at least five days notice thereof by posting up notices at three of the most public places in said town or causing the same to be published in some weekly newspaper printed in said county. SEC. 4. Meeting of the board-mayor to preside-record. The regular meetings of said mayor and councilmen shall be held on the first Monday in each month (except the April meeting which shall be held on the seeond Monday in April) and the board may provide by ordinance for calling special meetings. At all meetings the mayor if present shall preside (and) in his absence the mayor pro tem.) The recorder shall keep a correct record of all the proceedings of the board, and may under his hand and seal appoint a deputy for whose acts he shall be responsible.

SEC. 5. Corporate powers. The mayor, councilmen and inhabitants of said town shall be a body corporate and politic with perpetual succession, to be known and distinguished by the name of "the town of Mount Pleasant," and shall be capable in law in their corporate name to acquire proper ty real and personal for the use of said town and sell and convey the same: may have a common seal which they may alter at pleasure; may sue and be sued, defend and be defended in any court of competent jurisdiction: and when any suit shall be commenced against said corporation the first process shall be by summons which [197] shall be served by an attested copy to be left with the recorder.

SEC. 6. Oath of office. The officers elected under this act shall each take an oath or affirmation to support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Iowa, and faithfully to discharge the du ties of their respective offices.

SEC. 7. Ordinances. The mayor and counciimen shall have power to make and establish ordinances for the government of said town and to alter, repeal or re-enact the same; to provide for the election of a treasurer, assessor, a marshal and other subordinate officers, necessary for the good government and well being of the town, to prescribe their duties, declare their qualifications and period of service, fix their fees and compensation, and require them to take an oath or affirmation faithfully to discharge the duties. of their respective offices, and may require of them security for the performance of their official duties. Said mayor and councilmen shall also have power to affix such reasonable fines, penalties and forfeitures as they may deem proper to violations of the ordinances, and to provide for the

disposition of the same; provided also, that no ordinance of said corporation shall have any effect until the same shall have been published in a weekly newspaper, published in said county or (if there be no such newspaper,) by written notices posted up in three of the most public places in said town; and provided further, that nothing done under the provisions of this section shall be incompatible with the laws of this state.

SEC. 8. Receipts and expenditures. The mayor and councilmen shall at the expiration of each six months cause to be made out and published a correct statement of the receipts and expenditures of the preceding six months.

SEC. 9. Tax. The mayor and councilmen shall have power to levy by ordinance a tax on all real and personal estate within the limits of said corporation, not exceeding one-half of one per centum in any one year, but such ordinance shall have no force or effect, until the same be submitted to the legal voters of said town at an election specified and called for that purpose by the same ordinance, (of which two weeks notice shall be giver by publication of the ordinance as provided in see- [198] tion 7,) and receive a majority of the votes cast at said election.

SEC. 10. Manner of conducting election. The election provided for in the preceding section shall be conducted so far as practicable in the same manner as the regular elections and the vote shall be taken "for the tax" or "against the tax."

SEC. 11. Lanes and walks-private property-nuisances. The mayor and councilmen shall have power by ordinance to regulate and improve the lanes and alleys and determine the width of side walks, provided, that no property shall be taken from any individual until such individual shall be paid therefor; the value thereof to be ascertained by twelve disinterested freeholders to be summoned by the marshal for that purpose and duly sworn, previous notice thereof being given to the owner. They shall also have power to remove all nuisances and obstructions from the streets and commons and all other places within said town, and to provide for the removal of the same.

SEC. 12. Road district-overseer-duties. The streets, lanes and alleys of said town shall constitute one road district, the overseer of which shall be appointed by the mayor and councilmen and shall hold his office for one year. Said overseer shall perform the same duties as are or may be imposed by the laws of this state upon the overseer or supervisor of roads and highways, but shall make his report to the mayor and councilmen and the road tax and labor of said district shall be laid out and expended within said district under the direction of the mayor and councilmen.

SEC. 13. Fees. The fees of the officers shall be fixed by ordinance, but the mayor and councilmen shall receive no compensation unless the same shall be voted by the electors of the corporation.

SEC. 14. Tax-duplicates. It shall be the duty of the mayor and councilmen on or before the first day of May in each year to cause to be made out a duplicate of taxes charging each individual therein the amount of tax in proportion to the real and personal estate of such individual within said. town, which duplicate shall be signed by the mayor and recorder and delivered to the marshal whose duty it shall be to collect the same within such time and such manner as the ordinances shall direct.

[199] SEC. 15. Collection of taxes and sale of real estate-redemptiondeed. The said marshal shall have power to sell personal estate and for want thereof to sell real estate for the nonpayment of taxes within said corporation, giving the purchaser of such real estate a certificate of such sale. setting forth a brief description of the property so sold, the time of sale,

and the amount of the purchase money, which certificate shall be assignable by endorsement thereon, but no real estate shall be sold for the non-payment of taxes, unless the assessment of such tax or taxes and the time of such sale shall have been duly notified by publication for at least four consecutive weeks in the manner provided for publication of ordinances in section 7. Said taxes shall be deemed to be due on the first day of September in each year. Any real estate sold under this section may be redeemed at any time within two years from the date of the sale thereof by paying the amount for which the same was sold with twenty-five per cent per annum interest upon the same, which payment may be made to the recorder as the agent for the purchaser. If any real estate so sold remain unredeemed at the expiration of two years from the date of the sale, the marshal shall upon the payment of his legal fees, make, execute and deliver to the purchaser his assignee or legal representative a deed for such real estate. The mayor and councilmen may within thirty days after the assessment of taxes make such change therein as may be applied for by any one who may deem the valuation of his property unjust.

SEC. 16. To take effect. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and to be published but not at the expense of the state in the Iowa Observer.

Approved, February 5th, 1851.

[200] CHAPTER 83.

JOSEPH W. FOSTER.

AN ACT to legalize the appointment of Joseph W. Foster.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa:

SECTION 1. Appointment and acts legalized. That the appointment of Joseph W. Foster, as school fund commissioner of Fayette county, and his acts as such, are hereby recognized and made valid and binding in law. SEC. 2. Take effect. This act shall take effect from and after its passage. Approved, February 5, 1851.

CHAPTER 84.

APPORTIONMENT.

AN ACT to re-apportion the state, and define the boundaries of senatorial and representative districts therein.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa:

SECTION 1. Lee county. That the county of Lee shall have three (3) senators and six (6) representatives.

SEC. 2. Des Moines. That the county of Des Moines shall have two (2) senators and four (4) representatives.

SEC. 3. Van Buren. That the county of Van Buren shall have two (2) senators and four (4) representatives.

SEC. 4. Jefferson. That the county of Jefferson shall have two (2) senators and three (3) representatives.

SEC. 5. Henry. That the county of Henry shall have one (1) senator and three (3) representatives.

SEC. 6. Wapello-Wapello, etc.-Monroe, etc. That the county of Wapello shall have one (1) senator and two (2) representatives, and that the counties of Wapello, Monroe, Lucas and Clarke shall have one (1) senator and one (1) representative jointly, and that the counties of Monroe, Lucas and Clarke shall have one (1) representative jointly.

[201] SEC. 7. Davis, Appanoose, etc. That the county of Davis shall have one (1) senator and two (2) representatives, and the counties of Davis, Appanoose, Wayne and Decatur shall have one (1) senator and one (1) representative jointly; and the counties of Appanoose, Wayne and Decatur shall have one representative jointly.

SEC. 8. Pottawatamie, Mills, etc. That the county of Pottawattamie shall have one (1) senator and one (1) representative. And the counties of Mills, Montgomery, Adams, Union, Ringgold, Taylor, Page and Fremont, shall have one (1) senator and one (1) representative jointly; and the counties of Pottawattamie, Mills, Fremont, Page, Taylor, Ringgold, Union, Adams, Montgomery, Cass, Adair, Audubon, Shelby, Harrison, Monona, Crawford, Carroll, Sac, Ida, Wahkaw, Plymouth, Cherokee, Buena Vista, Sioux, O'Brien, Clay, Dickinson, Oceola and Buncombe shall have one representative jointly. SEC. 9. Louisa and Washington. That the counties of Louisa and Washington shall have two (2) representatives each and one (1) senator jointly. SEC. 10. Keokuk and Mahaska. That the counties of Keokuk and Mahaska shall have one (1) senator, and one (1) representative each and one (1) representative jointly.

SEC. 11. Marion, etc. That the counties of Marion, Warren and Madison shall have one (1) senator and three (3) representatives.

SEC. 12. Scott. That the county of Scott shall have one (1) senator and two (2) representatives.

SEC. 13. Muscatine. That the county of Muscatine shall have one (1) senator and two (2) representatives.

SEC. 14. Cedar and Clinton. That the counties of Cedar and Clinton shall have one (1) representative each, and one (1) senator jointly.

SEC. 15. Johnson, Iowa, etc. That the county of Johnson shall have one (1) representative; and the counties of Johnson, Iowa and Poweshiek one (1) representative, and the counties of Johnson, Iowa and Poweshiek shall have one (1) senator jointly.

SEC. 16. Jasper, Polk, etc. That the counties of Jasper, Polk, Dallas, Guthrie, Green, Boone, Story, Marshall, Hardin, Risley, Yell, Fox, Pocahontas, Humbolt, Wright, Franklin, Cerro Gorda, Hancock, Kossuth, Palo Alto, Emmett, Bancroft, Winnebago and Worth shall have one (1) senator and three (3) representatives.

SEC. 17. Jackson and Jones. That the county of Jackson shall have one (1) senator [202] and two (2) representatives, and the county of Jones one (1) representative, and the counties of Jackson and Jones one (1) senator jointly.

SEC. 18. Linn, etc. That the counties of Linn, Benton and Tama shall have one (1) senator and two (2) representatives.

SEC. 19. Dubuque, etc.-Clayton, etc. That the counties of Dubuque. Delaware, Buchanan, Blackhawk, Grundy, Butler and Bremer shall have four (4) representatives, and the counties of Clayton, Fayette, Allamakee, Winne

shiek, Howard, Mitchell, Floyd and Chickasaw shall have two (2) representatives, and the counties of Dubuque, Delaware, Buchanan, Blackhawk, Grundy, Butler, Bremer, Clayton, Fayette, Allamakee, Winneshiek, Howard, Mitchell, Floyd and Chickasaw shall have three (3) senators jointly.

Approved, February 5th, 1851.

CHAPTER 85.

RIGHT OF WAY.

AN ACT to grant the right of way to the Dubuque and Keokuk rail road company, south.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa:

SECTION 1. Right of way granted. That there be and is hereby granted to the Dubuque and Keokuk railroad company south, and their successors and assigns, the right of way for a rail road from Iowa City in Johnson county via Washington and Brighton, in Washington county, Fairfield, in Jefferson county, Salem in Henry county, West Point and Montrose to Keokuk, in Lee county, embracing a strip of land one hundred feet wide through section sixteen, and other lands which may be owned by the State of Iowa, over which said road may be located and constructed.

SEC. 2. Manner of obtaining right of way-sheriff to summon freeholders.-Proceed to assess the damages.-Report.-Appeal. And be it further enacted, that in obtaining the right of way for their said rail road, over and across the lands of individual proprietors, the said company and their assigns [203] may proceed in the manner following, that is to say, the grant of such right of way from individual owners, resident of the county in which the land is situated, or who have agents or guardians resident as aforesaid, may be obtained in writing, over the hand and seal of such proprietor, or of his or her agent or guardian resident as aforesaid, and neither acknowledgment or recording shall be necessary to the validity of such grant; and if the owner of any land over which said road may be located, shall refuse to grant the right of way for said road through his or her premises, notice may be given by either party to the sheriff of the county in which said lands may be situated, whose duty it shall be, within ten days thereafter, to summon eighteen freeholders of his county, and who are not interested in a like question, to appear on the premises; and he shall give the parties notice of the time and place of the meeting; when so assembled if the said freeholders so summoned do not all appear, the sheriff shall summon others to make up the the number; the parties shall then proceed, commencing with the company, to alternately strike off the names so returned, until but six of said freeholders are left, who after being sworn, shall proceed to inspect the premises, and assess the damages, if any which such owner will sustain by the construction of said road, and make report thereof to the clerk of the district court for said county, and the same shall be filed by him; and if the company shall, at any time before they actually enter upon said lands for the purposes of constructing said road, pay to said clerk or proprietor the sum so assessed, they shall be fully authorized to construct and maintain said road over and across said premises, doing no unnecessary injury to said lands: provided, that either party dissatisfied with the decision of said freeholders, shall have the right of appeal to the district court of the county