III.  Who may preempt.  “Every person being the head of a family, or widow, or single man over the age of twenty-one years, and being a citizen of the United States, or having filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen, as required by the naturalization laws.”  But no person shall be entitled to more than one preemptive right, and no person who is the proprietor of three hundred and twenty acres of land in any state or territory of the United States, and no person who shall quit or abandon his residence on his own land to reside on the public land in the same state or territory, shall acquire any right of preemption.

IV.  The method to perfect the right.  The preemptor must make a settlement on the land in person; inhabit and improve the same, and erect thereon a dwelling.  And when the land has been surveyed previous to settlement the preemptor shall, within thirty days of the date of the settlement, file with the register of the proper district a written statement describing the land settled upon, and declaring the intention of such person to claim the same under the provisions of the preemption law.  And within twelve months of the date of the settlement such person shall make the requisite proof, affidavit, and payment.  When unsurveyed lands are prompted (act of 1854), notice of the specific tracts claimed shall be filed with the surveyor general, within three months after the survey has been made in the field.  And when two or more persons shall have settled on the same quarter section, the right of preemption shall be in him or her who made the first settlement; and questions arising between different settlers shall be decided by the register and receiver of the district within which the land is situated, subject to an appeal to and revision by the Secretary of the Interior of the United States.

And the settler must make oath before the receiver or register that he or she has never had the benefit of any right of preemption under the preemption act:  that he or she is not the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of land in any state or territory of the United States, nor hath he or she settled upon and improved said land to sell the same on speculation, but in good faith to appropriate it to his or her own exclusive use or benefit:  and that he or she has not directly or indirectly made any agreement or contract in any way or manner with any person or persons whatsoever, by which the title which he or she might acquire from the government of the United States should enure in whole or in part to the benefit of any person except himself or herself; and if any person talking such oath shall swear falsely in the premises, he or she shall be subject to all the pains and penalties of perjury, and shall forfeit the money which he or she may have paid for such land, and all right and title to the same; and any grant or conveyance which he or she may have made, except in the hands of bona fide purchasers for a valuable consideration, shall be null and void.