Edward Douglass White

“ On October 17, 1894, presumably while an application of Wiese for patent was pending before the Commissioner, the Sioux City & Pacific Railroad Company filed a protest against the issue of the patent, on the ground that the land affected lay within the limits of the grant to said company under the act of 1864, that the indemnity school selection then apparently existing was void, and did not cause the land to be excepted from the grant on the definite location of the road, and, in consequence, that there was no authority of law for the purchase by Wiese. ”

“ The contention of the absence of a Federal question is also without merit. In effect, the plaintiffs in error pleaded their right and title to a moiety of the tract in controversy under the joint patent of July 24, 1903, and urged in support thereof the claim that the legal title had not, before the date named, passed out of the United States, that the land was within the jurisdiction of the General Land Office, and that, up to a short time before the execution of the joint deed, the Department had assumed and exercised jurisdiction over controversies respecting the land. ”

“ The land involved is the northeast 1/4 of the northeast 1/4 of section 21, township 17, range 11 east, Washington county, Nebraska. At the time of the passage of the granting acts referred to the records of the General Land Office showed a school indemnity selection of the tract now in controversy, made on July 1, 1858. ”