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As to the nature and divisions of estates in land, the Legislative Assembly have patterned after Michigan, of which Wisconsin was formerly a portion. For information in that behalf, therefore, reference may be had to antecedent pages 298, and 347.

All persons of lawful age, residing in Wisconsin, are authorized and permitted to convey real estate; and all not residing in, but owning lands therein, may convey, according to the laws of Wisconsin, or of the State or Territory where such persons reside. The common law rule governs as to capacity.*

The Indians have not entirely removed from Wisconsin, yet in the more settled portions of the State, but few remain. Most of them have accepted other lands in lieu of their Wisconsin possessions, and have actually gone beyond the Mississippi, to take possession of the same. Lapham, in his Sketches of Wisconsin, published in 1846, observes that the Menomonies frequently take up their winter quarters on the head branches of the Rock river, and other places in that vicinity, and continue to bring their peltries to Milwaukie for sale. On the borders of Lake Superior, the Chippewas are the most numerous. The Sioux or Dacotas, tribes inhabiting the western shores of the Mississippi, often cross over and range in the northern parts of Wisconsin. Some Winnebagoes and Pottawattamies also, yet remain within the State.

It is worthy of remark, that there are other Indians, who removed from NewYork in 1933, with the Oneidas, who have been admitted to all the rights and privileges of citizens of the United States. They are Stockbridges, and Brothertowns, and reside on the east side of Lake Winnebago, in Calumet county. The history of our government records no other case of the kind; yet the experiment is thought to promise vast benefits to that unfortunate portion of our race. In character and habits, they are said to be conformed to the whites. They are temperate, upright, and industrious farmers, managing their temporal affairs with ordinary skill, and seem to be rewarded with a fair degree of thrift and comfort. They have been represented in the Legislature, by one of their own people, and seem to manifest a watchful anxiety for the welfare and perpetuity of our government.

They hold their lands generally by a special grant, made to them in exchange for their former possessions in New-York, yet some have title under individual purchase.

For the disposal of the unsold lands of the General Government, in this State, land offices are kept open at Milwaukee, Mineral Point, and Green Bay.

The Milwaukee Land District covers all land from range number nine, east to the Lake; and from the Illinois line to town ten, inclusive; and also towns eleven and twelve, in the ranges number twenty, twenty-one and twenty-two.

The Green Bay Land District covers all the region lying north of that of Mil

VI. THE EXECUTION OF DEEDS AND MORTGAGES IN

WISCONSIN.

The Statutes of Wisconsin provide that no conveyance shall be effectual to pass the title to real estate, unless the same shall be in writing, and shall be subscribed and sealed by the grantor or grantors, or by his, her, or their lawful agent. [Stat. Wisconsin T., 178.]

Most of the enactments concerning conveyances, now in force, were derived from those of Michigan, and are found to be, in most respects, literal transcripts therefrom. The statutes impose but few restraints upon alienation, the people being averse to all superfluity and complication in the forms and methods of consummating bargains and sales. Yet, from the greater dignity of a freehold, in the eye of the law, as well as in the accepted judgment of the people, more form and solemnity are required in the conveyance of land than in the transfer of chattels alone. Whilst personal estate of small value may be safely transferred by oral declarations of the sale, and larger amounts by mere memoranda, or equivalent acts, deeds are required to be formally indicted on paper, parchment, or some similar substance, susceptible of being delivered and recorded, and to be solemnly subscribed and sealed by the party or parties making the grant. No rule less stringent would be compatible with the true interests of individuals, or the public.

Deeds must be signed. The statute requires them to be subscribed by the grantor or grantors, or by his, her, or their lawful agent. A lawful agent is defined to be, one who has been appointed to perform the act of conveyance for the

waukee; and the Mineral Point District lies west of the Milwaukee District, extending to the Mississippi river, and including the mineral region in that quarter. The Reports of the Commissioner of the General Land Office at Washington, show that three millions of acres of land in Wisconsin have been already sold. [Lapham's Wisconsin.]

owner, by an instrument in writing, executed, attested and acknowledged by such owner, in all respects as the deed to be executed by virtue of such appointment, is required to be. The signature may be by any mark that the grantor is accustomed to use for a sign manual; yet, if he or she have the ability to write his or her name, he or she should subscribe the same at the bottom of the deed.

They must be sealed. Unsealed documents are not deeds within the statute. Hence as real estate cannot be conveyed except by a deed or deeds, executed by and between parties able and competent to contract, it follows that a seal is requisite to all conveyances. According to the common law, a seal is wax, having thereon an impression-" sigillum est cera impressa, quia cera sine impressione non est sigillum ;" and although the solemnity and dignity of deeds are measurably destroyed by any relaxation of the rule, impressions upon wax have been so long in disuse, that in the States west of Pennsylvania, the courts allow a scroll as a valid substitute for a seal. This, in effect, destroys the sacred character of deeds; for by permitting mere flourishes with a pen to suffice for seals, all distinction between writings sealed and unsealed is virtually abolished.*

They must be attested. Not only must the grantor or grantors subscribe and seal a deed, but the same is required to be done in the presence of two or more competent witnesses, "who shall at the same time attest the same by their signatures. [Id., 179.]

Such witnesses should not be persons, who, on account of infamy of character, of having been convicted of infamous crimes, or of interest, are incompetent to testify in a court of

*The usages of antiquity are the foundation of the common law requirements concerning seals. See Genesis, 38, 13; Exodus, 28, 11; Esther, 8. 8 and 10; Jeremiah, 32, 10 and 11; Cicero Acad., 2; Lucul, 4, 26; Heinecc. Elem. Jur. Civ, 497. Whether land should be conveyed by parol, as was the case in the early periods of English history, is not now a question; yet it is suggested that the abolition of seals is a relapse toward parol conveyances.

justice at the time of their attesting any deed; yet if such witnesses shall be competent at the time, their subsequent incompetency from any cause will not affect or impair the validity of the writing so attested.

They must be delivered. This is not in terms required; yet as deeds take effect only from the time of delivery it is an incident essential to their due execution. Deeds may be delivered to the party grantees, or to any other person authorized by them to receive the same. But until delivered to the grantees, or to some one for their benefit, the estate in the land intended to be conveyed does not pass, but remains in the grantor. The same rule obtains in respect to defeasible, that controls indefeasible conveyances. Mortgages of real estate, therefore, are required to be executed in the same manner as deeds.

VII. THE PROOF AND ACKOWLEDGMENT OF DEEDS AND MORTGAGES IN WISCONSIN.

By the territorial statutes, (being the only regulations in force,) it is provided that all deeds of real estate shall be acknowledged by the party or parties executing the same, or proved by one or more of the subscribing witnesses thereto, before a Judge, Notary Public, or Justice of the Peace, within the territory; and that it is the duty of the Judge, Notary, or Justice taking any acknowledgment or proof of any deed, mortgage, or other conveyance of real estate, to endorse thereon a certificate of such proof or acknowledgment. [Stat. Wis. T., 178.]

The provisions concerning acknowledgments by married women who join with their husbands in the conveyance of land of which the latter shall be seized during coverture, are somewhat ambiguous; yet they may acknowledge deeds as if they were sole, and release their rights of dower without their husbands' joining in the deed or release. [Id., 179.]

But the acknowledging officer is required to set forth, in

his certificate of proof or acknowledgment, every act done by him in the taking of such acknowledgment. If he know the grantor or grantors to be the person or persons described in, and who executed the conveyance in hand, such knowledge is a material fact, and the same should appear in his certificate. If the grantor or grantors shall be unknown to him, and proof of his or their identity be taken, the name of the witness by whom such proof shall be made, the place of his or their residence, and the facts testified to by him, or them, should be set forth. So also when a deed shall be proved by a subscribing witness, the name of such witness, the fact of his being sworn, his residence, his attestation of the deed with another witness, in the presence of, and at the request of the grantor, should be embodied in his certificate. To such certificate, when written, should be subscribed not only the proper name of the acknowledging officer, but his official title at length. If the officer be a Judge, it should appear of what court; if a Notary Public, or Justice of the Peace, it should appear of what county.

Concerning deeds and mortgages of land in Wisconsin, which are executed in another State or territory, it is provided that they shall be executed in such a manner, and before such officer as would entitle them to record in the State or territory where they are executed, had the land conveyed been located therein. [Id., 180.]

In every other respect, the statutes concerning acknowledgments and the authentication thereof, are substantially the same as those in Michigan. [See Ante, 309, 310.]

VIII. THE RECORDING OF DEEDS AND MORTGAGES IN WISCONSIN, AND THE EFFECT THEREOF.

Registers of Deeds are required, by the territorial statutes of Wisconsin, to be elected annually, in the counties organized, who shall reside and keep their offices at the county seats of the same respectively. They hold their offices for

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