47 Iowa 20 | Iowa | 1877
The question in the case arises upon the admissibility of the certificates of the Secretary of the Interior. Do they show that the plaintiff’s grantor was entitled to the land at the time of the tax sale? Upon their face they, of course, do not. The land in question is not mentioned in the first one, and the second was issued after the tax sale. If they show it they do so because they were issued in pursuance of an act of Congress, of the provisions of which we take notice. Under the act the plaintiff’s grantor was to become entitled rrpon the construction of each twenty continuous miles of road to a quantity of land not to' exceed one hundred and twenty sections, to be taken from the alternate sections designated by odd numbers within a limit of six miles on each side of the road. But if the amount granted could not, on account of sales or pre-emptions, be obtained within those limits, the company should become entitled to other lands to supply the deficiency within fifteen miles, to be selected by an agent who should be appointed by the Governor of Iowa. The plaintiff claims under safd act, and the evidence introduced shows that the land in question was within the six-mile limits. Being in a section designated by an odd number (section 19), it became the property of the plaintiff’s grantor when it was earned by the Company. And we do not see how the company could become entitled to one
Aeeirmed.