No. 652. VIII. CERTIFIED COPIES. CIRCULAR. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, July 20, 1875. Annexed are the laws (Revised Statutes of the United States) relative to the powers and duties of the General Land-Office in furnishing exemplifications of patents, papers, or plats on file or of record therein; of the legal force and effect of such certified copies, and the terms upon which the same can be procured. With a view to give proper effect to said statutes, the following requirements are prescribed by direction of the Secretary of the Interior. First.-All copies which may be required by parties interested will be furnished when the cost thereof shall first have been paid to the General Land-Office. Second. The applicant must address a communication to the Commissioner of the General Land-Office designating the tract or tracts in regard to which the verified transcripts are wanted, describing as accurately as possible the record, papers, or plats of which said transcripts are desired, and sending a sum of money quite sufficient to cover the cost according to the extent of the copying required; and should the sum sent to this Office be in excess of the actual legal cost, such excess will be returned to the applicant. The following is the tariff established under the statute, section 461, for furnishing transcripts, to wit: 1st. Fifteen (15) cents for every hundred words in a transcript. 2d. Two (2) dollars for copy of township plat or diagram. 3d. One (1) dollar for the Commissioner's certificate of verification and official seal. 4th. One (1) dollar for appending such certificate and seal to official certificates of approval of assignment of bounty-land warrants or military bounty-land scrip. Third-Upon the receipt at the General Land-Office of the application particularly describing the record or paper of which transcripts are required, accompanied by the requisite amount to cover the expense, the same will be duly acknowledged, and the exemplifications promptly transmitted. S. S. BURDETT, Commissioner. IX. POSTING RETURNS AND FILING DUPLICATE RE No. 653. CEIPTS. RULES FOR POSTING RETURNS FROM THE DISTRICT LAND OFFICES. The sales and locations must be posted in the chronological and numerical order in which they are made, and, in posting returns for each consecutive month, the following order will be observed: 1st. The Pre-emption Declarations filed during the month are to be posted in lead pencil, in a fine, neat, legible hand, at the proper place in Tract Books, but between the ruled lines, so as not to be obliterated by, or to interfere with, the entry of the sale of the land upon the claim being consummated. The description of the tracts must be given, with name of the claimant, number of the declaration, date of settlement, and date when filed. 2d. State selections, with red ink, giving date of act, date of selection and number of list; also, when approved, noting that fact on the record and on the list. 3d. Railroad selections, with red ink, giving date of grant, date of selection and number of list; also note, when approved, the date of approval, on the list and on the record. 4th. The cash sales are next to be entered in a plain, neat hand, with black ink. Before posting these sales, however, the Register's and Receiver's returns must be carefully compared with each other to see they agree in every respect. When the sale is entered in Tract Books, the volume and page where posted must be entered in the column designed for that purpose on the Register's Abstract of Sales. The volume and page should also be noted on the back of each certificate of purchase, near the lower edge. 5th. Military Warrant locations, and Agricultural College Scrip locations, are next to be posted in red ink; and in all cases the description of the land, number of the warrant or scrip, and date of location, must be given, with the name of the locator, the date of the act under which the warrant or scrip was issued, and Register's and Receiver's number, and on the abstract of locations the volume and page where posted must be entered. The volume and page should also be noted on the back of the certificate of location. 6th. Homestead entries are to be posted same as cash entries according to rule four, noting in the margin the word "Home." 7th. Where a certificate of purchase or location calls for two or more tracts in different sections, the tracts in each section must be entered in the appropriate place, referring to the section where the entire sale is posted. For example: if the certificate calls for the N. W. of the N. W. of section 6, T. 40, R. 9 W., and the N. E. of Sec. 1, T. 40, R. 10 W., and the E. of the S. E. of Sec. 36, T. 41 N., R. 10 W., it must be entered thus: N. W. of N. W. 4 of Sec. 6, T. 40, R. 9 W., sold-see Sec. 36, T. 41 N., R. 10 W. N. E. of Sec. 1, T 40, R. 10 W., sold-see Sec. 36, T. 41 N., R. 10 W., showing that said tracts had been disposed of with part of Sec. 36, T. 41 N., R. 10 W., where the entire entry must be posted. 8th. Whenever, in posting a sale or location, it is found to conflict with a prior sale or location, or selection, or with a pre-emption declaration which has not expired, before suspending the same the certificate for the prior sale or location must be examined to see that it has been properly posted, and in order that it may be ascertained with certainty whether or not conflict actually exists. 9th. Where a tract of land has been taken in whole or in part with Revolutionary Bounty-Land Scrip, the entry in the Tract Books must. show the amount paid in cash and the amount covered by scrip, giving the number of the scrip, as the case may be. 10th. Where a Military Bounty-Land Warrant or Agricultural Scrip is located on a tract, the area of which is greater than the quantity called for on the face of the warrant or scrip, it must be seen that the excess in area has been paid for, and the entry in Tract Books must show the excess and amount paid therefor and the number of the Receiver's receipt for said payment. The number of excess receipt must be noted on the certificate of location accompanying the warrant or scrip. 11th. Where a Military Bounty-Land Warrant or Agricultural College Scrip is located on a tract of land, the price of which is $2 50 per acre, or more than the ordinary minimum, requiring an additional cash payment, the Tract Books must show that said payment has been made, giving the amount paid and the number of the Receiver's receipt therefor.* 12th. Where an entry or location is made under the Pre-emption laws, in posting the same in the Tract Books, the act under which the Pre-emption was made must be noted at the end of the entry, thus: "Pre-emption Act, 1841, &c." 13th. After a month's returns have been posted, the Register's Abstract or Certificates must be carefully compared with the entries made in the Tract Books, in order that there may be no errors made by posting in the wrong section, town, or range. 14th. Whenever it shall become necessary to cancel homestead entries for cause other than voluntary relinquishment or prior disposal of the tract, the district officer must be advised that the entry is held for cancellation, and instructed to notify the parties in interest that they will be allowed sixty days from service of notice within which to file an appeal. At the expiration of the time allowed, the district officers will be required to make a prompt report, showing what action the parties may have taken. If an appeal is filed within the time allowed, the papers in the case must be submitted to the Hon. Secretary of the Interior for review and action. If no appeal is taken, the entry must be noted as cancelled upon the Tract Books and upon the entry papers, of which fact the district officers must be promptly advised. 15th All pre-emption entries or locations must have indorsed on the certificate, in red ink, not in pencil: 1. Date of filing, date of settlement, and number of declaratory statement showing the tracts filed for. 2. Offered or unoffered. 3. Conflict or no conflict; if there should be a conflict, note what it conflicts with. 4. Discrepancies and other causes of suspension should be noted on the certificate. 5. Note date of examination, with the initials of the gentlemen making the same. 6. After docketing the case in Posting Division, the papers must be referred to the Pre-emption Division for examination. 16th. Where an entry is suspended for any cause whatever, the cause of suspension must be plainly noted in red ink on the back of the certificate of purchase, and the latter then placed with the suspended cases, which, at the close of the posting for the month, should be placed together in a separate bundle, indorsed "Suspended entries," giving *See No. 579, par. 32. the name of the Land-Office and the month and year in which they were made, when they should be taken up, docketed, and promptly placed in train of adjustment. 17th. All posted certificates, free from conflict, should be duly and promptly referred to the Recorder for patenting, and an abstract kept of such reference, with dates. 18th. The abstract of sales, and register of receipts when posted, should be placed together on the appropriate file; before doing so, however, the date when posted, and the initials of the clerk by whom posted, should be indorsed thereon. 19th. In examining and posting Returns in exact chronological order (such order never to be departed from), the Bookkeepers must test, in detail, the accuracy not only of the quantity in acres, and the sums paid, but must test the totals, noting results at foot of Returns; and where an error is discovered, it must be brought promptly to the notice of the WILLIS DRUMMOND, Commissioner. GENERAL LAND-OFFICE, July 22, 1872. accountant. No. 654.] FILING DUPLICATE RECEIVER'S RECEIPTS. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, TO THE BOOK-Keepers anD POSTING CLERKS OF THE General LANDOFFICE. GENTLEMEN :-In view of the frequent occurrence of patents having been transmitted to the local officers, when they should have been sent to the persons who had previously filed here the duplicate therefor, and in order hereafter as far as possible to prevent such erroneous transmissions, It is hereby directed that such clerks as may have cases in hand at the time of the filing of the duplicate, shall indorse upon the brief of the case, in red ink, the office number and date of the letter in which they may have been received, together with the name and address of the party or parties filing the same. It is also directed, in order that patents may be transmitted to the proper district office for entries or locations made at an office discontinued or sub-divided, and the lands now subject to sale at a new and different office; that the book-keeper, in posting said case or cases, be required to place on the brief, under the name of the office at which the entry or location was made, the name of the district land-office in which the land described is now situated. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, W. W. CURTIS, Acting Commissioner. |