Chapter 155. To establish and provide for the government of Greer County, Oklahoma, and for other purposes
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CHAP. 155.— An Act To establish and provide for the government of Greer County, Oklahoma, and for other purposes.May 4, 1896. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,* That the portion of the Territory Greer County, Okla., organized. of Oklahoma bounded by the North Fork of the Red River and the State of Texas, heretofore known as Greer County, Texas, be, and the same is hereby, established as Greer County of Oklahoma, with Mangum as the county seat.
The present county officers of said county shall be County officers. continued in office until the first Tuesday of November, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, or until their successors are elected and qualified, 114FIFTY-FOURTH CONGRESS. Sess. I. Ch. 155. 1896. at an election to be held on the said first Tuesday of November, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, as provided by the laws of the Territory of Oklahoma. All provisions of law applicable to the organization Oklahoma laws applicable.
Vol. 26, p. 81. and government of counties in Oklahoma shall forthwith be applied by the proper officers thereof to said Greer County, the intention being to provide without delay the same organized government for said Greer as for the other counties of Oklahoma. All public buildings and property Transfer of public property. of every description heretofore belonging to Greer County, Texas, or used in the administration of the public business thereof is hereby declared to be the property of said Greer County, Oklahoma, and the officers thereof shall, as soon as appointed, take immediate charge and custody thereof; and all school property in said county shall become the property of the respective school districts in which the same are situated.
Sec. 2. That all proceedings and actions of every kind in or before Judicial proceedings in Texas courts binding. the several courts and officers of Greer County, Texas, shall have the same force and effect as if said courts and officers had been legally authorized courts and officers of the United States or of the Territory of Oklahoma, and the courts of said Territory having jurisdiction of similar matters shall make and issue all orders and writs necessary to enforce the orders, decrees, and final judgments of said courts and officers of Texas.
Sec. 3. That all suits which were pending in the several courts of Transfer of pending suits. said Greer County, Texas, on March sixteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, as shown by the dockets thereof, shall be entered upon the dockets of the courts of Oklahoma having jurisdiction of like cases, and the same shall proceed as if they had been brought in said courts of Oklahoma. Where an appeal or writ of error has been taken from a judgment in any civil or criminal case rendered by any of said courts of Greer County, Texas, to any other court of Texas, the judgment of such appellate court shall be binding upon all parties to such case, and upon the filing of a certified copy thereof in the court of Oklahoma having jurisdiction of like cases, it shall be the duty of such court to enter the same upon its minutes and proceed in said action in all respects as though it had rendered the original judgment therein.
All rights in the cases mentioned in this section shall be determined by the law of Texas applicable to the act or transaction involved, and the courts shall take judicial notice of such law for that purpose. When any judgment affirmed by any such appellate court provides for imprisonment, such imprisonment shall be in such place as the proper court of Oklahoma shall designate. Sec. 4. That all records, minutes, and files of any of the courts and Court records, etc. officers mentioned in section two of this Act shall be preserved and kept by the proper courts and officers of Oklahoma, and they, or certified copies thereof, shall be competent evidence.
All written contracts, Contracts, etc., filed. conveyances, mortgages, liens, or other instruments which have been heretofore filed or recorded in said Greer County, in conformity with the laws of Texas, shall be held and considered to have been legally filed or recorded, and it shall not be necessary again to file or record them. And all interests, rights, titles, and estates, conveyed, limited, encumbered, or in any wise affected by any contract, lien, conveyance, mortgage, or other instrument, or by any judgment or decree of any court of Texas of competent jurisdiction, and all judgments of said courts, Validation of judgments, etc., of State courts prior to March 16, 1896. civil and criminal, prior in date to March sixteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, shall have the same force and effect, in all respects, as if said Greer County had legally formed a part of the territory of the State of Texas up to March sixteenth, eighteen hundred and ninety-six, and had upon that date been lawfully ceded by Texas to the United States with a reservation and ratification of all existing rights and liabilities according to the laws of Texas.
Approved, May 4, 1896.