There are two classes of public lands subject to entry; one at $1.25 per acre, known as minimum, and one at $2.50, known as double minimum, the latter being the alternate sections along the lines of railroads. Title may be acquired by purchase at public sale, or by “private entry,” and in virtue of the Pre-emption and Homestead Laws. At Public Sale.—Lands are offered at auction to the highest bidder, pursuant to proclamation or public notice.
Private Entry.—Lands subject to private entry, are those which have been once offered at public sale without finding purchasers. In order to acquire title to these lands, a written application must be made to the Land Register of the District in which the land is located, describing the tract desired. The Register certifies the fact to the Receiver, stating price, and the applicant then pays the money and takes a receipt, and at the[327] close of the month the Register and Receiver make return of the sale to the General Land Office, when a patent or full title issues on due surrender of the receipt, and will be delivered at the option of the purchaser, at the General Land Office in Washington, or by the Register at the District Land Office.
Land Warrants.—When lands are to be located with land warrants, application must be made as in cash cases, accompanied by an assigned warrant. When the tract is $2.50 per acre, $1.25 per acre must be paid in addition to the warrant. Receipts are given and patents delivered, as in the preceding case. At the time of location, a fee of 50 cents for a 40 acre warrant, and a corresponding amount for larger ones, must be paid to the Register, and a like sum to the Receiver.
Agricultural College Scrip.—This may be used in the location of lands at private entry, but is only applicable to lands subject to entry at $1.25 per acre, and is restricted to a technical “quarter section,” and to three sections in each township of land. The proceeding to acquire title is the same as in cash and warrant cases, the fees being the same as on warrants. This scrip may be used in payment of pre-emption claims.
Pre-emption.—Any person being the head of a family, or widow, or single man over 21 years of age, and a citizen of the United States, or a person who has filed his declaration to become such, by settling upon and improving any of the “offered,” “unoffered,” or unsurveyed lands of the United States, may obtain a pre-emption right to purchase 160 acres so occupied, at the regular government price, whether it be $1.25 or $2.50 per acre. Where the tract is “offered” land, the settler must file with the District Land Office his statement as to the fact of settlement, within thirty days thereafter, and within one year must make proof to the Land Office, of his actual residence and cultivation, and secure the land by payment in cash or Land Warrant. Where the land has been surveyed and not offered at public sale, the statement must be filed within three months after settlement, and payment made within 21 months. Where settlement is made upon unsurveyed[328] lands, the settler is required to file a statement within three months after the survey, and pay within eighteen months thereafter. No person is entitled to more than one pre-emption right.
The Homestead Privilege.—The Homestead laws give to every citizen the right to a Homestead of 160 acres minimum, or eighty acres double minimum. To obtain Homestead, applicant must swear that he is the head of a family, or over the age of twenty-one, a citizen, or has declared his intention to become such; and that the entry is for his exclusive use and benefit, and for actual settlement and cultivation. When an applicant has made actual settlement upon the land he desires, he must make affidavit of the fact before the Land Register, and pay fees amounting, on 160 acres of minimum land, to $18, or an equal sum for eighty acres of double minimum, for which he gets a receipt; and after five years’ occupation and cultivation of the land, he is entitled upon proof of such cultivation to a patent or full title to the Homestead. Any loyal person in the naval or military service of the United States, may acquire a Homestead by reason of his family occupying land and making the application in his stead. All officers, soldiers, and sailors who have served in the army or navy for ninety days and remained loyal, may enter 160 instead of 80 acres of double minimum lands. The fees above for entering Homestead apply to surveyed lands in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. In California, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, Washington Territory, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana, the fees are $22 instead of $18. A settler having filed a pre-emption declaration, may change his filing into Homestead, and receive the benefit of the Homestead laws. If a Homestead settler does not wish to remain five years on his land before obtaining title, he may pay for it in cash or Land Warrants. Lands obtained under the Homestead laws are[329] exempt from liability for debts contracted prior to the issuing of the patent.
United States Land Offices are located at Fort Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Fort Dodge and Sioux City, Iowa; Menasha, Falls of St. Croix, Stevens’ Point, La Crosse, Bayfield and Eau Claire, Wisconsin; San Francisco, Marysville, Humboldt, Stockton, Visalia, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, California; West Point, Beatrice, Lincoln, Dakota City, and Grand Island, Nebraska; Taylor’s Falls, St. Cloud, Du Luth, Alexandria, Jackson, New Ulm, and Litchfield, Minnesota; Oregon City, Roseburg, and Le Grand, Oregon; Topeka, Junction City, Humboldt, and Augusta, Kansas; Carson City, Austin, Belmont, and Aurora, Nevada; Vermilion, Springfield, and Pembina, Dakota; Denver City, Fair Play, and Central City, Colorado; Boonville, Ironton, and Springfield, Missouri; Mobile, Huntsville, and Montgomery, Alabama; New Orleans, Monroe, Natchiloches, Louisiana; Detroit, East Saginaw, Iona, Marquette, and Traverse City, Michigan; Little Rock, Washington, and Clarksville, Arkansas; Boise City, and Lewiston, Idaho; Chillicothe, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; Springfield, Illinois; Jackson, Mississippi; Tallahassee, Florida; Olympia, and Vancouver, Washington Territory; Helena, Montana; Prescott, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah.
PRE-EMPTION LAWS.
 
A pre-emption right is the right of a squatter upon the lands of the United States to purchase, in preference to others, when the land is sold. Such right is granted to the following persons: Any citizen of the United States; any person who has filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen; any head of a family; any widow; any single woman of the age of twenty-one years or over; and any person who has made a settlement, erected a dwelling-house upon, and is an inhabitant of the tract sought to be entered—provided such settlement was made since June 1, 1840, and previously to the time of application for the land, which land must, at the date of the[330] settlement, have had the Indian title extinguished, and been surveyed by the United States.
A person bringing himself within the above requirements by proof satisfactory to the Register and Receiver of the land district in which the land may lie, taken pursuant to the rules hereafter prescribed, will, after having taken the affidavit required by the Act, be entitled to enter, by legal subdivisions, any number of acres, not exceeding one hundred and sixty, or a quarter-section, to include his residence; and he may avail himself of the same at any time prior to the day of the commencement of the public sale, including said tract, where the land has not yet been proclaimed.
Where the land was subject to private entry, June 1, 1840, and a settlement shall thereafter be made upon such land, or where the land shall become hereafter subject to private entry, and after that period a settlement shall be made, which the settler is desirous of securing, notice of such intention must be given within thirty days after such settlement; and, in all such cases, the proof, affidavit and payment must be made within twelve months after such settlement.
The tracts liable to entry are embraced under the following designations: First, a regular quarter-section, notwithstanding the quantity may vary a few acres from one hundred and sixty; or a quarter-section, which, though fractional in quantity by the passage of a navigable stream through the same, is still bounded by regular sectional and quarter-sectional lines; second, a fractional section containing not over one hundred and sixty acres, or any tract being a detached or anomalous survey made pursuant to law, and not exceeding such quantity; third, two adjoining half-quarter-sections (in all cases to be separated by a north and south line, except on the north side of township, where the surveys are so made as to throw the excess or deficiency on the north and west sides of the township), of the regular quarters mentioned in the first designation; fourth, two half-quarter or eighty-acre subdivisions of a fractional or broken section, adjoining each other, the aggregate quantity[331] not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres; fifth, a regular half-quarter and an adjoining fractional section, or an adjoining half-quarter subdivision of a fractional section, the aggregate quantity not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres; sixth, if the pre-emptor do not wish to enter one hundred and sixty acres, he may enter a single half-quarter section (made by a north and south line), or an eighty-acre subdivision of a fractional section; seventh, one or more adjoining forty-acre lots may be entered, the aggregate not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres; and, eighth, a regular half-quarter, a half-quarter subdivision, or a fractional section, may each be taken, with one or more forty-acre subdivisions lying adjoin............