Whenever it is necessary, in any civil action or criminal proceeding, to prove the title of the state to any lands granted by an act of congress entitled “an act to grant a certain quantity of land to the state of Indiana, for the purpose of aiding said state in opening a canal to connect the waters of the Wabash river with those of Lake Erie,” passed March 2, 1827, and which were, by the state of Indiana, transferred to the state of Ohio by a joint resolution of the general assembly of Indiana, approved February 1, 1834, and such lands as have been or may be conveyed by the state of Ohio to any person, the deed of the state of Ohio, conveying the same, is prima-facie evidence that the title to the land conveyed was in the state of Ohio at the time of the execution of the conveyance.