OCR Text |
Show UNITED STATES LAND LAWS (Copyrighted 1!2 by Cola w'. Shepherd. Shep-herd. Colony, Wyoming) Section 228'.! of Lho Revised Statutes Stat-utes of the railed Strifes grants to n-rtufii qualified persons the right to make a homestead entry, and it has been held th:'.l this right is exhausted exhaust-ed whenever a person makes an entry which is allowed. Merely filing an ap-plicaiion ap-plicaiion for entry which is not allowed al-lowed by the register and receiver does not exhaust the right, for an entry en-try is not made until it is allowed by the local officers. There have been a number of laws passed at different times granting the right to make a second homestead home-stead entry to all who have lost, forfeited, for-feited, or abandoned a homestead entry. On September 5, 1914, Congress Con-gress passed a law granting the right to make a second homestead entry to nil who have lost, forfeited, or abandoned a former entry, provided they can show to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office that they lost, forfeited, or abandoned such former entry through no fault of their own. This is a very imperfect piece of legislation, and it is hard for the Department De-partment to carry its provisions Into effect without doing an injustice to many entrymen. Under present regulations regu-lations the method of procedure to obtain a second entry is to select the land upon which it is desired to file and make application for it on the regular form, accompanying the application ap-plication with "Application for Second Sec-ond Entry" which is a long affidavit by the applicant, corroborated by 2 witnesses having knowledge of the facts concerning the former entry. The approved form (4-007c) for this application for second entry requires (1) a description of the former entry by number, section, township and range; (2) a statement as to what examination entryman made of the land before filing; (31 a statement state-ment as to the residence, cultivation and improvements entryman made on such former entry; (4) a complete com-plete description of all improvements together with their cost; (5) date when former entry was abandoned and date of relinquishment, if one. was made, together with name ot person to whom delivered; (6) statement state-ment as to consideration received for relinquishment, abandonment, or improvements, im-provements, and if improvements were sold the relation of such sale to the relinquisrment must he shown; (7) a statement of such other facts as will tend to show whether or not the applicant lost, forfeited, or aban-dened aban-dened such former entry through nc fault of bis. This second entry affidavit must be executed by the applicant before some qualified proof-taking officer in the same land district as the land which is sought to be entered, but it may be executed by the corroborating corroborat-ing witnesses, at any place and before be-fore any officer who is qualified to admtsister oaths and who uses a seal. When the application for second entry is filed together with an application appli-cation for the entry of specific tract of land, the application is suspended by the register and receiver of the local land office and the application for second entry is sent to Washington Washing-ton for action by the Geeral Land Office. Of-fice. It takes all the way from, six months to two or three years for such an application to be acted upon, depending largely upon the amount of work before the General Land OfR ce. during which time the land is held from entry or other disposal, and If the application for second entry is allowed the entry dates back to the time it was originally filed. There is no objection to the applicant ap-plicant going onto the land while this application for second entry is pending, pend-ing, but if such application should he rejected the applicant would lose whatever time and labor he had put on the land, as his having settled on the land prior to allowance of th. entry would not give him any right to it if his application were rejected. Formerly it was held that a person who had merely filed an application for second entry did not have an original ori-ginal entry and therefore could not make an additional entry, but this ruling has been reversed and now it is possible for an applicant to file an application for an additional entry under the enlarged or stock-raising, homestead law while his application for second entry is pending. In many cases the application for such additional addi-tional entry is filed the same day as the application for second entry. - |