Any number of persons, not less than five, being subscribers to the stock of any contemplated telephone or magnetic telegraph company, may be formed into a corporation for the purpose of constructing, owning, operating and maintaining lines of telephone or magnetic telegraph, upon complying with the following requirements: Whenever stock to the amount of not less than twenty thousand dollars shall have been subscribed for the purpose of forming a telegraph company, or five hundred dollars for the purpose of forming a telephone company, the subscribers to such stock shall elect such number of directors, not less than three nor more than twenty-one, as they may determine, and shall severally subscribe articles of association, which shall set forth the name of the corporation, the amount of the capital stock of the company, the number of directors, the amount of each share of stock, the number and names of the subscribers to the stock of the company, and the number of shares of stock taken by each subscriber, the location of the principal office or place of business of the company, and the names of its authorized agents thereat, which shall be verified by the affidavit of at least three of the subscribers thereto, and shall pay into the state treasury fifty dollars for the first fifty thousand dollars or less of its capital stock, and the further sum of five dollars for every additional ten thousand dollars thereof.