1897 public laws – Ch.340 Sec.1

That F. H. Fries, J. W. Fries, W. A. Lemly, Lindsay Patterson, A. E. Holton, C. A. Reynolds, E. B. Jones, J. C. Buxton, C. H. Fogle, James A. Gray, R. J. Reynolds, John W. Hanes, H. EK. Fries, C. B. Watson, and such other persons as may be associated with them, are hereby created and declared a body politic and corporate with perpetual succession under the name and style of the Winston-Salem South Bound railway company ; and in that name may sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in any court of this state, to contract and be contracted with ; shall have power to adopt a common seal and to change the same at will, and shall be capable of taking by purchase, gift or any other way, real and personal property, and holding, leasing, conveying or in any other manner dealing with the same for any of the purposes hereinafter enumerated, and the said corporation shal] haveand enjoy all the rights and immunities which corporate bodies may lawfully exercise, and may make all necessary regulations for its government not inconsistent with the laws of the United States or the state of North Carolina. It may build branch roads from any part of its main line not exceeding fifty miles in length.