diers belonging to the military forces from West Virginia in the service of the United States, where the soldiers themselves, or their friends, are unable to pay the expense of such transportation.

2. This appropriation shall be subject to the disposal of the governor of this state.

CHAP. 78.-An ACT defining, in part, the Powers and Duties of the several Counties of the State.

Passed October 21, 1863.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

1. Every county of the State is a body politic and corporate; and all the powers, duties, rights, privileges and immunities which appertained thereto on the nineteenth day of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and are not repugnant to any provis ion of the constitution, or inconsistent with this act, shall remain and continue until altered by law. All acts and proceedings of, concerning or against a county shall be in the name of "The supervisors of the county of;" by which name it shall have perpetual succession, may sue and be sued, make and use a common seal, purchase and otherwise acquire, hold, sell and convey real and personal estate, make and execute contracts, and do all other necessary acts and things in relation to its property and all other concerns, and exercise and discharge such powers and duties as now are, or may hereafter be, conferred upon it, or legally required of it.

2. All real and personal estate heretofore conveyed, or which shall hereafter be conveyed, by any form of conveyance, to any county, or the inhabitants thereof, or to any person or persons for the use and benefit of such county or its inhabitants, shall be deemed to be the property of such county; and all such conveyances shall have the same force and effect as if they had been made to the inhabitants of such county by their corporate name.

3. The powers of a county, as a body politic and corporate, can be exercised only by the supervisors thereof, acting as a board, or by virtue of their delegation or appointment. All property owned on the said nineteenth day of June, or thereafter acquired, by any county, shall be and remain vested in the supervisors thereof, for the use of such county and its inhabitants. The supervisors shall, under such general regulations as may be from time to time prescribed by law, have the care and disposition of the property, and the superiniendence and administration of all the internal affairs and fiscal concerns of their county not by law confided to any township therein.

4. In all suits in which a county shall be a party, the proceedings shall be the same and the judgment therein shall have the same effect as in suits between individuals; but where the judgment is against a county in its corporate name, or against any county officer as such, and the same is payable from the county treasury, no execution shall issue thereon, except as hereinafter provided; but such judgment,

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unless an appeal be allowed therefrom by a competent tribunal, shall be payable and paid from the county treasury, in the same manner, and at the same time, as if it had been allowed and directed to be paid by the board of supervisors at the date of the rendition of such judgment; and if not so paid, the court which rendered final judgment may direct execution to issue as in other cases.

5. No suit shall be brought against a county, or against any officer thereof in his official capacity, upon a money demand or claim for damages, which, if valid, would be payable from the county treasury, unless the same be a legal order upon such treasury, until the demand or claim has been first presented to the board of supervisors for payment, and has been disallowed by them in whole or in part. If the board shall refuse or neglect to act upon any such demand or claim, duly and properly presented to them for allowance and payment, by the close of their first stated meeting after that at which the same is so presented, the claimant may institute a suit for the recovery of the

same.

6. In all suits and proceedings against a county, the service of process shall be by leaving a copy thereof with the clerk of the board of supervisors; but in case there be no clerk, then by leaving a copy with the president or any member of the board. When any suit or proceeding is instituted against a county, the clerk of the board shall immediately notify the prosecuting attorney for his county thereof; or if there be no clerk acting, the president of the board shall give such notice. On the trial of every action or suit in which a county is interested, the inhabitants thereof, if otherwise competent, may be witnesses and jurors.

7. Every county shall, at its own expense, provide a suitable courthouse, and a suitable and sufficient jail, together with convenient offices for the recorder and clerks of the eircuit court and the board of supervisors thereof; and shall keep the same in constant and adequate repair, and supplied with the necessary furniture, books, stationery, fuel; and such other things as shall be necessary. The said offices shall be at the county seat, and shall be made fire-proof, or be furnished with sufficient fire-proof vaults or safes. The board may also provide other necessary offices and buildings; and may, by purchase, acquire so much land as may be requisite or desirable for county purposes, and may suitably inclose, improve or embellish the land so or otherwise acquired.

8. If it becomes necessary or desirable to remove the county seat of any county to any other place within the same, and such removal is deemed advisable by a majority of the board of supervisors of such county, and is approved by a majority of at least three-fifths of the voters thereof voting "for removal," and "against removal," at the next annual township elections for the said county, or at intermediate special elections appointed by said board to be held in each township thereof, not less than thirty days after such appointment, the land, with the buildings thereon theretofore used for county purposes, may

be sold, and the proceeds applied, so far as may be necessary, to the acquisition of the necessary land at the place to which it has been determined to remove, and the erection of other buildings thereon. Such removal and sale may be had, notwithstanding the land formerly occupied may have been donated or sold to the county for the purposes for which it has been used, unless the grant thereof contain an express clause to the effect that on the removal of the buildings or of the county seat, such land shall revert to the former owners or their heirs, in which case it shall so revert.

9. Any county may subscribe to the capital stock of any joint stock company incorporated to construct a work of internal improvement, through, by or near such county, if a majority of the board of supervisors thereof are of opinion that such subscription is likely to be of general benefit to such county, and is otherwise advisable, and the proposed subscription is approved by a majority of at least three-fifths of the voters thereof voting "for subscription" and "against subscription," at the annual township election for the said county, or at intermediate special elections appointed by the said board to be held in each township thereof, not less than thirty days after such appointment. But no such subscription shall be for a sum greater than can be paid by a levy on the taxable property of the said county for five successive years, not exceeding twenty cents on the hundred dollars value thereof in any one year, nor shall any such subscription exceed in amount one sixth of the whole capital stock proposed to be raised, or be binding on the county, or be paid in whole or in part, until the residue of such stock is, in good frith, subscribed for by other counties and responsible persons or corporations. The stock so subscribed for shall vest in the county making the subscription, and the supervisors thereof may, from time to time, appoint a proxy to represent the same at all meetings of the stockholders, and all elections of officers of the said company, and an agent to collect the dividends on such stock, which shall be paid into the county treasury, and be exclusively applied to the payment of the debts or the diminution of the annual levy thereof.

10. Any turnpike or plank road company may, with the consent of three-fourths in interest of its stockholders, other than the State, and the consent of the Legislature if the State is a stockholder, transfer so much of its road and works as lies in any county to such county, if the board of supervisors thereof are willing to, and shall formally accept such transfer, upon condition that their county shall thereafter keep the portion of the road so transferred, and its bridges and other works, in such order as is or may be required by law. Upon the completion of such transfer, the board may elect and provide by ordinance, either to maintain such road and works by the imposition of reasonable tolls, or in the manner in which other county roads and bridges are or shall be worked and kept in repair.

11. All the police and administrative powers of the former county courts, not vested in the township or municipal corporations, including the establishment, regulation, alteration and vacation of county roads, the re-establishment and regulation of public landings, ferries and

mills, and the granting of ordinary and other licenses, are hereby vested in the board of supervisors of the several counties of the state, and shall be exercised and administered by them under the laws relating thereto, not repugnant to the constitution or inconsistant with this act, which were in force on the said nineteenth day of June, until the same are altered or amended. If in the establishment of a road, ferry, landing or mill, or in any other proceeding of the said board, it is authorized by law and becomes necessary or desirable to procure land, and terms of purchase cannot be agreed upon, the board of supervisors, if it is required for a public purpose, or the parties interested, in all other cases, may apply to the circuit court of the county wherein such land or the greater part thereof is situated, to appoint commissioners according to the provisions of the sixth section of the fifty-sixth chapter of the Code of Virginia, second edition, or of the seventeenth section of the same chapter, unless commissioners have been previously appointed under the provisions of the latter. In either case the subsequent proceedings shall be conformed to the directions contained in the said chapter so far as applicable, and the words "court," or "county court," shall be construed to mean the circuit court to which such application shall be made.

12. The supervisors of a county, upon the petition of twenty voters resident in any township thereof, or upon the application of a township meeting held therein, and not otherwise, shall have power to alter the boundaries of such township if they shall deem it advisable ; but no such alteration shall take effect until the same is approved and ratified by a majority of the voters of each township interested, assembled in an annual or special meeting thereof and upon the like petition or application from each township to be affected thereby, and not otherwise, the supervisors of the county may erect a new township out of the territory of one or more townships, if they shall deem it advisable, to take effect only when approved and ratified as aforesaid. In the event of the alteration of the boundaries of any township by the erection of a new township, or otherwise, the surveyor of the county shall make two correct maps or plats of the township affected thereby, on which the new lines shall be plainly delineated, and duplicate specific descriptions of such lines; one of each of which he shall transmit to the secretary of the state and deposit the others in the recorder's office of his county. Copies of such maps or plats and descriptions, and of the original maps or plats and descriptions, of the several counties and townships of the State, certified by the secretary of the state or the recorder of the proper county, shall be received as evidence of their contents in all the courts of the State. The surveyor's fees and charges for his services herein shall be audited by the board of supervisors, in like manner as other claims, and be paid from the county treasury. The supervisors shall also, upon the like petition or application, have power to change the place for holding the meetings, and the place or places for holding elections in the several townships of their county, and to alter the name of a township, if they deem such change or alteration advisable; and it shall be the

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duty of their clerk, as soon as practicable after any such change or alteration is made, to notify the secretary of the state thereof.

13. All county officers whose election is provided for by the constitution or by law, and the incumbents of all county offices hereafter created, may be removed from office for cause, by the board of supervisors of their county, excepting the sheriff, the prosecuting attorney, and the derk of the circuit court, who may be removed for cause by the said court. Misconduct in office, habitual or wilful neglect of duty, manifest incompetence for its proper discharge, removal from the county, conviction of any offense punishable by imprisonment or involving a violation of an official oath, omission or refusal to take the oath of office, or to execute and deliver, or to renew, when required, an official bond within the time prescribed, habitual intemperance and grossly immoral conduct, shall be deemed sufficient causes of removal; but no removal shall be made by the board of supervisors unless voted for by two-thirds of the whole number elected, nor then if the assigned cause is misconduct in office or neglect of duty, until an opportunity has been afforded to the incumbent to make his defense before the board, or before a committee thereof appointed to investigate the charge or charges against him, who shall report all the facts of the case to the board.

14. The board of supervisors of every county shall have power to offer and pay suitable bounties and compensation for the destruction of noxious animals and weeds within their county, and by ordinance or resolution to require or direct the abatement or removal of all nuisances, dangerous or deleterious to the health of any of the inhabitants of their county. They shall also have power to take such measures to prevent the spread of contagious or infectious diseases within their county as are usual in such cases. To prevent injury from rabid animals or animals suffering from contagious or infectious diseases, they may, in like manner, direct such animals to be removed to or confined in an appointed place, or to be put to death and their carcasses properly buried or destroyed.

15. To prevent the destruction or injury of sheep by dogs, the board of supervisors may require every owner of a dog or dogs kept within their county to take out license for keeping the same therein, and to pay such fee therefor, as they may from time to time ordain; and the owner or occupier of any house, lot, or farm about or upon which any dog or dogs may be kept or permitted to remain, shall be deemed for the purposes of this act the owner of such dog or dogs. When the board of supervisors shall have determined to require license from the owner of dogs within their county, it shall be the duty of the assessor of such county, under such regulations as the board may prescribe, to list all dogs in his county, and make return of such list at such time as the board may designate; which list shall have the names of the owners arranged in alphabetical order. If any person shall conceal his dog or send him away, to avoid listing, he shall pay a fine of five dollars, recoverable with costs before any justice. Eyery person when called upon by the assessor authorized to list as aforesaid,