An Act to provide for the appointment of a surveyor of the public lands in the territories of Illinois and Missouri, 1816

Statute I, CHAP. CLI.—An Act to provide for the appointment of a surveyor of the public lands in the territories of Illinois and Missouri.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That a surveyor of the lands of the United States in the territories of Illinois and Missouri shall be appointed, whose duty it shall be to engage a sufficient number of skilful surveyors as his deputies, and to cause so much of the land above-mentioned, as the President of the United States shall direct, and to which the titles of the Indian tribes have been extinguished, to be surveyed and divided in the manner, and to do and perform all such other acts in relation to such lands, as the surveyor general is authorized and directed to do, in relation to the same, or the lands lying north-west of the river Ohio: and it shall also be the duty of the surveyor to cause to be surveyed the lands in the said territories, the claims to which have been or hereafter may be confirmed by any act of Congress, which have not already been surveyed according to law: and generally to do and perform all and singular the duties required by law to be performed by the principal deputy surveyor for the territory of Missouri; and shall transmit to the registers of the land offices within the said territories, respectively, general and particular plats of all the lands surveyed, or to be surveyed, and shall also forward copies of said plats to the commissioner of the general land office; fix the compensation of the deputy surveyors, chain carriers, and axemen. Provided, that the whole expense of surveying and marking the lines shall not exceed three dollars for every mile that shall be run, surveyed and marked.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the surveyor of the lands of the United States, appointed in pursuance of this act, shall be allowed an annual compensation of one thousand dollars, and shall be entitled to receive from individuals the following fees: that is to say, for recording the surveys executed by any of the deputies, at the rate of twenty-five cents for every mile of the boundary line of such survey, and for a certified copy of a plat of a survey in his office twenty-five cents, and that all the plats of surveys, and all other papers and documents pertaining, or which did pertain to the office of the surveyor general under the Spanish government within the limits of the territory of Missouri, or to the office of principal deputy surveyor for said territory, or pertaining to the office of surveyor general, or to any office heretofore established or authorized for the purpose of executing or recording surveys of lands within the limits of the territories of Missouri and Illinois, shall be delivered to the surveyors of the lands of the United States, authorized to His plats and be appointed by this act; and any plat of survey duly certified by the said surveyor shall be admitted as evidence in any of the courts of the United States or territories thereof.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act entitled "An act extending the powers of the surveyor general to the territory of Louisiana, and for other purposes," passed February twenty-eighth; one thousand eight hundred and six, as provides for the appointment of a principal deputy surveyor, and so much of any act of Congress here[to]fore passed, as is repugnant to, or inconsistent with, any provision of this act, be, and the same is hereby repealed.

APPROVED, April 29, 1816.

3 Stat. 325