The Mississippi & Missouri Railroad Company is given by said act the right to transfer and assign all or any part of the lands granted to said company by said act, to secure a more speedy or satisfactory completion of the road, but the assignees shall not be released from the liabilities or conditions of the grant. Said transfer and assignment must first be authorized by the Governor. The Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company is permitted by said act to change its line between Fort Dodge and Sioux City, and it is required to file a map of such change with the Commissioner of the General Land Office. No lands granted by said act are to be certified to either of the companies by the Secretary of the Interior, except upon the proper certificates of the Governor of completion as required by the 8th section of the act. In case of failure of any company to complete its road, the uncertified portions of lands granted shall become subject to the control of the Legislature of the State, to aid in the completion of the road. The lands lying opposite any completed section of the road are required to be offered for sale within three years from the completion of such section, if then certified; if not, then in three years from the date of such certification; and if not all sold then, during the fourth year they shall be exposed to public sale. Under the act of Congress of 1856, the lands were certified to the State in trust for the railroad companies, and only the odd sections were granted. The price of the even numbered sections was raised to double the minimum, or, two dollars and fifty cents, as a compensation, it is presumed, for the lands donated. The act of June 2, 1864, authorized the selection, within certain prescribed limits, of any vacant public lands, and provides that these shall be certified by the Secretary of the Interior to the several railroad companies. This statute has the effect to give to the railroad companies all of the vacant even numbered sections which the act of May 15, 1856, raised the price of to double the minimum. The intention of the law, as it would seem, was to give to certain railroad companies the quantity of lands they were entitled to under the grant of May 15, 1856; but by a careful examination of the act, it will be seen that Congress dealt even more generously with the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company. By the act of the General Assembly, approved February 11, 1868, in the preamble to said act, it is set forth that the Mississippi & Mis souri Railroad Company became insolvent, and that the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company purchased all the rights of said company at a judicial sale; and subsequently became consolidated with the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad Company, under the corporate name of the "Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company." Said act of the General Assembly recognizes this consolidation and grants to said consolidated company, on certain conditions, all right or interest the State may have in the lands heretofore granted by the General Assembly to the said Mississippi & Missouri Railroad Company. Said act also protects the interests of actual settlers on said lands, giving them the right to purchase the lands so settled upon, by complying with certain requirements therein specified. The company is required to relinquish to Pottawattamie coanty all right or claim it has or may acquire to any bonds or agreements to take stock, or indebtedness heretofore voted by said county to aid in the construction of the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad. And all acts, votes, decrees or agreements on the part of said county to issue bonds to said last named railroad company are declared to be null and void. Congress, by act approved March 2, 1868, extended the time for completing the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad until January 1, 1872, and provided that no lands should be disposed of, patented, or certified to aid in the construction of the road more than forty miles in advance of the point to which said road may be constructed from time to time. The act of the General Assembly approved March 10, 1868, resumed all right, title and interest in and to the lands which had been granted to the Dubuque & Pacific, (now Dubuque & Sioux City) Railroad Company. Said resumption was not to impair said company's title to one hundred and twenty sections of land for every twenty miles of road completed and equipped. The act of the same session approved April, 7, 1868, legalizes and confirms a contract between the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company and the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railroad Company, in which the former company transfers to the latter, so much of its road as remains to be constructed, with franchises, right-of-way, depot grounds, and other appurtenances of said road to be completed, with all its right and title to so much of the lands granted by Congress to aid in the construction of said road as shall be legally applicable to the construction of the uncompleted portion of the same, except as to the lands granted for the Dubuque, Bellevue & Sabula Railroad Company. Section 2 of said act provides for an adjustment of six sections per mile between the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railroad Company, and the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company. Section 3 grants a pro rata of six sections per mile for the Dubuque, Bellevue & Sabula Railroad Company. Section 4 specifies the conditions upon which the lands are granted to the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railroad Company. Section 5 provides for patenting the lands to said company, and also for conveying lands to actual settlers, upon their making the necessary proof of occupation and improvement, and paying $2.50 per acre for the same. Section 6 reserves the right to resume the lands for non-completion of the road as per requirements. Section 7 requires the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railroad Company to accept the terms and conditions of the act within thirty days from ite passage, and in case of failure, authorizes the Census Board to confer the grant upon some other company. The act of the General Assembly, approved April 7, 1870, resumed the lands granted by act of the Twelfth General Assembly to the Dubuque, Bellevue & Sabula Railroad Company, and granted them to the Dubuque, Bellevue & Mississippi Railway Company, to aid in the construction of the Tete des Morts branch required to be built by act of Congress; and the Governor is required to select or cause to be selected and reserved, the said lands, outside of the six mile limits of the grant. Said Dubuque, Bellevue & Mississippi Railway Company is required to accept the terms and conditions of the act within thirty days from its passage, and in case of failure on the part of said Company to accept, the Census Board is required to confer the grant on some party or Company that is competent to carry into effect the enterprise. The lands were selected and reserved as required by said act, and, subsequently patented to the Dubuque, Bellevue & Mississippi Railway Company. Some of the lands selected within the limits of the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad (now Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad,) along the line of said road, as originally located and platted under the act of Congress of May, 15, 1856, situated in the counties of Shelby and Audubon, and which were approved and certified to the State in trust for said road, it appears reverted to the General Government. Congress, by act which took effect January 31, 1873, without the approval of the President, confirmed these lands to the Railroad Company. It is virtually a new grant of lands to said Company. The following is the act: "An act to quiet title to certain lands in the State of Iowa. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the title to the lands in the State of Iowa heretofore approved and certified by the Department of the Interior for railroad purposes, to aid in the construction of a railroad from the city of Davenport, via Iowa City, to Council Bluffs, under the grants made by Congress, according to the adjustments thereof made at the General Land office, be, and the same is hereby confirmed to the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad Company and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, and their assigns, they being the corporations to whom said lands were certified: Provided, That this act shall be construed as conveying only any reversionary or other interests which the United States may have in said lands, and all lands settled upon in good faith and now occupied by homestead or pre-emption shall be excluded from the operations of this act." Chapter 118 of the acts of the Sixteenth General Assembly, approved March 15, 1876, gives railroad companies authority to re-locate or change the line of their roads. The following is a statement of the quantity of lands approved and certified to the State under the act of Congress of May 15, 1856, to aid in the construction of the several railroads named in said act, and of the disposition of the same by the State: Dubuque & Sioux City, Iowa Falls & Sioux City, and Tete des Morts Branch Railroads. ACRES. Approved and certified to the State under the grant...... 1,232,359.15 669,029.41 beneficiary of the Tete des Morts Branch........ 38,096.82 Patented by the State to settlers, under Sec. 5, Chap. 124, Acts 1868.. 3,376.13 In five mile limits of D. R.-certification annulled..... 77,694.13 1,028.79 Balance not yet conveyed...... 443,133.17 Iowa Central Air Line (now Cedar Rapids & Missouri River) Railroad. 735,997.80 Approved and certified to the State under the grant................................................... road: 107,408.09 ACRES. Approved and certified to the State under the grant...........482,374.36 Burlington & Missouri River Railroad : ACRES. Approved and certified to the State under the grant...........292,806.41 In addition to the above lands there have been certified by the Secretary of the Interior, under act of Congress of June 2, 1864, as follows: ACRES. To the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company...347,317.64 To the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company...161,372.81 To the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company...... 97,026.57 No method was provided by the legislature for passing title to the lands granted by act of Congress of May 15, 1856, (except to the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railroad Company, and to the Dubuque, Bellevue & Mississippi Railroad Company,) until the passage of the law which is embodied in section 93 of the Code. No lands have been certified under this provision to the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company, nor to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, and but a trifle over one thousand acres to the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company. A portion of the lands certified to the State to aid in the construction of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad, were certified by Governor Lowe to the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad Company; but these certificates could convey no title, as there was no law authorizing their issuance. These companies, perhaps, rely for title upon the act of the legislature of July 14, 1856, and subsequent acts, as they have not requested a certification of their lands under section 93 of the Code. I learn, that the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company did, at one time, (during the year 1870,) present to Governor Merrill a list of lands, claimed by said company, with a request that they be certified to the company; but he declined to certify them. One principal reason for refusing, was, that the list embraced a large quantity of lands more than the company was entitled to. An act for the Relief of Settlers on Railroad Lands. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That in the adjustment of all railroad grants, whether made directly to any railroad company or to any State for railroad purposes, if any of the lands granted be found in the possession of an actual settler whose entry or filing has been allowed under the pre-emption or home |