Act of June 16, 1880-Repayments. The following are the essential sections of this act: AN ACT for the relief of certain settlers on the public lands, and to provide for the repayment of certain fees, purchase money and commissions, paid on void entries of public lands. In all cases where it shall, upon due proof being made, appear to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior that innocent parties have paid the fees and commissions and excess payments required upon the location of claims under the soldiers' and sailors' homestead act, which said claims were, after such location, found to be fraudulent and void, and the entries or locations made thereon canceled, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to repay to such innocent parties the fees and commissions, and excess payments paid by them, upon the surrender of the receipts issued therefor by the receivers of public moneys, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and shall be payable out of the appropriation to refund purchase-money on lands erroneously sold by the United States. SEC. 2. In all cases where homestead or timber culture or desert-land entries or other entries of public lands have heretofore or shall hereafter be canceled for conflict, or where, from any cause, the entry has been erroneously allowed and cannot be confirmed, the Secretary of the Interior shall cause to be repaid to the person who made such entry, or to his heirs or assigns, the fees and commissions, amount of purchase money, and excesses paid upon the same, upon the surrender of the duplicate receipt and the execution of a proper relinquishment of all claims to said land, whenever such entry shall have been duly canceled by the Commissioner of the General Land Office; and in all cases where parties have paid double minimum price for land which has afterwards been found not to be within the limits of a railroad land grant, the excess of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre shall in like manner be repaid to the purchaser thereof, or to his heirs or assigns. An application for repayment is, in effect, an abandonment or waiver of a pending appeal(1). An entry of land reported valuable for coal prior to act of March 3, 1883, and not subsequently offered, is an entry "erroneously allowed," for which repayment may be accorded in the absence of bad faith on the part of the entryman(1). A timber land entry made on proof prematurely submitted is an entry "erroneously allowed," for which repayment may be accorded. Under an entry thus allowed the applicant should not be required to test his right to enter the tract as against an intervening adverse claim(2). Repayment will be allowed under act of June 16, 1880, where a second and therefore illegal homestead entry was made through ignorance of the law(3). Where there is no concealment or attempt at fraud, and the local office holds the proof sufficient, repayment should be allowed, if the entry is subsequently canceled for the insufficiency of said proof('). Repayment allowed of money paid for land inadvertently patented so as to defeat applicant's entry(5). Repayment allowed on patented entry where title is decreed in another(*). ()Michael Shannon, Land Owner, V. 16, p. 238. (4)Peter F. Bingham, Land Owner, V. 16, p. 216. (3)F. E. Habersham, Land Owner, V. 16, p. 223. (5) Farmer Moore, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1222. (3)D. B. Snody, Land Owner, V. 10, p. 10. (")T. C. Forbes, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1220. Repayment allowed of money paid for land in excess of area(1). Repayment allowed on desert entry for lands subsequently discovered to be non-irrigable(1). Where, in desert entry, the land at date of original entry was double minimum, but at final entry had been reduced, repayment of 25 cents excess not allowed, but is credited on final payment(3). Allowed in double minimum excess on entries when $2.50 was paid, after reduction of price(*). Refused of double minimum excess on lands within granted limits, but excluded from grant(). Not made where parties voluntarily relinquish (®). Not allowed to homesteader who has commuted, with privilege of submitting ordinary homestead proof().. A contest with the Government on allegation of fraud is not a contest with adverse claims, and cannot be brought within the act of June 16, 1880, allowing repayment for erroneous entries(8). Not allowed of money deposited with receiver in his individual capacity("). Not made where entry can be confirmed(1). Refused where patent has rightfully issued("). Repayment can not be allowed where the entry is canceled for the reason that was procured on false testimony(12). Act of June 8, 1880-Insane Claimants. AN ACT to provide for issuing patents where the claimants have become insane. In all cases in which parties who regularly initiated claims to public lands as settlers thereon according to the provisions of the pre-emption or homestead laws, have become insane or shall hereafter become insane before the expiration of the time during which their residence, cultivation, or improvement of the land claimed by them is required by law to be continued in order to entitle them to make the proper proof and perfect their claims, it shall be lawful for the required proof and payment to be made for their benefit, by any person who may be legally authorized to act for them during their disability; and thereupon their claims shall be confirmed and patented, provided it shall be shown by proof satisfactory to the Commissioner of the General Land Office that the parties complied in good faith with the legal requirements up to the time of their becoming insane, and the requirement in homestead entries of an affidavit of allegiance by the applicant in certain cases as a pre-requisite to the issuing of the patents shall be dispensed with so far as regards such insane parties. REGULATIONS UNDER THE ABOVE ACT. This act applies only to pre-emption and homestead claims. Such claims must have been initiated in full compliance with law, by persons who had declared their intentions to become citizens, and were in other respects duly qualified. (8)Thomas Guineau, Land Owner, V. 9, p. 153. (1)W. J. Chambers, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1222. (7)August Polzin, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1229. ()A. R. Burdick, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1219. (3)Joseph Adler, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1235. (4)Texas Pacific Grant, Copp's Land Laws, p. (1)A. W. Givens, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1217. 1233. (1)Abraham Hays, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1239. () Wm. P. MaClay, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1232. (12)Michael Lydon, Land Owner, V. 17, p. 56. ()W. E. Creary, Copp's Land Laws, p. 1217. The party for whose benefit the act shall be invoked must have become insane subsequent to the initiation of his claim, and the act will not be construed to cure a failure to comply with the law, when such failure occurred prior to such insanity. If such claimant is shown to have complied with the law up to the time of becoming insane, final proof will not be received in homestead cases until the expiration of five years from the date of the original entry, but proof of residence and cultivation will be required to cover only the period prior to such insanity. If a claimant becomes insane after expiration of the period of residence, etc., the act will be construed to permit his guardian to act for him within the time in which he might have made final entry himself. The final proof must be made by a party whose authority to act for the insane person during such disability shall be duly certified under seal of the proper probate court, and no proof of citizenship, except of declaration of intention to become a citizen will be required. Act of March 3, 1881-Climatic Reasons. AN ACT to amend section two thousand two hundred and ninety-seven of the Revised Statutes relating to homestead settlers. Where there may be climatic reasons, the Commissioner of the General Land Office may, in his discretion, allow the settler twelve months from the date of filing in which to commence his residence on said land, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe. REGULATIONS UNDER THE ABOVE ACT. At the expiration of six months from date of entry, the homestead party who has not been able to establish a bona fide residence upon the homestead, owing to climatic reasons, must file with the register and receiver his affidavit, duly corroborated by two credible witnesses, giving in detail the storms, floods, blockades by snow or ice, or other climatic causes which rendered it impossible for him to commence residence within six months. It will be insisted in each case that the claimant shall exercise all reasonable diligence in establishing bona fide residence as soon as possible after the climatic hindrances have disappeared; and a failure to do so would imperil the entry in the event of a contest prior to the expiration of one year from date of entry. A claimant cannot be allowed the latitude of twelve months, when it can be shown that he could have established his residence on the land at an earlier day. To the end that proper data may be placed on file, you [the register and receiver] will require each settler who seeks the remedy which said act accords to furnish a supplemental corroborated affidavit as soon as residence is established by him, giving date of the completion of his house, its probable value, and the date of commencing residence therein. The affidavits called for should be acknowledged as in homestead proof, before' a judge or clerk of the court of the county in which the claimant resides, or before a district land officer. Leave of Absence-Act of March 2, 1889. SEC. 3. That whenever it shall be made to appear to the register and receiver of any public land office, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe, that any settler upon the public domain under existing law is unable by reason of a total or partial destruction or failure of crops, sickness, or other unavoidable casualty, to secure a support for himself, herself, or those dependent upon him or her, upon the lands settled upon, then such register and receiver may grant to such a settler a leave of absence from the claim upon which he or she has filed for a period not exceeding one year at any one time, and such settler so granted leave of absence shall forfeit no rights by reason of such absence: Provided, That the time of such actual absence shall not be deducted from the actual residence required by law. The third section provides for permission to be granted in certain cases by the register and receiver of the proper district land office for parties claiming public land as settlers under existing laws to leave and be absent from the land settled upon for a specified period, not to exceed one year at any one time. The applicant for such permission will be required to submit testimony to consist of his own affidavit, corroborated by the affidavits of disinterested witnesses, executed before the register or receiver or some officer in the land district using a seal and authorized to administer oaths, setting forth in detail the facts on which he relies to support his application, and which must be sufficient to satisfy the register and receiver, who are enjoined to exercise their best and most careful judgment in the matter, that he is unable by reason of a total or partial destruction or failure of crops, sickness or other unavoidable casualty to secure a support for himself or those dependent upon him upon the land settled upon. In case a leave of absence is granted, the register and receiver will enter such action on their records, indieating the period for which granted, and promptly report the fact to this office, transmitting the testimony on which their action is based. In case of refusal the applicant will be allowed the right of appeal on the usual conditions. "The year's absence or any absence allowed under said act must not be counted in favor of claimant, or as any portion of the residence required by the homestead law" (1). An Act to Amend Act of March 2, 1889. AN ACT to amend section three of an Act to withdraw certain public lands from private entry, and for other purposes, approved March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine. Be it enacted, etc., That section three of the said Act of March second, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, be amended by adding thereto the following provision: That if any such settler has heretofore forfeited his or her entry for any of said reasons, such person shall be permitted to make entry of not to exceed a quarter section on any public land subject to entry under the homestead law, and to perfect title to the same under the same conditions in every respect as if he had not made the former entry. Approved, December 29, 1894. (1)W. D. Harlan, Land Owner, V. 16, p. 199. CHAPTER IV. MISCELLANEOUS. I. Townsites. The President is authorized to reserve from the public lands, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, townsites on the shores of harbors, at the junction of rivers, important portages, or any natural or prospective centers of population. There are two methods of taking and entering public lands as townsites. The. inethod now used is as follows: In case the town is incorporated, the corporate authorities thereof, and, if not incorporated, the judge of the county court for the county in which the town is situated, may enter at the proper United States land office, and at the minimum price of $1.25 per acre, the land so settled and occupied for townsite purposes, in trust for the occupants thereof, according to their respective interests; the execution of which trust, as to the disposal of the lots in the town, and the proceeds of the sales thereof, to be conducted under such regulations as may be prescribed by the legislature of the State or Territory in which the same may be situated. The entry of the land must be made, or a declaratory statement of the purpose of the inhabitants to enter it as a townsite must be filed with the register of the proper land office, prior to the commencement of the public sale of the body of land in which it is included, and the entry or declaratory statement must include only such land as is actually occupied by the town, and the title to which is in the United States; but in any Territory in which a land office may not have been established, such declaratory statements may be filed with the surveyor-general of the surveying district in which the lands are situated, who shall transmit the same to the General Land Office. Where the number of inhabitants is one hundred and less than two hundred, not exceeding three hundred and twenty acres can be embraced in an entry; where the population is more than two hundred and less than one thousand, not exceeding six hundred and forty acres; and where the inhabitants number one thousand and over, not exceeding twelve hundred and eighty acres; and for each additional one thousand inhabitants, not exceeding five thousand in all, a further grant of three hundred and twenty acres is allowed. If upon surveyed lands, the entry shall in its exterior limits be made in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands authorized by law. When it is desired to enter a townsite found upon the unsurveyed public lands, a written application should be presented to the surveyor-general of the proper district for a survey, and the amount estimated by him as sufficient to cover the said cost and expenses must be deposited with any Assistant United States Treaserer or designated depositary in favor of the United States Treasurer, the depositor taking a duplicate certificate of deposit, one to be filed with the surveyor-general, and the other retained by the depositor. On receiving such certificate, showing that the requisite sum has been deposited in a proper manner to pay for the work, the surveyor-general will transmit to the register and receiver of the district land office his certificate of such payment having been made, and will contract with a competent United States deputy surveyor, and have the survey 85 |