FORMS FOR VERIFICATION AND PUBLICATION OF LISTS FOR PATENT.

FORM 6.

do hereby certify that I am the

(designation of

I, office) of the State of ; that I am charged with the duty of disposing of the lands granted to the State in pursuance of section 4, act of August 18, 1894 (28 Stat., 372-422), the act of June 11, 1896 (29 Stat., 434), and the act of March 3, 1901 (31 Stat., 1133-1188); and that the laws of the said State relating to the said grant from the United States have been complied with in all respects as to the following list of lands, which are hereby submitted on behalf of the said State for the issuance of patent under said acts of Congress.

[Here add list of lands.]

FORM 7.

To follow list of lands.

STATE OF,

County of......, 88:

(desig

, being duly sworn, deposes and says that he is the nation of office) of the State of charged with the duty of supervising the reclamation of lands segregated under section 4, act of August 18, 1894 (28 Stat., 422), the act of June 11, 1896 (29 Stat., 434), and the act of March 3, 1901 (31 Stat., 1133-1188); that he has examined the lands designated on the foregoing list, and that an ample supply of water has been actually furnished (in a substantial ditch or canal, or by artesian wells or reservoirs) for each tract in said list, sufficient to thoroughly irrigate and reclaim it, and to prepare it to raise ordinary agricultural crops.

Notice is hereby given that the State of ...... has filed in this Office the following list of lands, to wit, and has applied for a patent for said lands under the acts of August 18, 1894 (28 Stat., 372-422), June 11, 1896 (29 Stat., 434), and March 3, 1901 (31 Stat., 1133-1188), relating to the granting of not to exceed a million acres of arid land to each of certain States; and that the said list, with its accompanying proofs, is open for the inspection of all persons interested, and the public generally.

Within the next 60 days following the date of this notice, protests or contests against the claim of the State to any tract described in the list, on the ground of failure to comply with the law, on the ground of the nondesert character of the land, on the ground of a prior adverse right, or on the ground that the same is more valuable for mineral than for agricultural purposes, will be received and noted for report to the General Land Office at Washington, D. C.

Register.

Receiver.

CIRCULAR TO REGISTERS AND RECEIVERS OF THE UNITED

STATES LAND OFFICES.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, March 28, 1902. GENTLEMEN: Section 2414 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which statutes embrace all laws, general and permanent in their nature, in force on the first day of December, 1873, provides that

All warrants for military bounty lands which have been or may hereafter be issued under any law of the United States, and all valid locations of the same which have been or may hereafter be made, are declared to be assignable by deed or instrument of writing, made and executed according to such form and pursuant to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, so as to vest the assignee with all the rights of the original owner of the warrant or location.

Under the authority conferred by the said section, the following compilation of rules and regulations governing the assignment of bounty-land warrants is prepared for the guidance of registers and receivers of district offices in ascertaining the title to such warrants, when the same are presented in payment of entries of public lands, and for the information of all concerned.

To avoid, as far as possible, complications of land titles arising in consequence of the location of fraudulent or imperfectly assigned warrants, registers and receivers are peremptorily enjoined to refuse all warrants presented when the assignments thereof do not accord in every essential particular with the rules herein prescribed; and in all cases when the question of title is in doubt they must decline to receive the warrants until the holders thereof have submitted the same to this Office for examination, and have obtained a favorable decision thereon.

I. OF ASSIGNMENTS.

1. No assignment of a warrant executed prior to the date of the issue thereof can be recognized by this Office. (R. S., sec. 2436.) 2. The assignment is required to be indorsed as far as practicable upon the warrant transferred. Should it be found necessary in any case to write the entire assignment on a separate paper, which can only occur when prior assignments have filled entirely the blank space on the warrant, it must be so attached as to show unmistakably that the warrant assigned was in the hands of the party making the transfer. In such cases the signature of the assignor must be affixed in the presence of the officer before whom it is acknowledged, who must certify that at the date of the assignment the warrant was presented by and in possession of the assignor. (See Form No. 5.)

3. The same requirement must be observed in the preparation and acknowledgment of powers of attorney to sell or locate bounty-land warrants.

4. Blank assignments are void, and will not be recognized by this office. The name of an assignee should be written in the assignment before the warrant is sent to the local or General Land Office.

5. Each assignment must be attested by two subscribing witnesses; the mark of a witness will not be respected.

6. Parties in interest as assignees are not recognized as legal attesting witnesses to an assignment; neither can an officer take an acknowledgment of an assignment to himself.

7. The execution of assignments is required to be acknowledged by the assignor in the presence of a register or receiver of a land office, a judge or clerk of a court of record when authorized to take acknowledgments, a notary public, justice of the peace, a commissioner of deeds resident in the State from which he derives his appointment, or a commissioner of a circuit court of the United States, who shall certify to the fact of the acknowledgment and to the identity of the assignor; and the official seal of said court, notary public, or commissioner shall be affixed to the certificate. When the acknowledgment is taken before a justice of the peace or other officer without an official seal (except a register or receiver of a land office), it must be accompanied by an additional certificate under seal of the proper authority, establishing the official character of the person before whom the acknowledgment was made, and the genuineness of his signature. (See Form No. 15.)

Powers of attorney must be acknowledged in like manner.

8. Assignments executed by unmarried females must be accompanied by evidence that they have attained the age of twenty-one years; and when married women assign, their husbands must unite with them in making the transfer.

9. Assignments executed by a commissioner, or other designated person alleged to be acting under a decree of court, must be accompanied by a duly certified copy of such decree, in which all the proceedings had in the case should be recited, and from which it must appear that due notice of the pending suit had been given by publication or otherwise to all the parties interested.

10. Where two assignments exist, executed by the same party, but made in favor of different individuals, the person first named as assignee must execute a transfer in favor of the second grantee whether the assignment to him had been completed or not.

11. When the name of a person has been erroneously inserted in an assignment of a warrant and erased therefrom, there should be filed evidence satisfactory to this office consisting of an affidavit, duly authenticated, of the assignor or party or parties by whom said name was erroneously inserted and the erasure made, fully explaining the facts and circumstances of such insertion and erasure, and stating that no transfer or delivery of said warrant was made to the party whose name had been so erroneously inserted, and that the ownership or custody of said warrant had not been changed by such insertion, which affidavit shall be accompanied by satisfactory evidence that a copy of the same has been served personally or by registered letter upon the party whose name was erroneously inserted. When the name of a bona fide assignee has been erased from a transfer, an assignment from said assignee to the present holder of the warrant will be required to perfect the chain of title to the warrant.

12. When the assignment of a warrant is executed in a foreign country, and the acknowledgment thereof taken by an officer authorized by the laws thereof to perform such duties, the attestation of the American consul in such country should be obtained as to the official character and genuineness of the signature of the person before whom the acknowledgment of the said assignment was made; or if the official character, etc., of such foreign magistrate is attested by a consular agent of such foreign government residing in this country, his official character must be certified by the diplomatic representatives of such government in the United States. When such assignments are executed in a foreign language duly authenticated translations thereof must be furnished. Secretaries of legation and consular officers of the United States are authorized to take acknowledgments, but they must certify the same under their official seals.

13. When the persons named as warrantees are described in the warrant as being minors, their assignments thereof must be accompanied by satisfactory evidence that they had attained their majority at the date of the transfer.

14. When an assignment has been executed and witnessed, but not acknowledged, it may be proved in open court, but a certified transcript of the proceedings in the case must be attached to the warrant; when, however, such assignment has not been properly attested, it must be made anew.

15. When an assignment is made by an Indian residing among the whites, the prescribed form will be adopted with this single addition that the officer taking the acknowledgment shall certify that the Indian is capable of contracting, also the amount paid to him for the warrant, and that he saw the same paid to the Indian.

16. Where it is made by an Indian holding tribal relations, his identity and ability to contract must be certified by the Superintendent of Indian Affairs or Indian agent, either of his own knowledge or on the testimony of the chiefs certifying to the amount paid for said warrant; that the same was paid in his presence, and that the transaction was fair and regular. In either case, if the amount paid is not a fair consideration, the assignment will be disregarded.

17. Where a warrant for the services of an Indian is issued or descends to minors who no longer retain their tribal relations, it must be located or sold by a guardian duly appointed and authorized by the proper court for that purpose.

Where the minor or minors retain their tribal relations, the agent or superintendent must certify that they are entitled to the warrant under the laws, usages, and customs of the tribe; and when sold or located, that it was done by the guardian or such proper representative as, according to said laws, usages, and customs, was fully authorized.

In all cases where the signature of superintendent or Indian agent is herein required the genuineness of the signature of that officer must be attested by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

18. Prior to June 3, 1858, military land warrants were regarded as real estate; consequently a transfer of such warrant before that date by an administrator must be accompanied by evidence that the same was made in pursuance of an order of the court for the sale of the real estate of the decedent.

But by the act of June 3, 1858, which was reenacted by section 2444 of the Revised Statutes, bounty-land warrants were declared to be personal chattels, and as such to be assignable by the warrantees, by their widows in certain cases, by their heirs or devisees, or by the legal representatives of the deceased claimant "for the use of the heirs or legatees only."

It follows that the right to assign inures to the assignees of the vendors named above, and to their heirs, devisees, or legal representatives, but these latter are not required to assign "for the use of the heirs only."

19. Where a warrant has been issued in the name of a deceased soldier who had applied therefor before his death, the title thereto is declared by the said section 2444, Revised Statutes, to vest in the widow if there be one, and if there be no widow then in the heirs or legatees of the claimant.

20. If the claimant died and left a widow, who also was deceased before the issue of the warrant, then the title thereto vests in the heirs or legatees of the warrantee.

21. To make a warrant issued in the name of a deceased person available, it should be accompanied by a certificate under seal from the proper court having probate jurisdiction, showing the fact of the death of the warrantee at a specified date, and stating whether he left a widow, giving her name, if there was one. If there was no widow, the said certificate should state whether the warrantee died testate or intestate, and give the names of all his heirs at law, specifying such as are adults and such as are minors.

22. If it shall appear from such certificate that the warrantee died before the issue of the warrant and left a widow, the assignment of of such widow, her heirs or legal representatives, will be regarded as a sufficient conveyance of the title to the warrant.

23. If the warrantee died after the issue of the warrant, or if he died before such issue and left no widow, the title vests in his heirs at law or legatees.

24. If he died intestate, his heirs, shown to be such by the required certificate of court, may assign the warrant, the adults for themselves and the minors by their guardians, who shall file with the warrant a certified copy of their letters of guardianship or a certificate from the clerk of the proper court stating that such letters had been issued and that they were in force at the date of the assignment.

Or the administrator of the estate of the deceased warrantee who died intestate may assign the warrant "for the use of the heirs only," upon filing therewith a certified transcript of the letters of administration or a certificate from the clerk of the proper court that the said letters had been issued and that they were in force at the date of the assignment. (See Form No. 6.)

25. If the warrantee died testate a certified transcript of the will must accompany the warrant. If the will specifically disposes of the warrant the devisee or devisees may assign, if adults, in the usual form; if minors, by their guardians as aforesaid. If the will does not specifically dispose of the warrant, the executor of the estate of the warrantee may assign "for the use of the heirs or legatees only;" but in that case a certified transcript of the letters testamentary, or a certificate from the proper authority that such letters had been granted and were in force at the date of the assignment, must accompany the transfer. (See Form No. 8.)