I Am Strongly Tempted To Turn Farmer Myself, And Go Out And
Build Me A Cabin.
The speculation would be a good one.
But to acquire
a title by preemption I must dwell on the soil, and prove that I have
erected a dwelling and made other improvements. In other words, before
a man (or any head of a family) can get a patent, he must satisfy the
land officers that he is a dweller in good faith on the soil. It is
often the case, indeed, that men get a title by preemption who never
intend to live on their quarter section. But they do it by fraud. They
have a sort of mental reservation, I suppose, when they take the
requisite oaths. In this way many valuable claims are taken up and
held along from month to month, or from year to year, by mock
improvements. A pretender will make just improvements enough to hinder
the actual settler from locating on the claim, or will sell out to him
at a good profit. A good deal of money is made by these fictitious
claimants. It is rather hard to prevent it, too, inasmuch as it is
difficult to disprove that a man intends some time to have a permanent
home, or, in fact, that his claim is not his legal residence, though
his usual abiding place is somewhere else. Nothing could be more
delightful than for a party of young men who desire to farm to come
out together early in the spring, and aid each other in preempting
land in the same neighborhood. The preemptor has to pay about five
dollars in the way of fees before he gets through the entire process
of securing a title. It is a popular error (much like the opinion that
a man cannot swear to what he sees through glass) that improvements of
a certain value, say fifty dollars, are required to be made, or that a
certain number of acres must be cultivated. All that is required,
however, is evidence that the party has built a house fit to live in,
and has in good faith proceeded to cultivate the soil. The law does
not permit a person to preempt 160 acres but once; yet this provision
is often disregarded, possibly from ignorance, I was about to say, but
that cannot be, since the applicant must make oath that he has not
before availed himself of the right of preemption.
I will insert at this place an abridgment of the preemption act of 4th
September, 1841, which I made two years ago; and which was extensively
published in the new states and territories. I am happy to find, also,
that it has been thought worth copying into one or more works on the
West.
I. Lands subject to preemption. By sec. 10 of said act it is provided
that the public lands to which the Indian title had been extinguished
at the time of the settlement, and which had also been surveyed prior
thereto, shall be subject to preemption, and purchase at the rate of
one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. And by the act of 22d July,
1854, sec. 12, the preemption of unsurveyed lands is recognised as
legal. Lands of the following description are excepted: such as are
included in any reservation, by any treaty, law, or proclamation of
the President of the United States, or reserved for salines or for
other purposes; lands included within the limits of any incorporated
town, or which have been selected as the site for a city or town;
lands actually settled and occupied for the purposes of trade and not
agriculture; and lands on which are situated any known salines or
mines.
II. The amount designated is any number of acres not exceeding one
hundred and sixty.
III. Who may preempt. "Every person being the head of a family, or
widow, or single man over the age of twenty-one years, and being a
citizen of the United States, or having filed his declaration of
intention to become a citizen, as required by the naturalization
laws." But no person shall be entitled to more than one preemptive
right, and no person who is the proprietor of three hundred and twenty
acres of land in any state or territory of the United States, and no
person who shall quit or abandon his residence on his own land to
reside on the public land in the same state or territory, shall
acquire any right of preemption.
IV. The method to perfect the right. The preemptor must make a
settlement on the land in person; inhabit and improve the same, and
erect thereon a dwelling. And when the land has been surveyed previous
to settlement the preemptor shall, within thirty days of the date of
the settlement, file with the register of the proper district a
written statement describing the land settled upon, and declaring the
intention of such person to claim the same under the provisions of the
preemption law. And within twelve months of the date of the settlement
such person shall make the requisite proof, affidavit, and payment.
When unsurveyed lands are prompted (act of 1854), notice of the
specific tracts claimed shall be filed with the surveyor general,
within three months after the survey has been made in the field. And
when two or more persons shall have settled on the same quarter
section, the right of preemption shall be in him or her who made the
first settlement; and questions arising between different settlers
shall be decided by the register and receiver of the district within
which the land is situated, subject to an appeal to and revision by
the Secretary of the Interior of the United States.
And the settler must make oath before the receiver or register that he
or she has never had the benefit of any right of preemption under the
preemption act: that he or she is not the owner of three hundred and
twenty acres of land in any state or territory of the United States,
nor hath he or she settled upon and improved said land to sell the
same on speculation, but in good faith to appropriate it to his or her
own exclusive use or benefit:
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