This was a bill brought by the United States against the Oregon Central Railroad Company and the Oregon & California Railroad Company in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Oregon, to quiet title to about 90,000 acres of land in the state of Oregon, and a cross bill filed by the defendants to quiet title to the same land in the Oregon & California Railroad Company. The cause was heard on the pleadings and a stipulation as to the facts, with accompanying maps and documents.
On May 4, 1870, an act of congress was approved, which is as follows (16 Stat. 94):
'Chap. LXIX.-An act granting lands to aid in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Portland to Astoria and McMinville, in the state of Oregon.
'Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, that for the purpose of aiding in the construction of a railroad and telegraph line from Portland to Astoria, and from a suitable point of junction near Forest Grove to the Yamkill river, near McMinville, in the state of Oregon, there is hereby granted to the Oregon Central Railroad Company, now engaged in constructing the said road, and to their successors and assigns, the right of way through the public lands of the width of one hundred feet on each side of said road, and the right to take from the adjacent public lands materials for constructing said road, and also the necessary lands for depots, stations, side tracks, and other needful uses in operating the road, not exceeding forty acres at any one place; and, also, each alternate section of the public lands, not mineral, excepting coal or iron lands, designated by odd numbers nearest to said road, to the amount of ten such alternate sections per mile, on each side thereof, not otherwise disposed of or reserved or held by valid pre-emption or homestead right at the time of the passage of this act. And in case the quantity of ten full sections per mile cannot be found on each side of said road, within the said limits of twenty miles, other lands designated as aforesaid shall be selected under the direction of the secretary of the interior on either side of any part of said road nearest to and not more than twenty-five miles from the track of said road to make up such deficiency.
'Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that the commissioner of the general land office shall cause the lands along the line of the said railroad to be surveyed with all convenient speed. And whenever and as often as the said company shall file with the secretary of the interior maps of the survey and location of twenty or more miles of said road, the said secretary shall cause the said granted lands adjacent to and coterminous with such located sections of road to be segregated from the public lands; and thereafter the remaining public lands, subject to sale within the limits of the said grant, shall be disposed of only to actual settlers at double the minimum price for such lands: and provided also, that settlers under the provisions of the homestead act who comply with the terms and requirements of said act, shall be entitled, within the said limits of twenty miles, to patents for an amount not exceeding eighty acres each of the said ungranted lands, anything in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.
'Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, that whenever and as often as the said company shall complete and equip twenty or more consecutive miles of the said railroad and telegraph, the secretary of the interior shall cause the same to be examined, at the expense of the company, by three commissioners appointed by him; and if they shall report that such completed section is a first-class railroad and telegraph, properly equipped and ready for use, he shall cause patents to be issued to the company for so much of the said granted lands as shall be adjacent to and conterminous with the said completed [completed] sections.
'Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, that the said alternate sections of land granted by this act, excepting only such as are necessary for the company to reserve for depots, stations, side tracks, wood yards, standing ground, and other needful uses in operating the road, shall be sold by the company only to actual settlers, in quantities not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres or a quarter section to any one settler, and at prices not exceeding two dollars and fifty cents per acre.