Alaska Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

The legal system

For its American period Alaska was a common-law jurisdiction — the system of judge-made rules England built up over centuries and passed to its colonies, which the United States kept after independence. Alaska's civil law was Oregon's, adopted almost word for word. From 1784 to 1867 the country was Russian America, run for the Tsar by the Russian-American Company under Russian civil law, a written-code system of the kind used across continental Europe rather than a judge-made one. For that era the records are Russian Orthodox Church registers and company records. The statutory rules below begin with the American period.

Russia ceded Alaska to the United States by the Treaty of Cession of 30 March 1867¹. Civil government came slowly, and for the first seventeen years an Alaska marriage, will, or estate was governed by military authority, custom, or church practice. The First Organic Act of 17 May 1884² made Alaska a judicial district and adopted the general laws of Oregon as its own, so from 1884 to 1899 Alaska's civil law was Oregon's law as it stood in 1884. Congress then wrote Alaska its own Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure³ and Civil Code and Code of Civil Procedure⁴, compiled as the Carter Code in 1900. The Second Organic Act of 24 August 1912⁵ created the Territory of Alaska with an elected legislature, which sat from 1913 and passed its own session laws. Statehood came in 1959, after this guide's period.

The rules stated below are the ones the Alaska codes of 1899 and 1900 laid down, and they held for the rest of this period. Alaska's codes were taken from Oregon's, so for the window from 1884 to 1899 the Oregon rule and the later Alaska rule are often the same sentence: the qualifications of a juror, and the competency of a child as a witness, read alike in both⁶. The Oregon rules on marriage, majority, dower, wills, descent, and guardianship have not been read against the volume for this guide; where an Alaska record falls before 1899, check those in the Oregon general laws.

One feature shapes almost every Alaska record: probate was local. From 1884 the commissioners held the powers of justices of the peace and had jurisdiction in all testamentary and probate matters, their courts being courts of record⁷. From 1900 the court divided the district into recording districts and named a commissioner as recorder of each⁸. Marriages, deeds, wills, estates, and guardianships from this period are therefore all in one officer's books.

Legal age of adulthood

From 1884 to 1899, while Oregon's law governed, a man came of age at 21 and a woman at 18⁹. The Alaska Civil Code of 1900 dropped the distinction: every person was deemed to arrive at majority at 21 and then had control of his or her own actions and business, with all the rights and liabilities of a citizen of full age¹⁰. So a woman of 19 in 1895 was of full age, and the same woman in 1905 was not.

One rule moved a woman to majority sooner: a female was deemed to have reached majority upon her marriage, whatever her age¹¹. A married woman under 21 was therefore of full age for dealing with her property, and her guardianship, if she had one, ended at the wedding (see Inheritance).

Two other Alaska ages sit near majority and are fixed by their own rules: a minor could choose his own guardian at 14 (see Inheritance), and the marriage ages are separate again (see Marriage). A minor's ordinary contract, including a deed, was voidable under the common law — it held good until the minor chose to undo it, which he could do on reaching 21.

Marriage

Marriage age, and a marriage that stands until annulled

Marriage was a civil contract. From 1884 to 1899 Oregon's law set the ages at 18 for a male and 15 for a female¹². From 1900 the Alaska Civil Code raised them: a male of 21 and a female of 18, each otherwise capable¹³. A bride of 16 in the 1890s was therefore of full marriageable age, and the same bride in 1901 was not.

A marriage in which a party was under the legal age — or lacked sufficient understanding, or whose consent was obtained by force or fraud — was voidable, but only at the suit of the party under the disability¹⁴. The practical effect matters for a researcher: a young person's marriage stood as a valid marriage, and its children were legitimate, unless that same young person went to court to undo it. An underage Alaska marriage therefore leaves an ordinary marriage record in the commissioner's files.

Oregon's law had called for a license from the county clerk of the county where the woman lived, and withheld it without a parent's written consent where the woman was under 18 or the man under 21¹⁵. Alaska had no counties and no county clerks, and no Alaska license requirement is recorded before 1917, so how far those sections ever operated in the district is worth care.

Under the Alaska code itself, until 1917 no license had to be taken out and no parent's consent was called for. The marriage chapter, headed "Of husband and wife," set the ages, listed the two prohibited marriages, said when a marriage was voidable, and named who could solemnize one; it asked for nothing else¹⁶. In 1917 the Territorial Legislature required that no person be joined in marriage in the Territory until a license had been obtained from a duly appointed and qualified United States commissioner, and that rule stood for the rest of this period¹⁷. So an Alaska marriage from 1917 leaves a license in the commissioner's files as well as a certificate, and one from before 1917 may leave neither.

Common-law marriage, and the license of 1917

The code set out how a marriage was to be solemnized: no particular form was required, except that the parties had to declare, in the presence of each other and of the officiant and of at least two attending witnesses, that they took each other to be husband and wife¹⁸.

Before 1917 those provisions only described how a marriage might be solemnized; they did not say that a marriage made any other way was void. A couple who agreed to take each other as husband and wife and lived as married were married at common law, and the Alaska courts upheld such marriages three times over¹⁹. This is the single most important thing to know about an early Alaska couple: a man and a woman living together as husband and wife before 1917 may have been lawfully married with no ceremony, no officiant, and no document of any kind. The license act of 1917 ended it. From that year the words of the statute were mandatory, and the Alaska Supreme Court later held a marriage attempted without a license invalid²⁰.

A child's status followed the marriage: the children of a valid marriage were legitimate, and where a child was born before the parents married, the later marriage legitimated the child (see Inheritance).

The officiant could be any minister or priest of any church or congregation in the district, any judicial officer within his jurisdiction, or a commissioner as justice of the peace²¹. He gave each party a certificate naming the parties and at least two witnesses²² — the marriage record a genealogist is after. From 1913 that certificate was made out in triplicate on blanks from the Territorial Registrar of Vital Statistics: one copy to the husband, one to the wife, and the third filed within thirty days with the commissioner of the precinct where the marriage was performed, who recorded it and sent the original on to the registrar in the first ten days of the following month²³. An Alaska marriage after 1913 should therefore survive in three places. A marriage held even where the officiant lacked authority, as long as the couple believed they had been lawfully joined²⁴, and a marriage solemnized according to the ritual of any religious organization, where there was no legal impediment, was valid²⁵ — the provision that carries Quaker and other self-solemnized religious marriages. Alaska marriage records are therefore licenses, certificates, and returns filed with the commissioner.

The restrictions on marriage

The impediments to an Alaska marriage were two, and they applied to everyone on the same terms²⁶:

• An existing marriage. A marriage in which either party already had a husband or wife living was prohibited.
• Kinship. A marriage between persons related within, and not including, the fourth degree of consanguinity (blood relationship), whether of the whole or half blood, computed by the rules of the civil law, was prohibited.

Those two impediments were the whole of the list. A marriage between a white settler and an Alaska Native, and between the races generally, was a valid marriage on the same terms as any other, and the children of it were legitimate. Mixed marriages therefore appear in the ordinary marriage, church, and commissioner records. Russian-era and later Russian, Creole, and Native marriages are recorded in the Orthodox church registers; from the American period an Alaska Native couple married under the same law as anyone else.

Property ownership

Owning land

Land could be owned from birth: a person of any age held land that came by inheritance, by gift, or by devise (a gift of land made in a will). Full power to buy, sell, and convey land in one's own right came with majority at 21, for a man or a woman alike²⁷; a minor could hold land, but his own deed was voidable until he reached 21 (see Legal age of adulthood). A minor's land was managed, and when necessary sold, by a guardian under the commissioner's supervision and bond²⁸ (see Inheritance). Where an Alaska deed conveys a child's land, the guardianship file in the commissioner's records holds the family.

Women and land

A married woman owned her real and personal property in her own name. Property owned by either husband or wife was that spouse's own and answered only for that spouse's own debts²⁹; the owner could sue for her property as if unmarried³⁰; and husband and wife could convey property to each other³¹. Deeds and mortgages taken in a married woman's own name are therefore normal in Alaska, and are worth following as evidence that the land was hers.

When a wife signed a deed

Dower (a widow's life interest — the right to use the land for her lifetime) attached to the land the husband owned at his death. A widow took the use for life of one-third in value of all the lands her husband was seized of — owned and held — at his death, where he held them in a form that could pass to his heirs³². Because dower reached only the land the husband still owned when he died, land he sold during his life passed to the buyer with clear title, and his deed carried his signature alone. A deed of the husband's own land, signed by him alone, is the normal form.

A wife's name appears on an Alaska deed chiefly when the land was hers. A married woman living in the district conveyed her real property by joining with her husband in the deed and acknowledging — stating before an officer, who wrote it on the deed — that she executed it freely and voluntarily³³; a separate provision governed a married woman living outside the district³⁴. A joint deed by husband and wife usually means the land came to the wife — by inheritance, gift, or her own purchase — and that is a lead worth following.

Deed formalities and witnesses

A deed of land in the district had to be signed and executed in the presence of two witnesses, who signed their own names to it, and acknowledged before a judge, the clerk of the district court, a notary public, or a commissioner, who wrote a certificate of that acknowledgment on the deed; the deed was then recorded³⁵. Recording is what makes a deed good against later purchasers. The law fixed the number of witnesses at two and left who could serve to the general competency rule: a witness had to understand what he was doing and be able to give a rational account of it. The two witnesses to a deed are two names worth harvesting, since they were commonly kin or neighbors of the grantor — the person selling or giving the land.

Alaska Native land, and the Russian inheritance

In the Russian period, Native possession rested on Russian practice and on the Russian-American Company's control of the coast. When the United States took over, the First Organic Act of 1884 provided that Natives were not to be disturbed in the possession of any lands they actually used or occupied, and reserved the terms on which they might acquire title for future legislation³⁶. Individual Alaska Natives could obtain title under two later federal acts, and both created record trails that are among the richest sources for Native families:

• The Alaska Native Allotment Act of 17 May 1906³⁷ allowed an individual Alaska Native to receive up to 160 acres of non-mineral land on proof of substantially continuous use and occupancy. The title was held by the United States in trust, and the allotment was inalienable and nontaxable — it could be sold or taxed only with federal approval. An allotment application had to prove use and occupancy, often with maps and family testimony, so an allotment case file can document a family's presence on the land for generations.
• The Alaska Native Townsite Act of 25 May 1926³⁸ gave Alaska Natives restricted lots under their homes in villages and towns, also nontaxable and inalienable.

Inheritance

A person who died without a will died intestate (leaving no valid will), and the Civil Code divided the estate.

An intestate estate: the widow and the children

Real property descended in equal shares to the children, and to the descendants of any child who had died first, who divided between them the share their parent would have taken. If there were no descendants, the land descended to the surviving spouse, and if there was none, to the father, then to the mother, and then to the brothers and sisters and next of kin³⁹. When there were children, the land itself went to them, subject to the widow's dower; when there were no descendants, the surviving spouse took the land outright.

The widow's share had two parts, and they worked differently:

• Real estate — a life interest. She took dower: the use for her lifetime of one-third of the land her husband owned at his death⁴⁰. The land descended to the children at his death subject to her thirds, and came to them free of dower at her death. Her third was marked out by three disinterested commissioners, by metes and bounds — a written description walking the boundary line by line — where that could be done⁴¹, and their return in the estate file often describes her thirds field by field. Where a husband's will gave her something in lieu of (in place of) dower, she chose between the two, in writing filed with the commissioner⁴².
• Personal estate — owned outright. She first received her apparel and ornaments and a support allowance for herself and her minor children⁴³. After debts and the costs of settling the estate⁴⁴, what was left over was distributed to those who took the real property — that is, the children — except that a surviving widow with children took one-half of what was left, and all of it where there were no children⁴⁵. Where there was no spouse and no kindred, what was left escheated — passed for want of an heir — to the United States⁴⁶. A surviving husband took the same one-half or whole share⁴⁷.

Curtesy is the husband's mirror-image right: where his wife owned land in a form that could pass to her heirs, the husband held that land for his life as tenant by the curtesy after her death, whether or not a child had been born alive to the marriage⁴⁸. Like dower, it was a life interest and not ownership.

Dower and curtesy governed for the whole of this period. Dower was abolished in 1963⁴⁹, after the years this guide covers.

Minors' inheritance and guardians

A minor's inheritance went to a guardian, under the commissioner's supervision and under bond — a written promise, backed by sureties, to account for the child's money. The commissioner appointed guardians for resident minors when it was necessary or convenient, and for non-resident minors who owned property in the district⁵⁰; relatives were preferred, the nearest first, if of good character and competent⁵¹. A parent could name a guardian by will⁵².

The age at which a minor could choose his own guardian was 14, for a male or a female alike: under 14 the commissioner named and appointed the guardian, and at 14 or above the minor named his own, who was appointed if the commissioner approved⁵³. Guardianship ended at majority — 21 — and a female ward's guardianship ended on her marriage⁵⁴, matching the rule that a woman reached majority when she married.

The guardian's bond and final settlement date a birth. Every guardian gave bond and accounted to the ward, so the guardian's final settlement was filed when the ward reached 21, bracketing the ward's birth year within a few months.

Children born outside marriage

A child born out of wedlock inherited from the mother as if born in lawful wedlock, taking from the mother herself; and if such a child died intestate without a spouse or children, the property went to the mother⁵⁵.

The route that reaches furthest into a family's records was legitimation by the parents' marriage. Where the parents of a child born before marriage afterward married, the child became legitimate to all intents and purposes⁵⁶, and even a formal marriage of the parents later held void made the child legitimate⁵⁷. When an inheritance runs to a child whose birth predates the parents' marriage, the marriage is the record to find.

Wills

The age to make a will was 21, for land and personal property alike, for any person of sound mind — subject, where the maker was married, to the other spouse's dower or curtesy⁵⁸.

Every valid will was in writing, signed by the testator — the person making the will — or by another at his direction and in his presence, and attested by two or more competent witnesses who signed their names in the testator's presence⁵⁹. The law fixed the number of witnesses at two and left who could serve to the competency test: a witness of any age could serve who understood what he was doing and could relate it. A nuncupative (spoken) will was received only in narrow circumstances, and could be proved once fourteen days had passed after the death⁶⁰.

Two rules protect a researcher from misreading a will. A child — or a dead child's descendants — not named or provided for, even one born after the will was made or after the testator's death, took the share the child would have taken had there been no will, and the others named in the will paid back their proportional parts to make it up⁶¹. And a will was revoked by the testator's later marriage together with the birth of a child, and a will made by an unmarried person was revoked by a later marriage⁶².

An executor had to be of full age. A person named in a will as executor who was a minor could qualify only on reaching 21, and in the meantime an administrator with the will annexed — a substitute appointed by the court to carry out the will — served instead⁶³. Every executor and administrator gave bond. A minor named as executor appears in the file, but someone else takes the letters — the court's written authority to settle the estate — so read the letters to learn who actually settled it.

Taxation

The taxes that fell on an ordinary Alaskan were charged by the head — a poll or road tax — together with license and occupation taxes on trades and businesses. A "poll" is the taxable person — a head — and a poll or capitation tax is a fixed sum charged on a person simply for being there.

Three individual taxes reach the ordinary person, and each throws off a record:

• The road tax, until 1913. Every able-bodied male between 18 and 50 who had lived thirty days in the district owed two days' work of eight hours each on the public roads and trails under the precinct road overseer, or a substitute, or $4 a day in place of the work⁶⁴; a pauper supported by the precinct was exempt. The first Territorial Legislature repealed the federal road-overseer and road-district act in April 1913⁶⁵, so these rolls belong to the years before that. The road overseer reported each year the names of all persons liable to the tax, those who had worked it out, those who had paid, and those who had not⁶⁶. These precinct road-tax rolls name every able-bodied man aged 18 to 50 — the closest thing to an annual census of the district's men.
• The municipal poll tax. An incorporated town could levy a poll tax of not less than $2 nor more than $4 a year on every male resident over 21 and under 50, except an unpaid volunteer fireman, and the tax became a lien on the man's property; it could also levy a dog tax of up to $2 and a general tax for school and municipal purposes on all real and personal property, capped at two per cent of the assessed value⁶⁷.
• The territorial poll tax, from 1913. The first Territorial Legislature laid an annual tax of $4 on every male person in the Territory over 21 and under 50. It fell on men alone, and it passed over soldiers, sailors of the Navy and the Revenue Cutter Service, volunteer firemen, paupers, insane persons, and Territorial charges⁶⁸. The commissioner of each precinct wrote out, before the first of March each year, the names of everyone in his precinct who owed the tax, kept one copy and sent the other to the Territorial Treasurer, and gave notice in a local newspaper or by posting in five public places. He receipted each payment from a numbered stub book. Those annual precinct lists name every man aged 21 to 50 in the Territory, year by year, from 1913.

License and occupation taxes fell on trades and businesses on a published schedule — salmon canneries paid by the case, salteries by the barrel, drug stores and cigar stands a flat sum a year⁶⁹ — so an ancestor's business may appear on a license-tax record. Alaska Native allotment and townsite land was nontaxable (see Property ownership).

Courts, juries, and testimony

Serious matters were heard by the United States district court, with commissioners acting as local magistrates, probate judges, and recorders — which is why much early Alaska probate and deed material sits in the commissioners' books.

Jury service

A juror had to be a male citizen of the United States, an inhabitant of the district, over 21 years of age, in possession of his natural faculties and of sound mind, and free of any felony conviction. That was the rule from 1884, when Oregon's law governed and set the same four qualifications, through the Alaska act of 1899 that restated them⁷⁰. Certain persons were exempt from the duty⁷¹. Where your ancestor sat on an Alaska jury in this period, he was an adult male citizen.

Women became electors in Alaska in 1913, by the first act the Territorial Legislature passed⁷². An Alaska Native could establish citizenship under a territorial act of 1915, and the route it laid down threw off an unusually full record: an examination by the teachers of a government, territorial, or municipal school; a certificate endorsed by five white citizens who had known the applicant a year; a sworn renunciation of tribal custom; a petition to the United States District Court, posted at the clerk's office and at the applicant's nearest post office; and, sixty days later, a hearing and the judge's certificate⁷³. Those files name people, places, and years. Whether the jury lists followed either change has not been confirmed for this guide⁷⁴.

Age of criminal responsibility

The common law fixed criminal responsibility in Alaska. A child of 14 or older bore full responsibility for a crime. Between 7 and 14 the law presumed the child incapable, and the prosecution could overcome that presumption with proof. A child under 7 was treated as incapable of crime. Alaska's own criminal law defined the crimes and left capacity alone, so the common-law ages held throughout this period⁷⁵.

Witnesses

Competency governed who could testify, in a criminal case, a civil one, on a deed, or on a will. A witness had to be of sound mind; a child was competent from the age of ten, and younger where the child could take in the facts correctly and relate them truly. Oregon's law had put it in the same words before 1899, so this test held from 1884⁷⁶. A child over ten, and any adult of sound mind, could testify, and children did testify.

An interested party, a person who had been convicted of a crime, and a person of any religious opinion were all competent to testify; those matters went only to how much the jury should believe the witness⁷⁷, so a party could testify in his own case. A husband or wife could be examined for or against the other only with that spouse's consent, and what they had said to each other in confidence stayed protected, except in a case between the spouses or for a crime by one against the other⁷⁸. In a criminal case the accused was a competent witness at his own request. These grounds applied to all persons on the same terms: women and Alaska Natives were competent witnesses. In an 1897 Alaska murder case, a Native woman was sworn and testified against both the defendant and her own husband, and the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction because the trial judge had refused to let the defense question her about matters bearing on her truthfulness⁷⁹.

(Guide compiled by Jeniann Nielsen with AI assistance from Claude Opus 4.8 and Gemini Pro 3.1. Check primary sources as needed.)

Sources & Where to Verify

Codes and Compilations

• Carter, Thomas H., ed. The Laws of Alaska: Embracing the Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Political Code, the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Civil Code, with the Treaty of Cession. Chicago: Callaghan, 1907. The compilation known as the Carter Code, whose section numbers the 1913 compilation prints in the margin. The Alaska Court System Law Library notes that it is listed variously as 1900 and as 1907 and that it is unclear whether these are the same printing; see its "Prestatehood Statutes," below.
• Charlton, John, comp. Compilation of the Acts of Congress and Treaties Relating to Alaska from March 30, 1867, to March 3, 1905. 1906. The Charlton Code, whose section numbers the 1913 compilation prints beside the Carter Code numbers. Place and publisher not established here; take them from the title page.
• Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1933. Published by authority of ch. 126, Session Laws of Alaska, 1933; compiled under the supervision of Henry Roden, Jas. S. Truitt, and Frank A. Boyle, Law Revision Board. Place and publisher not established here; take them from the title page.
• Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1949 (cited as ACLA 1949). Published under authority of ch. 28, Session Laws of Alaska, 1947, by the Alaska Law Compilation Commission, J. Oliver Tucker, editor in chief. The code in force at the close of this period; its § 21-1-1 carried the marriage-license requirement of 1917. Place and publisher not established here; take them from the title page.
• The Compiled Laws of the Territory of Alaska, 1913. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1913. Senate Document 1093, 62nd Congress, 3rd session; compiled by Frank T. Wolcott, F. C. Moon, and Victor E. Van Ameringen for the Joint Committee on Territories. One continuous run of section numbers from the federal acts at the front through the Alaska codes at titles XI to XV, which makes it the citation of record throughout this guide. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015034620149 (accessed 23 July 2026).
• Deady, Matthew P., comp. The Organic and Other General Laws of Oregon, Together with the National Constitution and Other Public Acts and Statutes of the United States, 1845–1864. Portland, Or.: H. L. Pittock, State Printer, 1866.
• Hill, William Lair, comp. The Codes and General Laws of Oregon. 2nd ed. 2 vols. San Francisco: Bancroft-Whitney, 1892; first edition 1887. Compiled under authority of the Oregon act of 26 February 1885, with the date of passage of each section printed in the margin. Volume 1 carries the codes of civil and criminal procedure, including the qualifications of jurors and the competency of witnesses; volume 2 carries the civil-law titles, including domestic relations at §§ 2852–2953 and estates in dower and by the curtesy at §§ 2954–2983. The place to read Alaska’s rule for the 1884–1899 window. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/codesandgeneral00hillgoog (accessed 23 July 2026).

Session Laws

• Alaska Civil Code and Code of Civil Procedure. Act of 6 June 1900, ch. 786, 31 Stat. 321. Three titles in one act: title I, the government of the district; title II, the Code of Civil Procedure; title III, the Civil Code. The source of the marriage, majority, dower, curtesy, descent, wills, guardianship, and witness rules. Digital images. Internet Archive, from the Library of Congress copy. https://archive.org/details/us_stat_31 (accessed 23 July 2026).
• Alaska Native Allotment Act. 17 May 1906, 34 Stat. 197.
• Alaska Native Townsite Act. 25 May 1926, 44 Stat. 629.
• Alaska Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure. Act of 3 March 1899, ch. 429, 30 Stat. 1253; juror qualifications at § 11, 30 Stat. 1286. Digital images. Internet Archive, from the Library of Congress copy. https://archive.org/details/us_stat_30 (accessed 23 July 2026).
• First Organic Act. 17 May 1884, ch. 53, 23 Stat. 24. Adopted Oregon’s general laws as the law of Alaska (§ 7), gave the commissioners probate jurisdiction (§ 5), and protected Native possession (§ 8). Digital images. Internet Archive, from the Library of Congress copy. https://archive.org/details/us_stat_23 (accessed 23 July 2026). Also Alaskool. http://www.alaskool.org/projects/native_gov/legislation/organic_act/organic_act_1884.htm (accessed 23 July 2026).
• Second Organic Act. 24 August 1912, ch. 387, 37 Stat. 512. Created the Territory and its legislature.
• Session Laws of Alaska. 1913– . Juneau: Daily Empire Print, 1913, for the first volume. Ch. 1 of 1913 extended the franchise to women; ch. 3 of 1913 repealed the federal road-overseer act; ch. 54 of 1913 imposed the territorial poll tax; ch. 56 of 1917 first required a marriage license; ch. 35 of 1913 required the registration of vital statistics; ch. 24 of 1915 defined the political status of certain Native Indians; ch. 44 of 1915 amended the marriage-certificate sections; § 30 of ch. 38 of 1963 repealed dower. Digital images of the 1913 volume. HathiTrust. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b4374847 (accessed 23 July 2026). Digital images of the 1915 volume. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/sessionlawsreso00coungoog (accessed 23 July 2026). Also Alaska State Library. https://library.alaska.gov/hist/fulltext/ASL-KFA-1225.A3-1915.htm (accessed 23 July 2026).
• Treaty of Cession (Alaska Purchase). 30 March 1867, 15 Stat. 539.

Court Cases

• Edwards v. Franke. 364 P.2d 60 (Alaska 1961). Holds the 1917 license requirement mandatory and traces the history of Alaska marriage law. Justia. https://law.justia.com/cases/alaska/supreme-court/1961/45-1.html (accessed 23 July 2026).
• McDaniels v. McDaniels. 5 Alaska 107 (D. Alaska 1914).
• Parks v. Parks. 6 Alaska 426 (D. Alaska 1921).
• Reed v. Harkrader. 264 F. 834 (9th Cir. 1920).
• Tla-koo-yel-lee v. United States. 167 U.S. 274 (1897). Justia. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/167/274/ (accessed 23 July 2026).

Secondary and Reference Works

• Alaska Court System Law Library. "Prestatehood Statutes." https://courts.alaska.gov/library/docs/prestatehood-statutes.pdf (accessed 23 July 2026).
• Brown, Frederic E. "The Sources of the Alaska and Oregon Codes." UCLA-Alaska Law Review 2 (1972–73). Maps each Alaska Civil Code section to its Oregon original.
• Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Land Management, Alaska. Custodians of the Native allotment and townsite case files described under Property ownership.
• Case, David S., and David A. Voluck. Alaska Natives and American Laws. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. The standard treatment of Native land and civil status. Edition and year not established here; take them from the title page.
• National Park Service. "First Territorial Legislature of Alaska." https://www.nps.gov/people/first-territorial-legislature-of-alaska.htm (accessed 23 July 2026). And "Alaska and the 19th Amendment." https://www.nps.gov/articles/alaska-and-the-19th-amendment.htm (accessed 23 July 2026).
• Reamer, David. On the first Territorial Legislature and the 1913 poll tax. Anchorage Daily News. Article title and date not established here.
• Russell, Judy G. "Alaska’s Oregonian Law." The Legal Genealogist. https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2015/08/25/alaskas-oregonian-law/ (accessed 23 July 2026).
• Russian-American Company records and Russian Orthodox Church registers. Library of Congress; Alaska State Archives. The core sources for the Russian period, 1784–1867.
• U.S. Women’s Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States. A citation-bearing digest of majority, married women’s property, dower, curtesy, wills, intestacy, guardianship, marriage, and jury service, issued state by state. FRASER. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/5430 (accessed 23 July 2026). Whether a report was issued for Alaska is not established here; if one was, take its bulletin number and year from the title page.

Citations

1. Treaty of Cession (Alaska Purchase), 30 March 1867, 15 Stat. 539. ↩
2. An Act Providing a Civil Government for Alaska, 17 May 1884, ch. 53, 23 Stat. 24; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_23 : accessed 23 July 2026). ↩
3. An Act To Define and Punish Crimes in the District of Alaska and to Provide a Code of Criminal Procedure for Said District, 3 March 1899, ch. 429, 30 Stat. 1253; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_30 : accessed 23 July 2026). ↩
4. An Act Making Further Provision for a Civil Government for Alaska, and for Other Purposes, 6 June 1900, ch. 786, 31 Stat. 321, comprising title I (government of the district), title II (Code of Civil Procedure), and title III (Civil Code); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/us_stat_31 : accessed 23 July 2026). ↩
5. An Act To Create a Legislative Assembly in the Territory of Alaska, 24 August 1912, ch. 387, 37 Stat. 512. ↩
6. Act of 17 May 1884, § 7, declaring the general laws of Oregon then in force to be the law of the district; William Lair Hill, comp., The Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., 2 vols. (San Francisco: Bancroft-Whitney, 1892), 1: §§ 711, 947, which the Alaska codes carried forward; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/codesandgeneral00hillgoog : accessed 23 July 2026). Volume 2 supplies the Oregon rules on marriage and majority for that window, and its curtesy section, § 2983, is the sentence Alaska later carried at § 56. Read volume 2 further for the Oregon rules on dower, wills, descent, and guardianship in force from 1884 to 1899. ↩
7. Act of 17 May 1884, § 5, giving commissioners the powers of justices of the peace under the general laws of Oregon and jurisdiction in all testamentary and probate matters. ↩
8. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. I, providing for recording districts and designating a commissioner as ex officio recorder of each. ↩
9. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., §§ 2951, 2953, headed "Majority of males and females, time of" and "Marriage of females equivalent to majority." ↩
10. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 34, 31 Stat. 498; The Compiled Laws of the Territory of Alaska, 1913 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1913), § 460; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015034620149 : accessed 23 July 2026). The compilation numbers the Civil Code sections 426 higher than the act, and the Code of Civil Procedure sections 832 higher. ↩
11. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 35; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 461. ↩
12. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., § 2852, enacted 15 October 1862, the section Alaska took in 1884. ↩
13. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 5, 31 Stat. 494; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 431. ↩
14. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 7; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 433. ↩
15. Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., §§ 2863–2865; and see Edwards v. Franke, 364 P.2d 60, 63 (Alaska 1961), which records no Alaska licensing requirement before 1917. ↩
16. The marriage chapter, headed "Of husband and wife," runs from Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 431 to § 443, and carries no licensing or consent provision; nor does its source, Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), §§ 5–17. ↩
17. Session Laws of Alaska, 1917, ch. 56, § 1, carried forward as § 21-1-1, Alaska Compiled Laws Annotated, 1949; quoted and construed in Edwards v. Franke, 364 P.2d 60, 63 (Alaska 1961). ↩
18. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 9; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 435. ↩
19. McDaniels v. McDaniels, 5 Alaska 107 (D. Alaska 1914); Reed v. Harkrader, 264 F. 834 (9th Cir. 1920); Parks v. Parks, 6 Alaska 426 (D. Alaska 1921); and see Edwards v. Franke, 364 P.2d 60, 63 (Alaska 1961), holding these decisions confined to marriages contracted before 1917. The Oregon marriage statute that governed from 1884, enacted 15 October 1862, is § 2852 of Hill's Codes and General Laws of Oregon, and its solemnization provisions were read as directory in Reed v. Harkrader. ↩
20. Edwards v. Franke, 364 P.2d 60, 63 (Alaska 1961); digital images, Justia (https://law.justia.com/cases/alaska/supreme-court/1961/45-1.html : accessed 23 July 2026). ↩
21. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 8; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 434. ↩
22. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 10; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 436. ↩
23. Session Laws of Alaska, 1913, ch. 35, "An Act to require the registration of vital statistics in the Territory of Alaska," approved 25 April 1913, §§ 7–8, as amended by Session Laws of Alaska, 1915, ch. 44, approved 28 April 1915; digital images of the 1915 volume, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/sessionlawsreso00coungoog : accessed 23 July 2026). ↩
24. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 11; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 437. ↩
25. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 12; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 438. ↩
26. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 6; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 432. ↩
27. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 34, 31 Stat. 498; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 460. ↩
28. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 890, 903; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 1722, 1735. ↩
29. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 13; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 439. ↩
30. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 14; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 440. ↩
31. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 15; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 441. ↩
32. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 36, 31 Stat. 498; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 462. ↩
33. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 86; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 512. ↩
34. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 87; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 513. ↩
35. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 82; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 508. ↩
36. First Organic Act, 17 May 1884, 23 Stat. 24, § 8. ↩
37. Alaska Native Allotment Act, 17 May 1906, 34 Stat. 197. ↩
38. Alaska Native Townsite Act, 25 May 1926, 44 Stat. 629. ↩
39. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 168, 31 Stat. 513; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 594. ↩
40. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 36; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 462. ↩
41. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 37–39; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 463–465. ↩
42. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 46–47; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 472–473. ↩
43. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(1); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(1). ↩
44. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(2); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(2). ↩
45. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(3), (5); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(3), (5). ↩
46. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(6); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(6). ↩
47. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 169(4); Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 595(4). ↩
48. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 56, 31 Stat. 500; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 482. ↩
49. § 30, ch. 38, Session Laws of Alaska, 1963, repealing the dower chapter, as recorded in the repealer note to the former dower title of the Alaska Statutes; read the act in the 1963 session laws to confirm the section and see what it did with curtesy. ↩
50. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 888; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1720. ↩
51. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 887; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1719. ↩
52. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 892; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1724. ↩
53. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 889; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1721. ↩
54. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 907; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1739. ↩
55. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 171–172; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 597–598. ↩
56. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 12, 171; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 438, 597. ↩
57. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 171, proviso; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 597. ↩
58. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 137, 31 Stat. 510; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 563. ↩
59. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 138; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 564. ↩
60. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 148–149; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 574–575. ↩
61. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 143; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 569. ↩
62. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. III (Civil Code), § 139–140; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, §§ 565–566. ↩
63. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 779; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1611. ↩
64. Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 36, headed "Two days' road work, etc., required of male residents"; derived from the Charlton Code — John Charlton, comp., Compilation of the Acts of Congress and Treaties Relating to Alaska from March 30, 1867, to March 3, 1905 (1906) — pages 102 and 470, §§ 5958–5959, as the compilation’s own source line gives it. Take the imprint from the title page. ↩
65. Session Laws of Alaska, 1913, ch. 3 (S.B. 12), repealing the Act of Congress of 27 April 1904, ch. 1629, 33 Stat. 391, which had authorized road overseers and road districts, approved 5 April 1913. Read the roads chapter of the 1913 compilation against this repeal to see what survived it. ↩
66. Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 37, requiring the overseer’s annual report of all persons subject to the road tax. ↩
67. Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 627, the powers of a town common council, subdivisions "Seventh" (poll tax), "Eighth" (dog tax), and "Ninth" (general property tax); derived from 33 Stat. 531–532. ↩
68. Session Laws of Alaska, 1913 (Juneau: Daily Empire Print, 1913), ch. 54 (H.B. 98), "An Act to impose a poll tax upon male persons in the Territory of Alaska and providing means for its collection," §§ 1–10, pages 115–117; digital images, HathiTrust (https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b4374847 : accessed 23 July 2026). ↩
69. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. I, 31 Stat. 321, the schedule of license taxes on trades and businesses, and later amendments. ↩
70. Act of 3 March 1899, § 11, 30 Stat. 1286; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 2120; for the Oregon rule in force from 1884, Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., § 947, headed "Who are competent to act as jurors." ↩
71. Act of 3 March 1899, § 12; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 2121. ↩
72. Session Laws of Alaska, 1913, ch. 1 (H.B. 2), "An Act to extend the elective franchise to women in the Territory of Alaska." ↩
73. Session Laws of Alaska, 1915, ch. 24, "An Act to define and establish the political status of certain Native Indians within the Territory of Alaska," approved 27 April 1915, §§ 1–6, resting on the Act of 8 February 1887, ch. 119, § 6, 24 Stat. 390. ↩
74. Not confirmed. The first Territorial Legislature passed no act on juries in 1913, so the qualifications stood as the Act of 3 March 1899, § 11, had fixed them; read the jury-qualification sections in force after the franchise act of 1913 and after ch. 24 of the 1915 session laws. ↩
75. The common-law rule. Neither the Oregon law in force from 1884 nor the Alaska Penal Code of 1899 fixed an age of criminal responsibility, so the common law governed throughout. Oregon later let a court suspend judgment on a minor under sixteen and commit him to a reformatory instead of prison, but that act was passed on 25 February 1885, after the Organic Act had fixed the body of Oregon law Alaska took: Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., § 1414. ↩
76. Act of 6 June 1900, tit. II (Code of Civil Procedure), § 1034; Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1866; for the Oregon rule in force from 1884, Codes and General Laws of Oregon, 2nd ed., § 711, headed "Who cannot be witnesses." ↩
77. Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1865. ↩
78. Compiled Laws of Alaska, 1913, § 1867. ↩
79. Tla-koo-yel-lee v. United States, 167 U.S. 274, 277 (1897); Justia (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/167/274/ : accessed 23 July 2026). ↩