Chapter CXXV. *to incorporate the Home for Friendless Women and Children.* June 15, 1864. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, Home for the relief of friendless women and children incorporated
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Chap. CXXV.— An Act *to incorporate the Home for Friendless Women and Children.* June 15, 1864. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, Home for the relief of friendless women and children incorporated. That Mary T. Hay, Eliza M. Morris, Jane F. James, Eliza Wade Fitzgerald, Georgiana F. Speaks, Emily B. Ruggles, Indiana Plant, Mary Grayham, Maria Virginia Brown, and their associates and successors, are hereby created a body corporate and politic, with a common seal, the right of succession, with ability to sue and liability to be sued as a natural person, and the said corporation shall be known by the name of “The Home for the Relief of Friendless Women Objects and powers of corporation.and Children.
” The business of said corporation shall be the establishment, in the city of Washington, or at a convenient and eligible point not exceeding in distance seven miles from the city, of an institution where provision can be made by public charity for the care and relief of friendless and deserving females, and for the care and maintenance of young orphan or destitute children, male or female, who may be or are likely to become a charge upon public charity. And said corporation shall possess and enjoy all the powers essential and proper for the carrying out of the purposes of its creation.
Sec. 2. Real and personal estate.*And be it further enacted*, That said corporation may receive, take, and hold, by purchase, gift, or devise, any real or personal estate, for the purposes contemplated in this act: *Provided, however*, That the net annual income of their real estate shall not exceed thirty thousand dollars. Sec. 3. First board of managers.*And be it further enacted*, That Mary T. Hay, Eliza M. Morris, Eliza Wade Fitzgerald, Georgiana Speaks, Emily B. Ruggles, Indiana Plant, Jane F.
James, Mary Grayham, Maria Virginia Brown, shall constitute the board of managers until the first Monday of May, A. D. eighteen hundred and sixty-five, and until their successors shall be chosen or elected as herein provided. A meeting of the members of the association Meeting of members of association.shall be held on the first Monday of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, at some convenient hour and place, in the city of Washington, of which two weeks’ public notice shall be given by the board of managers, in two daily newspapers published in the city of Washington; and at such meeting the members of the association who shall be present shall proceed to elect a board of managers in the places of those hereby designated or authorized; and any manager may be reelected from time to time.
Each member, at such meeting, shall be entitled to one vote. An annual meeting Annual meeting.of the associates or corporators shall, in like manner and upon like notice, be held on the first Monday of May, in each year after eighteen hundred and sixty-five, for the election of managers for the ensuing year; but if, in any case, the said meeting shall, for any reason, fail to be held on the day herein designated, the same may, upon the notice above provided, Term of office of managers.be held on any other day within three months thereafter; and the managers then elected shall hold their offices until the first Monday of May next, ensuing, and until their successors shall be chosen, as aforesaid.
Vacancies.The said board of managers shall have power to fill any vacancies occurring therein between the regular elections above provided in this act, and a majority of said board shall form a quorum for the transaction of business. Sec. 4. Management of the Home.*And be it further enacted*, That the board of managers shall have power to appoint such agents, matrons, assistants, and teachers, and to employ such domestics and servants, as shall be deemed necessary, andTHIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS.
Sess. I. Ch. 125. 1864.131 to make all needful and proper regulations for their respective, general, or specific duties, as well as for the government, direction, and control of all persons who may at any time become inmates of the “Home” authorized by this act, and may prescribe for the children and youth committed to their care such rules of discipline as shall be deemed by them necessary. Sec. 5. *And be it further enacted*, That whenever any child who, fromChildren in the charge of this association may be bound out. the neglect or inability of its parents or guardian to support it, shall become a charge upon public charity, and shall be surrendered to the charge of the association, pursuant to the provisions of this act, by such parent or by its guardian, or by the overseer or superintendent of the poor of said city of Washington, or other officer having the charge of the poor, or whenever any destitute and defendant orphan shall be surrendered to such institution, in the manner herein provided, by an instrument in writing, duly signed by such parent, guardian, or public officer, the said board of managers may, in their discretion, place such child to service with some proper person under articles of indenture, to be executed in due form of law, with such provisions for maintenance and education as shall be approved by one of the judges of the supreme court of the District of Columbia; and the said board of managers are hereby authorizedor adopted. to permit the adoption of any such child by any respectable and proper person who, under provisions to be approved as aforesaid, shall undertake the maintenance, care, and proper education of such destitute or orphan child.
Sec. 6. *And be it further enacted*, That in case of the death or legalMother may be guardian, when, &c. incapacity of the father of any dependent child, or of the imprisonment of such father for crime, or of his abandoning or neglecting to provide for his family, the mother, if residing in the District of Columbia, shall be deemed the legal guardian of her children for the purposes of this act, and shall have power to make the surrender aforesaid. But in ease the mother also be dead, or a non-resident of said district, or legally incapable of acting in the premises, or be imprisoned for crime, or neglect to provide for such child, and in case there be no guardian or other person legally bound to support such child, or qualified to make the surrender aforesaid, then, and in any such case, the superintendent of the poor, orWho else may be guardian. the mayor of Washington, or other public officer having charge of the poor, shall, for the purposes of this act, be required, as ex-officio guardian of such child, and may make, as such, the surrender of such child to the said corporation by the instrument in writing aforesaid, which surrender shall, in all respects, be as valid and effectual as if made by the father or parent of such child: *Provided*, That no surrender of any such child shallBinding out of child to be approved by a judge. be made under the provisions of this section, unless such surrender shall, on examination, be approved by one of the judges of the supreme court of said district.
Sec. 7. *And be it further enacted*, That the board of managers mayOfficers of the association. elect from their own number a president, vice-president, and secretary; and they may further elect a treasurer. They may, in their discretion, appoint an executive committee, consisting of five members of their board, who may, under the general direction of the board, take charge of the affairs of the corporation during any recess of the board. Sec. 8. *And be it further enacted*, That the treasurer of said corporationReport to congress. shall at any time upon the call of congress report a full and perfect statement of the at lairs of such corporation, the location, value, and income of all real estate owned by it, the amount of its receipts, expenditures, investments, and personal estate, and all other information which congress may require.
Sec. 9. *And be it further enacted*, That congress may at any time alter,Act may be repealed. amend, or repeal this act. Sec. 10. *And be it further enacted*, That this act shall take effectWhen act takes effect. immediately. Approved, June 15, 1864.