# United States Statutes at Large/Volume 5/24th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 269

Chap. CCLXIX.—An Act to amend an act entitled “An act authorizing the laying off a town on Bean river, in the State of Illinois, and for other purposes,” approved fifth February, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine.
Board of commissioners.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all acts and duties required to be done and performed by the surveyor of the States of Illinois and Missouri, and theAct of Feb. 5, 1829, ch. 15. Territory of Arkansas, under the act to which this is an amendment, shall be done and performed by a board of commissioners of three in number, any two of whom shall form a quorum to do business; said commissioners to be appointed by the President of the United States, and shall, previous to their entering upon the discharge of their duties, take an oath or affirmation to perform the same faithfully and impartially.
Power of commissioners.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the said commissioners shall also have power to hear evidence and determine all claims to lots of ground arising under the act to which this is an amendment, and for this purpose the said commissioners are authorized to administer all oaths that may be necessary, and reduce to writing all the evidence in support of claims to pre-emption presented for their consideration; and when all the testimony shall have been heard and considered, the said commissioners shall file with the register and receiver of the land office at Galena, the testimony in each case, together with a certificate in favor of each person having the right of pre-emption; and upon making payment to the receiver at Galena, for the lot or lots to which such person is entitled, the receiver shall grant a receipt therefor, and issue certificates of purchase, to be transmitted to the General Land Office, as in other cases of the sale of public land.
Duties of Register and Receiver.Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the register and receiver at Galena, after the board of commissioners have heard and determined all the cases of pre-emption under the act to which this is an amendment, shall expose the residue of lots to public sale to the highest bidder, after advertising the same in three public newspapers at least six weeks prior to the day of sale, in the same manner as is provided for the sale of the public lands in other cases; and after paying to the commissioners the compensation hereinafter allowed them, and all the other expenses incident to the said survey and sale, the receiver of the land office shall pay over the residue of the money he may have received from the sale of lots aforesaid, by pre-emption as well as at public auction, into the hands of the county commissioners of Jo Daviess county, to be expended by them in the erection of public buildings, and the construction of suitable wharves in the town of Galena.
Commissioners to be paid by the Receiver.Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners appointed to carry this act into effect, shall be paid by the receiver six dollars each, per day, for their services, for every day they are necessarily employed.
Approved, July 2, 1836.