Chapter II. to grant the Right of Preemption to certain Purchasers and Settlers on the “Maison Rouge Grant,” in the Event of the final Adjudication of the Title in Favor of the United States
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Chap. II.— An Act to grant the Right of Preemption to certain Purchasers and Settlers on the “Maison Rouge Grant,” in the Event of the final Adjudication of the Title in Favor of the United States.Jan. 27, 1851. *Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Certain purchasers under the Maison Rouge Grant authorized, in case the title of the United States is confirmed, to enter the land purchased by them.1844, ch. 95. United States of America in Congress assembled,* That in the event of a final adjudication by the court in favor of the United States, on the “Maison Rouge Grant,” under the act of Congress, approved seventeenth June, eighteen hundred and forty-four, entitled “An Act to provide for the adjustment of land claims within the States of Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana, and in those parts of the States of Mississippi and Alabama south of the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and between the Mississippi and Perdido Rivers,” every person, his heirs, or legal representatives, who, prior to the first March, eighteen hundred and forty-nine, purchased land in good faith, and for a valuable consideration, from Daniel W.
Coxe, or other persons holding titles derived under the said Maison Rouge Grant, on the Ouachita River, in the State of Louisiana, and who has improved and cultivated the land so purchased, or any part of it, shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to enter, with the register of the land office for the district in which said land may be, as nearly as practicable by legal subdivisions, the whole or any portion of the tract or tracts so purchased, to include the residence and improvement, upon paying to the United States the minimum price of public lands.
Sec. 2. *And be it further enacted,* That in the event of such Notice to be given of such right of preemption. final adjudication, it shall be the duty of the register of the proper district to publish a notice of the fact in some newspaper circulating in the vicinity of the land, with a declaration of the readiness of the land office to receive preemption applications under this act, and thereupon every person claiming a right of preemption under this act shall be allowed twelve months within which to enter and pay for the Twelve months allowed to enter and pay. land so claimed, from and after the date of the first public advertisement, and in conformity with such instructions as may be given by the commissioner of the general land office: *Provided,* That notice, Proviso as to notice of intention. specifying the particular tracts so claimed, shall be given within three months after such first advertisement, to the register, of the intention of the claimant to make such purchase of the United States, and that 565THIRTY-FIRST CONGRESS.
Sess. II. Ch. 6, 7, 8. 1851.566 no sale or entry shall be permitted to land within the limits of the aforesaid Maison Rouge claim until the expiration of the aforesaid three months, and the lands embraced in the aforesaid notices or preemption applications shall not be liable to sale to other persons as public lands, unless, after the expiration of the aforesaid term of twelve months, it shall be found that no preemption under this act shall have been established to the same.
Sec. 3. *And be it further enacted,* That if the residence and improvements Provision for the case of two persons entitled to enter the same subdivision. of two or more persons entitled to preemption as aforesaid shall be found on any one of the smallest legal subdivisions of the public lands, the same may be entered jointly by the parties in order that they may secure and divide the same, according to their several rights, and in default of one or more of the parties taking the proper steps within the time prescribed, to secure the benefit of this act, it shall be lawful for any one of the parties of this class to make the entry of the whole of such legal subdivision for his sole benefit.
Approved, January 27, 1851.