Chapter 153. To amend section twenty-two hundred and ninety-one and section twenty-two hundred and ninety-seven of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to homesteads
975 words·~4 min read·
/statutes-at-large/vol-37/chapter-153-663555·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
CHAP. 153.— An Act To amend section twenty-two hundred and ninety-one and section twenty-two hundred and ninety-seven of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to homesteads. June 6, 1912.[[S. 3367](/us/bill/62/s/3367).][[Public, No. 179](/us/62/pl/179).] *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled*, Public lands.Homestead entries*Post*, p. 925. That section twenty-two hundred and ninety-one and section twenty-two hundred and ninety-seven of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended to read as follows:
" “Sec. 2291. No certificate, however, shall be given or patent issuedPatent to issue on proof of three years’ residence, etc.[R. S., sec. 2291, p. 420, amended](/us/rs/s2291/p420). therefor until the expiration of three years from the date of such entry; and if at the expiration of such time, or at any time within two years thereafter, the person making such entry, or if he be dead his widow, or in case of her death his heirs or devisee, or in case of a widow making such entry her heirs or devisee, in case of her death, proves by himself and by two credible witnesses that he, she, or they have a habitable house upon the. land and have actually resided upon and cultivated the same for the term of three years succeeding the time of filing the affidavit, and makes affidavit that no part of such land has been alienated, except as provided in section twenty-two hundredTransfers for public purposes.[R.
S., sec. 2288, p. 419](/us/rs/s2288/p419). and eighty-eight, and that he, she, or they will bear true allegiance to the Government of the United States, then in such case he, she, or they, if at that time citizens of the United States, shall be entitled to a patent, as in other cases provided by law: *Provided*, That upon*Provisos*.Leaves of absence allowed. filing in the local land office notice of the beginning of such absence, the entryman shall be entitled to a continuous leave of absence from the land for a period not exceeding five months in each year after establishing residence, and upon the termination of such absence the entryman shall file a notice of such termination in the local land office, but in case of commutation the fourteen months’ actual residenceCommutation. as now required by law must be shown, and the person commuting must be at the time a citizen of the United States: *Provided*, ThatProof required if entryman dies. when the person making entry dies before the offer of final proof those succeeding to the entry must show that the entryman had complied with the law in all respects to the date of his death and that124they have since complied with the law in all respects, as would have been required of the entryman had he lived, excepting that they are relieved from any requirement of residence upon the land: *Provided further*, That the entryman shall, in order to complyArea of cultivation required yearly. with the requirements of cultivation herein provided for, cultivate not less than one-sixteenth of the area of his entry, beginning with the second year of the entry, and not less than one-eighth, beginning with the third year of the entry, and until final proof, except thatFor enlarged homesteads.Vol. 35. p. 640. in the case of entries under section six of the enlarged-homestead law double the area of cultivation herein provided shall be required, but the Secretary of the Interior may, upon a satisfactory showing, under rules and regulations prescribed by him, reduce the required area of cultivation: *Provided*, That the above provision as to cultivationNebraska arid land and irrigation entries.Vol. 33, p. 547.Vol. 32, p. 338. shall not apply to entries under the Act of April twenty-eighth, nineteen hundred and four, commonly known as the Kinkaid Act, or entries under the Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, commonly known as the reclamation Act, and that the provisions of this section relative to the homestead period shall apply to all unperfected entries as well as entries hereafter madeNotice of law to entrymen. upon which residence is required: *Provided*, That the Secretary of the Interior shall, within sixty days after the passage of this Act, send a copy of the same to each homestead entryman of record who may he affected thereby, by ordinary mail to his last known address, and any such entryman may, by giving notice within one hundred and twenty days after the passage of this Act, by registered letter to the register and receiver of the local land office, elect to make proof upon his entry under the law under which the same was made without regard to the provisions of this Act.
” “Sec. 2297. If, at any time after the filing of the affidavit asLand to revert on failure to establish residence, etc.[R. S., sec. 2297, p. 421, amended](/us/rs/s2297/p421). required in section twenty-two hundred and ninety and before the expiration of the three years mentioned in section twenty-two hundred and ninety-one, it is proved, after due notice to the settler, to the satisfaction of the register of the land office that the person having filed such affidavit has failed to establish residence within six months after the date of entry, or abandoned the land for more than six months at any time, then and in that event the land so entered shall revert to the Government: *Provided*, That the three years’*Provisos*.Beginning of residence. period of residence herein fixed shall date from the time of establishing actual permanent residence upon the land: *And provided further*, That where there may be climatic reasons, sickness, or other unavoidableExtension permitted. cause, 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.
” " Approved, June 6, 1912.