Ogilvie v. Copeland

Citations

• 145 Ill. 98
• 33 N.E. 1085

Syllabus

<p>1. Boundabies—of sections and subdivisions—monuments. The statute of the United States, when the public lands were surveyed, provided, that when the exterior lines of the townships which may be surveyed into sections, or half sections, exceed, or do not extend six miles, the excess or deficiency shall be specially noted and added to or deducted from the western and northern ranges of sections or half sections in such townships according as the error may be in running the lines from east to west or from north to south. The sections and half sections bounded on the north or western lines of such townships shall be sold as containing only the quantity expressed in the returns and plats respectively, and all others as containing the complete legal quantity. This statute applies to the subdivision of fractional.townships as well as to others.</p> <p>2. The statute of the United States requires that the boundary lines actually run and marked in the surveys returned shall be established as the boundary lines of the sections or subdivisions for which they were intended, and that the length of the lines as returned shall be held as the true length thereof. It also requires that the corners marked in the surveys returned shall be established as the proper corner of sections, or subdivisions of sections, which they were intended to represent. And when the measurement of the line as returned does not agree with the distance between the corners thus established, between which it is assumed to be the measurement, it must be disregarded, for monuments control as to the corners and distances.</p> <p>3. Same— U. S. field-notes and plats presumed tobe correct. The field-notes and plat of the survey of the public lands are presumed to be correct until the contrary is shown, and they are important evidence in ascertaining where monuments were located; but if the location of the monuments is clearly shown by other evidence to be at a distance different from that given in the field-no