[DOWNLOAD] "Hedrick v. Hughes" by United States Supreme Court # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Hedrick v. Hughes
- Author : United States Supreme Court
- Release Date : January 01, 1872
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 55 KB
Description
Messrs. Montgomery Blair and F. A. Dick, for the plaintiff in error; Mr. T. T. Gantt, contra. This was an action of ejectment brought by the plaintiff in error to recover a certain quarter section of land in Howard County, Missouri. The plaintiff claimed the land under a patent of the United States, granted to one Widdicombe, June 1st, 1868, upon a scrip certificate issued to the State of Kentucky, under the act of July 2d, 1862, donating lands to the several States for the support of agricultural colleges. The defendant, who had been in possession of the land for more than thirty years, and had erected expensive improvements on it, claimed title under a grant from the State of Missouri, made in 1832. The title of the State was derived in the following manner. By the 6th section of the act of Congress, passed March 6th, 1820,1 * entitled, 'An act to authorize the people of the Missouri Territory to form a constitution and State government, &c.,' it was, amongst other things, proposed for the acceptance of the convention, and, if accepted, to be binding on the United States, that 'section sixteen,' in every township, and when such section had been sold, or otherwise disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as might be, should be granted to the State for the use of the inhabitants of the township for the use of schools; also, all salt springs, not exceeding twelve in number, and six sections of land contiguous to each, for the use of the State, with other concessions stated in the act. These proposals were accepted by the convention. For the purpose of carrying out this grant as to school lands, an act was passed on the 3d of March, 1823,2 ** by which it was enacted that in all cases in which 'section sixteen' had been sold or otherwise disposed of, it should be the duty of the register and receiver of the respective land offices in whose districts such land might be, to select the like quantity of other lands equivalent thereto, from any of the unappropriated lands of the United States in that State, as nearly contiguous to said 'section sixteen' as might be; and a descriptive entry of such selected lands should be made on the books of the register, specifying as well the township in which, as that for the use of which, the selection should be made; and the lands thus selected and located were, by the act, granted to the State, for the use of the inhabitants of the respective townships for the use of schools, instead of the sixteenth section so sold or disposed of.