Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1912-06-29
THREE YEAR LAW LIBERAL.
Unless Registered Letter Brings Am.
davit Three Year Law Is
Binding.

blD0lu&.
Register Bennett of the United State
land Office at Rapid City, is sending ou
letter to each homestead entrymen il
his jurisdiction explaining the ins an,
outs Of the new three year law, whicl
was approved June 9th. 1t seems tha
the new three year law is binding upol
the entrymen unless he fills out a blanl
called, ELECTION to Make Proof Unde
Law Under which Entry was Made
This affidavit must be sent to the near
est land Office by registered mail. NJ
other method OF mailing will answer
This ruling is made for the benefit o
those persons who for various reasoni
do not care to avail themselves of th,
new law and want to prove up under tn,
old law.
The letter to the entrymen which
Commissioner bennett has signed says
"If you wish to elect to make proc
upon your entry under the law which
the same was made, you must give
notice thereof within 120 days after
June 6, 1912, To the Register and Re
ceiver of the Local Land Office. Thii
notice must be sent by Registered mail
and may not be sent in any other way
II, in your case, you desire to make
proof under the law under which yor
made your entry, there is for your con
venience, inclosed herewith a printed
notice of election, which you may FL
out and use for that purpose.
Unless you elect in the manner anG
form and within the time above stated
your entry will, without notice, become
subject to the provisions of said act o.
June 6, 1912, and in reaching a decision
as to which course you prefer you should
first examine carefully the provisions
and requirements of the new act printed
herewith"
The following is the new law:
Be it enacted by the senate and house
Of representatives of the United States ol
America in congress assembled, that Sec
ton twenty-five hundred and ninety -one
and section twenty-five hundred and
ninety seven of the Revised Statutes oi
the United States, be amended to read
as follows:
''Sec. 229l: No certificate, however,
shall be given or patent issued therefor
until the expiration of three years from
the date of such entry; and if at the ex-
piration ofsuch time, or any time within
two years thereafter, the person making
such entry, or if he be dead his widow,
or in case of her death, bis heirs or de-
visees, or in case of widow making
such entry, her heirs or devisees, in case
of her death, proves by himself and by
two credible witnesses that he, she, or
they, have q habitable house upon the
land and have actually resided upon and
cultivated the same for term of three
years succeeding the time of filing the
affidavit, and makes affidavit that no
part of such land has been alienated ex-
cept as provided in section twenty-five
hundred and eighty-eight, and that he,
she, or they, will bear true allegiance to
the government of the United States,
then in such case, he, she or they, II at
that time citizens of the United States,
shall be entitled to patent, as in other
cases provided by law. Provided: That
upon the filing in the local land Office
notice of the beginning of such absence,
the entryman shall be entitled to con-
tinuous leave of absence from the land
for a period not exceeding five months
in each year after establishing residence,
and upon the termination of such absence
the entryman shall file a notice of such
in the local land Office, but
in case of Communication, the fourteen
months actual residence as now required
by law must be shown, and the person
must be at the time citizen
of the United States. Provided: That
when the person making the entry dies
before the offer of final proof those sue
ceeding to the entry must show that the
entryman had complied VIII the law in
all respects to the date of his death and
that they have since complied with the
law in all respects, as would have been
required of the entryman had he lived
except that they are relieved from any
ofresidence upon the land.
Provided further: That the entryman
shall, in order to comply with the re.
quirements of cultivation herein pro-
vided for, cultivate not less than one-six-
teenth Of the area ofhis entry, beginning
with the second year of the entry, and
not less than one-eighth, beginning with
the third year of the entry, and until
final proof, except that in case of entries
under section six of the enlarged home
stead law double the area of cultivation
herein provided shall be required, but
the secretary of the interior may, upon a
showing, under rules and
regulations prescribed by him, reduce
the required area of cultivation. Pro-
vided: That the above provision as to
cultivation shall not apply to entries
under the Act of April twenty-eighth,
nineteen hundred and four, commonly
known as the Kinkaid Act, or entries
under the Act of June seventeenth, nine
teen hundred and two, commonly known
as the reclamation act and that the pro-
visions Of this section relative to the
homestead period shall apply to all un-
perfected entries as well as entries here.
after made upon which residence is re.
quired. Provided, That the secretary
of the Interior shall, within sixty days,
after the passage of this act, send copy
VI tuO DduIC W CaOh houlOctCdu
of record, who may be affected thereby,
by ordinary mail to his last known ad-
dress, and any such entryman may, by
giving notice within one hundred and
twenty days after the passage of this act,
by registered letter to the register and
receiver of the local land Office, elect to
make proof upon his entry under the
law under which the same was made
without regard to the provisions of thii
act"
"Sec. 2297. II, at any time, after the
filing of the affidavit as required in sec
ton twenty-five hundred and ninety
and before the expiration of three years
mentioned in section twenty-five hun
dred and ninety-one, it is proved, after
due notice to the settler, to the salts
faction of the register of the land ofic,
that ths person having filed such afR