Year: 1864

Laws.


The following are official copies of the
Homestead and University Land Laws, and
will be found of equal interest to Land own
ers here


An Act amendatory of the Homestead Law


and for other purposes.


Be. enacted, by the Senate and House
of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled. That in
case of any person desirous of availing him
self Of the benefits ofthe Homestead Act o.
twentieth of May, 1862, but who, by reason
of actual service in the military or naval SER
vice of the United States, is unable to do the
personal preliminary acts at the District
Land Offices which the said Act Of goth Of
May 1862 requires, and whose families, or
some members thereof, is residing on the
land which he desires to enter, and upon
which a bona fde improvement and settle
ment have been made, it shall and may be
lawful for such person to make the affidavit
required by said Act before the officer com
mandiug in the branch of the service in
which the party may be engaged, which atii-
davit shall be as binding in law, and with like
penalties, as if taken before the Register and
Receiver; and upon such affidavit being filed
with the Register by the wife or other rep
resentative of the party the same shall be-
come effective from the date Of such filing,
provided the said application and affidavit
are accompanied by the fee and commissions
as required by law.


Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That,
besides the ten.dolar fee exacCed by the
said Act, the Homestead application
shall hereafter pay to the Register and Re-
ceiver each, as commissions at the time Of
entry, one per centum upon the cash price as
fixed by law of the land applied for, and
like commissions when the claim is finally es
tabished and the certificate therefor issued
as the basis ola patent,


Sec g. And be it further enacted, That
in any case hereafter in which the applicant
for the benefit Of the homestead, and whose
family, or some thereof is residing on the
land which he desires to enter, and upon
which bona fde improvement and settle
ment have been made, IS prevented by rea-
son of distance, bodily infrmity, or other
good cause, from personal attendance at the
District Land Office, it shall and may be law
full for him to make affidavit required by the
original statute before the clerk of the Court
for the county in which the applicant is an
actual resident and to transmit the same
with the fee aud comissions, to the Register
and Receiver.


Sec 4 And be it further enacted, That
in lien of the fee allowed by the twelfth sec
Of the Presumption Act Of 4th September,
184l, the Register and Receiver shall be en-
titled to one dollar for their services in act
ing upon presumption claims, and shall be
allowed, jointly, at the rate of fifteen cents
per hundred words for the testimony which
may be reduced by them to writing for claim
ants, in establishing pre-emption or home
stead rights, the regulations for giving prop
er effec to the provisions Of this Act to lie
prescribed by the Commissioner Of the Gen
eral Land Office.


Sec s. And be it further enacted, That
where pre-emptor has taken the initiatory
steps required by existing laws in regard to
actual settlement, and is called away from
such settlement by being actually engaged
in the military or naval service of the Uni
ted States, and by reason Of such absence is
unable to appear at the District Land Office
to make before the Register or Receiver the
afidavits required by the 18th section of the
Pre- emptiou Act Of September 4, 1871, the
time for filing such affidavit and making final
proof and entr, or location shall be extended
six months after the expiration of his term
of service, upon satisfactory proof by affidavit
or the testimony of witnesses that the said
preemptor is 50 in the service being filed
with the Register of the Land Office for the
district in which his settlement is made.


Sec 6. And be it further enacted, That
the Registers and Receivers in the State Of
California, in the State of Oregon, and in
the Territories of Washington, Nevada, Col
orado, New Mexico and Arizona, shall be en-
titled to collect and receive, in addition to
the fees and allowances provided by this Act,
fifty per cent. Of said fees and allowances as
compensation for their services; provided
that the salary and fees allowed any Register
or Receiver shall not exceed in the aggregate
the sum Of So, 900 per annum.


Approved March 2l, 1864.