The Kansas herald of freedom., 1858-08-07


your obedient servant,
THO. H. BLAKE,
Commissioner.
The REGISTER Of the Land Office,
and RECEIVER of Public Moneys, at
GENERAL LAND 0FFIcE,l
May 3, 1913.
GENTLEMEN Annexed is a copy of an
act of Congress, approved on the Sd March
last, "to authorize the investigation of
certain alleged frauds under the pre-emp-
ton laws, and for other purposes"
Wherever the time prescribed for making
proof and payment on claim, by the law
under which it originated, has expired, the
provisions of the present act do not apply.
The first section of the act, being of
special application to single land dis
triet, has been acted on accordingly.
The second section provides for the
rights of parties who shall have died be-
fore consummating their claims by the
filing, in due time, of all the papers essen
tial to establish the same. Under it you
are authorized, if proof of such right shall
be filed and payment therefor be made by
the executor, administrator, or one Of the
heirs, during the period prescribed by the law
upon wltich the claim is founded, to permit
the entry in the name of "the heirs of
the deceased claimant. A patent on such
an entry will cause the title to inure to
said heirs as if their names had been
specially mentioned. In cases of this
kind, the affidavits required of the pre-
emptor by the acts of June %, 1888, June
/, 184O, and September 4, 1S41, respec-
lively, will be taken by the person so filing
the proof; and should such person be one
of the heirs, he or she should be of age
and mind competent to appreciate the
nature and obligation of an oath. Forms
for such affidavits are hereto annexed,
marked A and b.
The third section provides for cases
under all the previous presumption tdtcs, ex-
cept that of September 4, 1841, where the
settlement was made on unsurUeyed land,
and is subsequently, discovered to inter-
fere with section sirteen, or thirty six, ]
reserved for schools. or with tract reserved
for any other purpose, or with tract COW
cred by a private claim. 1t admits the
settler thus circumstanced to enter any
other quarter section, or fractional section,
or fractional quarter section, in the same
land district, so as not 10 erceed one hundred
and SIXTY acres of land not reserved from
sale or in the occupancy of any other bona
fide settlers
Under the third section of the act of
1st June, 1910, settlers within the purview
of the act of 1888 or 1910, who resided
on sixteenth section reserved for schools,
did enjoy the right of locating a quarter
section'' anywhere else in the same land
district, to which no other person had ga
right of pre- emption" The present act, in
extending to such settlers On a sixteenth
section the increased privilege of locating
at their option other species of tracts, viz:
fractional section" or a fractional quar-
ter section" restricts the previous privilege
of location to Uacant and unimproUed land
No location is to be allowed by you under
this section of the act, unless upon the
filing of satisfactory proof that the substi
tuted land is not in the occupancy of any
bona fde settler; which testimony, with
the other papers in the case, you will trans
NIT to this Office See Note |.
The fourth section declares it unlawful
for an Individual who has once fled a
declaration for one tract of land, to file at
any future time second declaration for
, another tract. This has reference to those
required, under the 10Th section of the act
of 1841, for land subject at the time of
settlement to entry at private sale. Your
record of such declarations will afford you
some means of detecting violation of
this provision and whenever you do de-
tect it by any means whatever, you are to
refuse to receive or notice the same; and
if such declaration shall have been re-
ceived and reported to this office before
the discovery is made, such fact will not
prevent your regarding the land as subject
to the entry of the first applicant, in the
same manner as if no declaration had been
filed.
The fifth section requires that similar
notices or declarations in writing should
be filed by settlers under the act of 4th
September, 1841, on land not subject to
private entry. These declarations are to be
| filed in your Office by every such settler
within three months after his settlement ex-
cept as to those whose settlements were
made prior to the Sd March last; in which
cases, such declarations are to be filed with
in three months from that date, viz: before
the Sd of June next. The Register will
number such statements regularly in the
order of their date of reception, enter them
in suitable book prepared therefor, furn-
ish this Office with monthly abstracts from
said book, and in all other respects pursue
| the same course in relation to them as he
is required to do by the Sd and 4th para
graphs on = page of the circular of
18th Septef 1841, in regard to the
declarations therein referred TO. Particu-
lar care must be taken not to confound the
two species of declarations, but to keep
separate files thereof, enter them in the
respective books prepared for each, and in
| the monthly abstracts transmitted to this
| Office discriminate between the two by
heading the one " For land subject to pri-
vate entry" aud the other For land not
yet offered for sale." A form for dec
| laration under this section of the act is
hereto appended, marked c.
By the sizth section provision is made
/ for the benefit of claimants whose rights
might otherwise be jeoparded by reason
of vacancy which has occurred, or may
hereafter occur, in either of your offices
or both. By it claimant is authorized
hereafter TO file declaration, under the
law of 4th September, 1841, or to make
| an entry Of claim under any of the pre-
emption laws, although the time prescribed
by the law for the filing of such declara
ton or the making of such entry shal
have expired, provided the claimant wa.
prevented BY such vacancy from perform
ing said act or acts within such time, anS
shall perform the duties required BY tn,
law within the same period after the disa
bility Is removed as he would have hat
/ If such vacancy had not occurred lSev
Note IL
i The seucah section extends the privi
! l. =. = i