Trustees of Schools v. Schroll

Citations

• 120 Ill. 509
• 12 N.E. 243

Syllabus

<p>1. School land—grant to State—completeness of tille thereby given. The enabling act of Congress of April 18,1818, granting to the State section 16 of the public lands, and the ordinance of the State Constitutional Convention of August 26,1818, accepting the same, constituted a solemn compact between the United States and this State, whereby the State became the purchaser of the' school sections, with full power to sell or lease the same for the use of schools, as the State might provide, and think most beneficial to the inhabitants of the respective townships.</p> <p>2. Sections 16 in the several townships within the State, after such grant and acceptance, were not public lands, within the act of Congress of March 30,1822, relating to the Illinois and Michigan Canal, and were not within the act of Congress relating to swamp and overflowed lands.</p> <p>3. Boundary—land bordering on a stream or river—and herein, of the distinction when the land lies along a natural lalce or pond. Streams and bodies of water within the ebb and flow of the tide, are, at common law, navigable, and the riparian proprietor’s title does not, generally speaking, extend beyond the shore; but grants of land bounded on streams or rivers above tide water, carry the exclusive right and title of the grantee to the centre of the stream, subject to the easement of navigation in streams navigable in fact, unless the terms of the grant clearly denote the intention to stop at the edge or margin of the stream. But a different rule applies where land is conveyed bounded along or upon a natural lake or pond. In such case, the grant extends only to the water’s edge.</p> <p>4. The distinction between a stream and a pond or lake is, that in the one case the water has a natural motion or current, while in the other the water is, in its natural state, substantially at rest. This is so, independent of the size of the one or the other. The fact of some current in a body of water is not, of itself, in every i