The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, July 1949 - April, 1950 Page: 420
538 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
It was later contended by Texas that patents issued to Greer
County for these lands were without legal authority, and it was
urged that the same be canceled and held for naught. This con-
tention was sustained in the courts. The Court of Civil Appeals
of Texas said that if it were conceded that Greer County, as a
political division of Oklahoma Territory, had succeeded to the
legal title granted by the patents, still, as the lands referred to
were granted for public school purposes, and were held in trust
by Greer County for such purposes, and as Greer County would
not and could not use them for such purposes within the limits
of Texas, the state was entitled to have the patents canceled, and
recover the land.132 The Supreme Court of the United States
observed that the patents were issued for the support of schools
in Texas, that on the disappearance of the de facto county Texas
took whatever title that county had, and that without the consent
of Texas no corporation created by another sovereignty could
succeed to Texas lands.133
In the opinion of the court, Greer County failed on the short
ground that it was a stranger to the gift. Speaking for the court,
Justice Holmes said that Greer County was treating the change
brought about by the decision of the United States v. Texas,
as if it had been a cession of territory or mere transfer of sovereignty
by that or other means. It was nothing of the sort. It was a dis-
covery that the State of Texas never had had a title to the land
known as Greer County. The United States found itself at liberty to
do what it chose with that land. It could have done nothing. It
could have subdivided it at will. It could have made it part of some
existing county. The land and its inhabitants retained no legal
personality, least of all that personality with which Texas had pur-
ported to endow them.
In conclusion one may note that the claim of Texas to Greer
County extended from the creation of that country and state to
1896. During the interim, Greer County acquired and sold some
school lands west of Lubbock. For more than a third of a century
Texas exercised all the sovereign powers of a state over the coun-
ty, subsequently found by the Supreme Court of the United
States to be outside of Texas. It is not likely that Texas will soon
xlaGreer County v. State, Southwestern Reporter, LXXII, 1o4.
1saGreer County v. Texas, U. S. Reports, CXCVII, 235.420
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 53, July 1949 - April, 1950, periodical, 1950; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101126/m1/526/: accessed May 5, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.