If the agent of the United States and the owner of the lands or right-of-way to be condemned cannot agree as to the terms of the sale and purchase thereof, the probate court of the county in which such lands or any part thereof may lie may, on the application of the agent of the United States, proceed to condemn such lands to such uses as may be provided for.

The application of the United States or its agent must be in writing, verified by the oath of an agent or attorney, and must state with certainty the uses or purposes for which the land is to be taken or the interest or easement therein to be acquired, and must state the name and residence of the owner if known or, if unknown, must show that reasonable diligence has been used to ascertain the same.

On the filing of the application, the court must make and enter an order appointing the day for the hearing thereof. If the owner of the land resides within the state, the court must issue notice to him of the application and of the day of the hearing thereof, which must be served by the sheriff or other legal officer at least 10 days before the day appointed for the hearing. If the owner is unknown or if he resides without the state or has been absent from the state or beyond the jurisdiction of the court in which the application is made for six months next before the time of the filing of the application in said court, notice may be given by advertisement in any newspaper published in the county or, if there be no newspaper published in the county, by posting notice at the courthouse and three other public places for at least three weeks before the day appointed for the hearing. If the owner is an infant or of unsound mind, notice must be served on his guardian, if any he have, resident in the state, but if he resides in the state and has no such guardian, then the person who may have him in charge or with whom he may reside. If the owner is dead and the lands are in the possession or under the control of his personal representative, notice must be served on such representative and on the heirs at law of the decedent.

If the owner of the lands is an infant or is of unsound mind, the court, on the day appointed for the hearing, must appoint a guardian ad litem to represent him, and the guardian so appointed must file a written acceptance of the appointment, must appear and protect the rights and interests of such infant or person of unsound mind and, if he deems it necessary, may employ counsel to assist him. The compensation of such guardian and of his counsel must be ascertained by the court and taxed as costs of the proceedings.

If the owner does not appear on the hearing of the application, the court must hear the same and, if the application is granted, must appoint commissioners as herein provided for, and thereafter the same proceedings shall be had as if such owner had appeared.

On the day appointed or any other day to which the hearing may be continued, the court must hear the allegations of the application and any objections which may be filed to the granting thereof and any legal evidence touching the same, and shall make an order granting or refusing the application.

The hearing herein provided for must in all respects be conducted and evidence taken as in civil cases, and either party may, by bill of exception, reserve any opinion or decision of the court. Either party is entitled to an appeal to the Supreme Court from the order of the court granting or refusing the application within 42 days from the making thereof.

If the application is granted, the judge of probate must appoint three citizens of the county in which the lands sought to be condemned are situated, who shall possess the qualifications of jurors, who shall be disinterested and who shall be required to file a certificate along with their award that neither of them had ever been consulted, advised with or approached by any person in reference to the value of the lands or the proceedings to condemn the same, prior to the assessment of the damages, and that they knew nothing of the same before their appointment. The judge of probate is authorized to fill any vacancy occasioned by the death, resignation, failure to act or any disqualification of any such commissioners from interest, prior knowledge of the subject matter or by being consulted, advised with or approached in reference to the condemnation of such lands prior to appointment or to the assessment of damages. When the court shall have appointed the commissioners as herein provided, it shall at once issue a notice of such appointment to the sheriff, whose duty it shall be to serve such notice upon the person therein designated within five days of the receipt thereof, and the sheriff shall receive the same compensation for serving such notice as allowed for summoning jurors. It shall be the duty of the commissioners, or a majority of them, thus appointed by the judge of probate to assess the damages and compensation to which the owner of the land is entitled, and they shall be sworn as jurors are sworn. The commissioners may view the lands to be subjected and must receive all legal evidence that may be offered by either party touching the amount of the damages the owner of the lands will sustain and the amount of compensation he is entitled to receive. The amount of compensation to which the owner is entitled must not be reduced or diminished because of any incidental benefits which may accrue to him or to his remaining lands in consequence of the uses to which the lands proposed to be taken or in which an easement is proposed to be acquired will be appropriated. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent any applicant for the condemnation of land or any landowner whose land is sought to be condemned from being present in person or by attorney at any of the proceedings or trials provided for in this chapter.

The commissioners must, within 10 days from their appointment, report in writing to the court the amount of damages and compensation ascertained and assessed by them, and thereupon the court must order the same to be recorded and must make an order of condemnation in pursuance thereof upon payment of the damages and compensation so assessed and reported or the deposit of the same in court.

Either party may appeal from the assessment of damages and compensation by the commissioners to the circuit court of the county within 30 days after the making of the order of condemnation, upon the report of the commissioners, by filing in the court rendering the judgment a written notice of appeal, a copy of which shall be served on the opposite party, and on such appeal the trial shall be de novo. No appeal shall suspend the judgment if the applicant shall pay into court in money the amount of damages assessed and give bond in double the amount so assessed, with good and sufficient surety, to be approved by the judge of probate, to pay such damages as the owner may sustain.

The order of condemnation, upon the payment of the sum ascertained and assessed by the verdict of the jury, or the deposit thereof in the court for the defendant, shall vest in the United States the title in fee simple to the lands to be acquired for the uses and purposes stated in the application. But if an appeal shall be taken by either party, then the United States or its agents, upon the deposit in the court for the party whose land is sought to be condemned of the amount of damages and compensation so assessed, together with the cost of the proceeding, and giving a bond in double the amount of damages assessed, shall be entitled to enter upon the land so condemned and survey, construct and operate on the same for the uses, and purposes stated in the application, but such easement shall not vest absolutely in the United States until the final determination of the cause and payment or deposit in court of such damages and compensation as shall then be adjudged.

The applicant may pay the damages and compensation assessed at any time within six months after the assessment thereof or, in case an appeal is taken, within six months after the appeal is determined. If the applicant fails to pay the same within such time, such assessment shall cease to be binding on the owner of the lands, and the rights of the United States thereunder shall be terminated.

If the application is granted and the lands condemned, as provided in this chapter, and no appeal is taken therefrom, or, if appeal is taken and the lands described are condemned on appeal, the probate court in which the application is filed shall at once appoint a commissioner to execute the conveyance of the title to the lands so condemned and shall convey thereby all such title as the owners had therein to the United States, free from the claims of all persons whomsoever.