CHAPTER XXXVII.

An Act to authorize and require the County Courts to issue unconditional Certificates in certain Cases.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the county courts of the several counties in this State, are hereby authorized and required to issue unconditional certificates in all cases to bona fide claimants, where the party applicant has previously obtained a conditional one; and make the same proof that has been required in all such cases under the constitution and laws of the Republic, or the State of Texas.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That the county courts shall be entitled to the same fees, and governed in all respects by former laws, as in such cases heretofore.

Approved, September 5, 1850.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

An Act supplementary to an Act entitled an Act to secure to all actual Settlers within the Limits of the Colony granted to Peters and others, commonly known as Peters' Colony, the Lands to which they are entitled as Colonists.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the certificates issued by the commissioner for Peters' colony, may be located on any vacant land within the limits of said colony not otherwise appropriated, as other headright certificates are located; and the same laws relative thereto shall govern the surveyors and other officers in the discharge of their official duties, in relation to the surveying, recording and patenting the same.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That any certificate which has been, or may be issued contrary to the true intent and meaning of said act, to which this is supplementary; and each and every survey which has been or may be made in virtue of such certificate, and each and every patent which may be issued in virtue thereof, and every sale and transfer of said unauthorized certificates, and of the land located under the same, is and shall be null and void; and that this act take effect from and after its passage.

Approved, September 6, 1850.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

An Act to create the County of Freestone.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That all that territory comprised within the following limits, to wit: beginning at the upper corner of Leon county, on the Trinity river; thence with the north-west line of said county, south 60 deg. west 29 miles; thence north 30 deg. west 31 miles; thence north 60 deg. east to the Trinity river; thence down the Trinity river with its meanders, to the place of beginning; shall be constituted into a new county, and be called Freestone.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That William S. Adams, Emanuel Clements, W. G. Harris, Leander Walker, -Simmons, be and they are hereby appointed commissioners, with authority to select not exceeding three places, to be put in nomination as the county seat of said county, (one of which shall be at the centre of said county, to be ascertained by actual survey, which survey the said commissioners are hereby authorized to have made at the expense of the county, and the other places shall be within five miles of the centre of said county,) and the said commissioners shall then proceed to order an election between the different places put in nomination for the county seat of said county, by giving a written notice to be posted up, at not less than five places in said county for the term of one month, which notice shall specify the different places put in nomination, and the election be governed according to the laws regulating elections generally, and the returns made to commissioners herein appointed, at a day and place to be named in the writs of election, not to exceed ten days from and after the day of election; and said election returns shall not be opened by less than a majority of said commissioners; then if any place nominated at, or within three miles of the centre, shall receive a majority of all the votes polled, it shall be duly declared to be the county seat of said county, by said commissioners; but if no place receive a majority of all the votes given, the said commissioners shall put in nomination, the two places that receive the highest number of votes at the first election, giving fifteen days notice of said election by posting up notices, at not less than five public places in said county, the result of which shall be ascertained as in the first election, provided for in this act; and the place receiving the highest number of votes, shall be declared by said commissioners the county seat of said county; and the said commissioners are

hereby required to order the first election contemplated by this act, to be held on the first Monday in December next, or as soon as this act shall come to their knowledge.

Sec. 3. Be it further enaced, That the commissioners herein appointed, are required to take into consideration in the nomination of places for said county seat, donations in land or in money, as well as eligibility of situation and advantage of timber and water.

Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That should said commissioners select a tract of vacant and unappropriated land, on which to locate said county seat, they shall proceed to condemn to use of [the] county, a quanity of not more than three hundred and twenty acres of the same; and this act shall be a sufficient authority for any authorized surveyor to survey for said county the amount of land pointed out by said commisssioners, not to exceed three hundred and twenty acres, in a square form, if pre-existing lines will admit of that shape; and when said commissioners, their successors or agents, shall present to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, the receipt of the State Treasurer for the sum of fifty cents per acre in gold or silver, for the amount of land contained in the survey authorized by this act to be made, then the said Commissioner of the General Land Office shall issue a patent to the county of Freestone for said land.

Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, That this act take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved, September 6, 1850.

CHAPTER XL.

An Act supplementary to an Act entitled an Act to reduce into one Act, and to amend the several Acts relating to the Establishment of a General Landoffice, passed December 14, 1837.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Texas, That the time limited for the payment of government dues on titled land, by the twenty-fourth section of the act to which this is supplementary, is hereby extended until the first day of January, 1852, with the privileges, and under the restrictions, contained in said section.

Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of the General Landoffice is hereby authorized to receive the government dues on the lands referred to in the first section of this act; and that this act take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved, September 6, 1850.

THE STATE OF TEXAS.

I, JAMES W. WEBB, Acting Secretary of State, do certify that the second session of the third Legislature of said State, commenced its sesion at Austin on Monday, the twelfth day of August, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty, and adjourned on Friday the sixth day of September, of the same year.

And I further certify, that the Acts and Joint Resolutions contained in this Volume, are true copies taken from the original laws deposited in the Department of State, with which they were carefully compared.

Given under my hand and seal of State, at the City [L.S.] of Austin, the first day of October, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty.

JAMES W. WEBB.

N. B. The words in brackets were inserted by the Secretary of State, in comparing the laws with the originals, supposing them to be omissions in enrolling the bills.