$100,000, when fifteen miles of their said railroad, in one or two sections, and three thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel, in one or more sections, should be completed.
$100,000, when twenty miles of their said railroad, in one or two sections, and four thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel, in one or more sections should be completed.
$100,000, when twenty-five miles of their said railroad, in one or two sections, and five thousand lineal feet of their said tunnel, in one or more sections, should be completed.
$100,000, when thirty miles of their railroad, in one or two sections, and six thousand lineal feet of their tunnel, should be completed.
$100,000, when thirty-two miles of their railroad, in one or two sections, including all the line east of Florida, and seven thousand lineal feet of their tunnel, in one or more sections, should be completed; and for each additional portion or portions of said tunnel of fifteen hundred feet, in one or more sections, completed by said company, $100,000, subject to the condition that the last $200,000 should be reserved until said company, or their successors, should open their railroad for use from Greenfield to the line of the State in Williamstown; and subject also to the condition, that, prior to the second delivery of scrip, thirty per cent. of the same shall have been paid in cash to the treasurer of the company by the stockholders thereof, in addition to the $120,000 to be paid prior to the delivery of any scrip; and that upon each application for scrip, in pursuance of the law, and prior to the delivery thereof, thirty per cent. of the scrip then applied for shall have been paid by the stockholders to the treasurer of the company until the $600,000 subscribed for has been paid by the stockholders.
The Act further provided, that the treasurer of the company, within three months from the receipt of any scrip, should pay to the commissioners of the sinking fund created by the Act, ten per cent. on the amount of scrip so taken as a sinking fund; and after the road should be opened for use, twenty-five thousand dollars should be annually paid to said commissioners for the same purpose.
The Act further provided, that the said company should execute an assignment, as a pledge or mortgage on the railroad, with its franchise property and income, conditioned to pay the principal sum of said scrip, or so much thereof as the sinking fund should be insufficient to pay, and the interest, as the same became due; and that said company should assign all the interest it then had, or might afterwards obtain, in the Southern Vermont Railroad Company.
In 1855, the legislature authorized certain towns on the line,—to wit: Ashfield, Buckland, Conway, Colrain, Charlemont, Deerfield, Greenfield, Hawley, Heath, Rowe, Shelburne, Adams, Florida, and Williamstown,—to subscribe three per cent. on their valuation, respectively, to the capital stock. This Act was not fully complied with on the part of the towns, and $125,000 only is reported to have been realized from that source.
In 1855 a contract with E. W. Serrell to construct the work was reported to and accepted by the directors. This contract does not appear among the papers of the corporation, and its terms cannot be stated.
At the same time the capital stock of the corporation was by a vote increased to $1,500,000, and a location designated as the east line on the railroad near Cheapside was adopted. This singular resolution was also passed:—