Colorado Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

Two legal traditions, one state

Colorado rests on two legal foundations. The San Luis Valley belonged to Mexico until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo transferred it to the United States in 1848¹. Hispano colonists from Taos founded San Luis de la Culebra in 1851, and until American authority reached them these families lived under Spanish and then Mexican civil law — a system of written codes descended from Roman and Spanish law rather than from English judge-made rules. Their earliest land, water, and church records follow Mexican and Catholic forms.

Between the Mexican period and the creation of Colorado Territory, no single government covered the area. From 1854 to 1861 the land that became Colorado was split among four neighbors, and a record made in those years belongs to the parent territory, not to Colorado²:

• Kansas Territory held the eastern plains and the Front Range. Denver was founded in Kansas Territory in 1858, and the gold-rush settlements were governed from Kansas until it became a state in January 1861.
• Nebraska Territory held the northeast corner, above the 41st parallel.
• Utah Territory held the western slope.
• New Mexico Territory held everything south of the 38th parallel, including the San Luis Valley. San Luis was founded in New Mexico Territory in 1851, which is why the earliest records of those families are filed in New Mexico.

Settlers in the gold camps also set up their own government, the Territory of Jefferson, which ran from October 1859 until June 1861. Congress never recognized it, but it passed laws and its officers acted, so its records exist².

Congress organized the Territory of Colorado on 28 February 1861. The first territorial legislature adopted the common law of England — judge-made rules developed over centuries — so far as it was applicable, and made it the rule the courts were to decide by³. Civil law had governed the region until the legislature acted⁴. From 1861 Colorado was a common-law state, its law descended from England, and each spouse owned property separately. Statehood came on 1 August 1876.

Before 1861 the mining camps also governed themselves through informal miners' courts, people's courts, and claim clubs. The territory later confirmed their judgments by statute, including those of the "Kansas" courts that had sat under Kansas Territory⁵.

A common law rewritten by statute

The legislature replaced common-law rules with statutes over time, and a few of those changes reorganize the records:

• 1854 to 1861 — the area is divided among Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico territories; records follow the parent territory.
• 1861 — Colorado Territory is organized; it adopts English common law and enacts its own codes of descent, guardianship, marriage, crimes, and wills, borrowed largely from Illinois.
• 1868 — the Revised Statutes abolish dower and curtesy, make the surviving spouse an heir outright, and give a married woman her own separate property.
• 1876 — statehood; the constitution prohibits slavery and guarantees the property rights of resident aliens.
• 1881 — the marriage-license system begins.
• 1903 and 1907 — the juvenile court is created.
• 1919 — majority in property matters becomes 21 for both sexes. The marriage-consent ages are not changed.
• 1933 — a marriage under 18 becomes voidable, and annulment is put on a statutory footing.
• 1947 — the will age becomes a uniform 18 for both sexes.

For any given year, the rule in force is the statute where one had been passed by then, and the common law otherwise. The successive compilations named in the source list carry those statutes forward.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Majority at twenty-one for men, eighteen for women

For most of the period Colorado's age of full legal capacity differed by sex: a man reached majority at 21, a woman at 18⁶. This is the key to two rules that otherwise look odd — a woman could make a will of land, and could marry without a parent's consent, at 18, while a man waited until 21. Anyone below the applicable age was an "infant" or "minor" in legal language, whatever their maturity.

An act approved 28 March 1919 narrowed the difference. From that year 21 was the age of full age for all persons in relation to property rights, and that is the rule the 1935 code carries⁶. The older ages govern any record made before 1919. Note the limit in the 1919 act: it reached property. It did not touch the marriage-consent ages, so a woman of 18 still married without a parent's consent after 1919.

A minor's legal capacity

A minor could own property. What the law limited was the power to give it away or to be bound by a bargain:

• A minor's contracts were voidable — good until the minor undid them. A bargain already carried out stood until the minor did something to show he refused to be bound; a bargain still to be performed bound him once he approved it after coming of age⁷.
• A deed made by a minor was voidable in the same way. A minor's land was therefore sold for him by his guardian, who had to petition the court in writing and show that the ward's personal property had already been spent. The court fixed the time, place, and notice of sale, and the guardian returned the sale to the court for approval. Once approved and recorded, the return passed to the buyer everything the ward had owned⁸.
• A minor away from home and not under a parent's care could make a binding contract for necessaries — food, clothing — an exception the courts kept for the minor's own protection⁷.
• Wages and salary stayed with the minor: an assignment of them by a minor was void⁹.

Marriage

Marriage was a civil contract

Colorado law treated marriage as a civil contract, to which the consent of the parties was essential¹⁰. That single idea does a great deal of work in Colorado research, because it is the root of the state's recognition of common-law marriage, below.

Who was old enough to marry

Colorado's marriage chapter never set a minimum age, from the territorial period through the 1935 code. Capacity to marry therefore rested on the common law the legislature received in 1861: a boy could marry at 14, a girl at 12³.

That lasted until 1933, when the General Assembly declared every marriage with a party under 18 voidable, and allowed an annulment on that ground only if the person seeking it was still under 19 when the suit was begun¹¹. Voidable is the key word for a researcher: until a court actually annulled it the marriage stood, so an ancestor's underage marriage was almost certainly valid and its children legitimate. Colorado also looked to the law of the place of celebration, treating a marriage as good here if it was good where it was performed, even where a Colorado party was under 18¹¹.

From 1945 a firm minimum age appears. Marriage was prohibited where either party was under 16, and such a marriage was void unless a court approved it by decree¹².

Two further points from the 1933 act matter for family research. Annulment suits could be brought in either the district court or the county court, so the file may be in either¹¹. And no decree annulling a marriage affected the legitimacy of a child: any child born of a void or voidable marriage was the legitimate child of both parents¹¹. An annulment in the family record therefore does not make the children illegitimate.

Parental consent

The consent ages tracked the age of majority. No judge, justice of the peace, clergyman, or other person could knowingly marry a male under 21 or a female under 18 without a parent's consent, or the consent of the guardian who had charge of the minor. Where the couple had no parent or guardian in the state, the officiant used his own judgment. Breaking the rule was a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $500¹³. Because a woman came of age at 18, a woman of 18 married on her own account — and she still did after 1919, because the act of that year reached property rights only.

Under the later licensing law the consent had to be written, sworn, and filed with the application¹⁴. That filed consent names the parent or guardian who gave it, and it sits with the marriage application in the county clerk's office.

Common-law marriage was valid

Colorado recognized common-law marriage, and still does. Because marriage was a civil contract resting on consent, a marriage formed simply by the parties' present agreement to be husband and wife, followed by living together as husband and wife with the reputation of marriage in the community, was valid and binding, with no ceremony and no license¹⁵. This matters constantly in Colorado research: a couple may be legally married with no marriage record at all, their union provable instead by census entries, deeds, church rolls, children's records, and the testimony of neighbors.

Marriages the law forbade

A marriage was incestuous and absolutely void if it was between parents and children, including grandparents and grandchildren of every degree; between brothers and sisters of the half as well as the whole blood; between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews; or between first cousins. Knowingly contracting or solemnizing such a marriage was a misdemeanor, punished by a fine of $50 to $500, imprisonment of three months to two years, or both¹⁶.

A marriage valid where it was celebrated was valid in Colorado, subject to the bar on bigamy and polygamy¹⁷. From 1939 a physician's certificate showing freedom from communicable venereal disease had to accompany the license before any marriage could be performed¹⁸, so applications from 1939 onward carry a health certificate.

Marriage between white persons and people of color

From the territorial period Colorado declared void any marriage between a white person and a Black or mixed-race person of either sex. The same section reached children born outside marriage as well as those born within it. The statute's own wording is quoted in the citation¹⁶.

Two limits on that ban are worth knowing. First, it named only Black and mixed-race people. Unlike most of its neighbors, Colorado never extended the bar to Chinese, Japanese, or Native people, so those marriages were governed by the ordinary law¹⁶. Second, the section carried an unusual exception written to protect the formerly Mexican population brought into the United States in 1848: nothing in it was to prevent the people living in the portion of the state acquired from Mexico from marrying according to the custom of that country¹⁶.

The ban traces to an 1864 territorial act and was carried through every compilation to the 1935 code. The General Assembly repealed it in 1957¹⁹.

Colorado was organized as a free jurisdiction, and one marriage law governed everyone else. Black, mixed-race, and Hispanic couples married under the ordinary law — by ceremony or at common law — and appear in the same county and church records as everyone else, their children legitimate on the same terms.

Early camp marriages were made valid

Any judge, justice of the peace, or clergyman could perform a marriage, and each had to keep a record of the marriages he performed²⁰. One statute matters especially for the gold-rush years. It confirmed and made legal every marriage performed before 10 March 1864 by the president or judge of a mining district, by a justice of the peace, or by a clergyman. The children of such a marriage got the same rights as if it had been performed under the marriage chapter²¹. An early camp marriage is therefore good, and so is the legitimacy of its children.

The record is the officiant's certificate returned to the county clerk. From 1881 the clerk issued a license first, so the application, the license, and the officiant's return are filed together²².

Property Ownership

Which men could own land

Any person entitled to hold real estate could convey it to another by deed²³. A man could hold land at any age, taking it by inheritance, gift, or purchase. What full age governed was the power to deal in the land himself: at 21 a man could buy, sell, mortgage, and convey his own land by his own deed. A deed he gave before 21 was voidable, so a minor's land was ordinarily sold through a guardian and a court order.

A married man kept the same power over his own land that a single man had. After 1868, when dower was abolished, he conveyed it by his signature alone²⁴.

Single women and widows

A single woman or widow — a feme sole, "woman alone" — could buy, own, sell, mortgage, sue, and be sued exactly as a man could. Because a woman reached full age at 18, she did all of this in her own right at 18, three years earlier than a man⁶. From 1919 the age was 21 for both sexes in property matters⁶.

Married women

Under the older common law of coverture — the rule that a wife's legal identity merged into her husband's, making her a feme covert, "covered woman" — a husband managed his wife's land and took its rents and profits, and her personal property passed to him. Colorado ended this early, with the Revised Statutes of 1868.

From 1 July 1868 the real and personal property a woman owned at the time of her marriage, together with its rents, issues, profits, and proceeds, remained her sole and separate property. The same held for anything that came to her afterward. That covered property she inherited, a gift of land made in a will (a devise), a gift of goods or money made in a will (a bequest), and a gift from any person. It expressly covered presents from her husband, and the statute lists them: jewelry, silver, tableware, watches, money, and clothing. None of it was subject to her husband's disposal or liable for his debts²⁵.

Three further powers followed in the same chapter. She could bargain, sell, and convey her personal property and make contracts about it as if she were single²⁶. She could sue and be sued in all matters touching her property, person, or reputation as if she were single²⁷. And she could carry on any trade or business on her own account, keep the earnings as her separate property, and invest them in her own name²⁸. Acts of 1872, 1874, and 1881 rounded out her power to sign notes and bonds, contract debts in her own name, and convey her land as freely as a single woman²⁹. By the 1930s the Colorado courts treated the old unity of husband and wife as a figure of speech and coverture's disabilities as long since removed³⁰.

Two consequences follow for the records. A married woman's own land passed only by her own deed, because the separate deed of the husband conveyed no interest in his wife's land³¹. And land conveyed to a husband and wife together was held as ordinary co-owners, each with a share that passed by that spouse's own will or heirs, unless the deed expressly declared a joint tenancy³².

When a wife had to sign her husband's deed

From 1861 to 1868 a dower act was in force. Dower was a widow's life estate — the use of land for the rest of her life, with ownership passing to the heirs. The act gave her a one-third share in all the land her husband still owned at his death (the statute says "died seized of," meaning land he held at the moment he died). Because it reached only what he still owned at his death, a sale he made during his lifetime carried the land free of dower, and he did not need her signature to make it³³. What his deed could not do was pass her own land: no act, deed, or conveyance of the husband passed a married woman's estate without her assent, shown by her acknowledgment of the deed³³.

Two records come out of the dower years. At the husband's death the heir at law had to lay off and assign the widow's dower as soon as practicable, which produces an assignment of dower in the probate papers. And a gift to her by her husband's will barred her dower unless the will said otherwise, so a widow who preferred dower had to deliver a written renunciation to the probate court within one year of probate³³.

The Revised Statutes of 1868 ended dower altogether. Dower and the tenancy by the curtesy — the husband's matching right for life in his late wife's land — were abolished, and neither husband nor wife had any share in the estate of the other except the share the descent statute gave outright²⁴. So from 1868 through 1950 a Colorado deed of the husband's own land, signed by him alone, is the normal and complete form.

Two situations called for both signatures after 1868:

• The homestead — the family dwelling protected from creditors. It could be conveyed or mortgaged only if both husband and wife joined in the conveyance³⁴.
• The wife's own land, which was hers to convey and so carried her signature³¹.

So a wife's name on a Colorado deed after 1868 usually means one of two things: the land was hers, or the property was the homestead.

Which children could own land

A child could own land at any age, taking it by inheritance, gift, or purchase just as an adult did. Conveying it was the limit. A minor's deed was voidable, so a minor's land was sold through the court by his guardian, whose bond and settlement appear in the estate file⁸. The short form: own at any age, convey freely at full age.

Witnessing a deed

A Colorado deed was made ready for the record by the grantor's acknowledgment — his statement, before an authorized officer, that the deed was his act. These officers could take it³⁵:

• Judges and clerks of the supreme and district courts, and their deputies
• The county judge
• The county clerk and recorder, or his deputy
• Any notary public
• Any justice of the peace, within his own county
• For a deed signed outside Colorado, a comparable officer in that state; for one signed abroad, a United States consul

The officer had to know the signer personally. If he did not, the signer's identity had to be proved by at least one competent, credible witness, who was named in the certificate³⁵.

Where the grantor had not acknowledged the deed, it could be proved instead by a subscribing witness — a witness who had signed the deed himself. The officer examined him on oath and wrote his testimony down³⁶.

No statute set an age for that witness. The test was competency, not age: the witness had to understand an oath and be able to give a rational account of what he saw, which in practice meant an adult. The same general rule governed witnesses in court³⁷.

Recording the deed with the county clerk and recorder gave notice to everyone claiming an interest in the land. A deed that had stayed on the record for ten years counted as properly acknowledged, even if the acknowledgment had been defective³⁶.

People of color, Hispanic residents, and the foreign-born

Colorado was a free jurisdiction, and the constitution of 1876 prohibited slavery³⁸. Free people of color could acquire, own, and convey land on the same terms as anyone else, and appear in the land records accordingly.

Foreign-born owners held an unusually strong position in Colorado, and it is worth stating plainly because it differs from many states. The alien-property statute gave them three things³⁹:

• Any alien could take land by deed, will, or any other way, and could sell, assign, and pass it on — whether or not the person receiving it was a citizen.
• When an alien died, his land passed and descended exactly as if he had been a citizen.
• No one interested in the estate could be objected to for not being a citizen. The statute placed all such persons on the same footing as native-born citizens.

The constitution of 1876 wrote the same guarantee in for aliens who were or became bona fide residents⁴⁰, and the descent statute added that the alienage of the descendants did not invalidate any title to real estate descending from them⁴¹. So a foreign-born family could buy, hold, inherit, and pass on land in Colorado without naturalizing, and their deeds and probate files exist on the same terms as everyone else's.

Colorado also never enacted an alien land law — the kind of statute that barred "aliens ineligible for citizenship," in practice Asian immigrants, from owning land. Most western states had one. Colorado's legislature considered adding such a bar to the constitution in 1921 and again in 1944, and put it to the voters in 1944, but it failed each time⁴². Japanese and Chinese families in Colorado therefore hold land in their own names in the county records, where in a neighboring state the same family's land would be in the name of an American-born child or a corporation.

Hispanic residents of the San Luis Valley became United States citizens under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which promised that their property would be respected¹. Confirming a Mexican land grant was a federal matter, not a state one: the claim went to the federal Surveyor General, who investigated it and recommended it to Congress, and only Congress could confirm it⁴³. So for a San Luis Valley family the title documents are federal — the Surveyor General's report, the act of Congress, and the land patent — while the ordinary deeds recorded afterward are in the county.

Inheritance

An intestate estate: the surviving spouse and the children

A person who died without a will died intestate. From the Revised Statutes of 1868 a single statute divided both the land and the goods, and it made the surviving husband or wife a true heir who took ownership outright at the moment of death. After debts were paid the estate descended by the shares below²⁴:

The spouse's share is therefore a flat one-half whenever there are children, and the whole estate where there are none, without regard to how many children there were. Getting this right can make or break a family reconstruction built from an estate division.

Two adjustments run alongside the shares. Sometimes a child had already received land or goods from the parent during the parent's lifetime, as an advancement against what he would inherit. The other heirs could then have that gift charged against his share, and the probate judge heard the proof and fixed the amount. Money the parent had spent on a child's maintenance or education did not count as an advancement⁴⁴. And a divorce did not affect the right of children already born to inherit from either parent⁴⁵.

The widow's allowance

On top of her share, a widow could claim certain property as her sole and separate property, free of her husband's debts. Under the territorial statute and its successors this was a list of specific goods and livestock — a bed and bedding, the family's wearing apparel, a cow and calf, a horse, saddle and bridle, and household furniture — which the executor or administrator set apart to her. Where the estate did not contain the listed articles she could take their value in money or other property instead⁴⁶. By the 1930s the allowance had become a flat $2,000 in cash or property, still separate from her distributive share — the portion of the estate the statute gave her as heir. Where the husband left minor stepchildren of hers, $1,000 of it was reserved for those children⁴⁷. The allowance is a separate court record and it usually names the widow and the children.

The surviving spouse's election

A spouse could not be cut off by will. Where a married man deprived his wife of more than half his property by will, she could choose, after his death, to accept the will or to take one-half of his whole estate, real and personal, instead⁴⁸. The later code gave the same right to either spouse and required the written election to be filed in the county court within six months of probate⁴⁹. The election, or its absence, is in the probate file and tells you which the survivor chose.

The rule ran the other way too. A married woman could make a will, but she could not leave away from her husband more than one-half of her property, real or personal, without his written consent⁵⁰.

Minors, guardians, and the ages of fourteen and twenty-one

A minor inherited immediately, but a guardian managed the inheritance under the county court's supervision and under bond. Internalize one definition: an "orphan" in these statutes means a child whose father has died — the mother could be alive and well.

The court's duty split at 14. It let orphan minors over 14 choose their own guardians, and appointed guardians for those under 14. Where an orphan minor over 14 had no guardian, the court summoned him to appear and choose one, and appointed for him only if he neglected or refused⁵¹.

A separate rule covered the child whose father was still living. Where such a minor became entitled to an estate that had not come from the father, the court called the father in to show cause why a guardian should not be appointed. It could then appoint the father, if he was a proper person. If he was not, and the minor had reached 14, the court appointed whoever the minor chose⁵².

A parent could also name a guardian for a child by deed or will, and a married woman was declared the joint guardian of her children along with her husband⁵³.

Guardianship ended when the ward reached full age — and here the difference between the sexes shows up in the records. The guardianship chapter said in as many words that the minority of females ceased at 18⁵⁴. So a boy's guardianship ran to 21 and a girl's to 18, until the act of 1919 made 21 the age for both in property matters⁶.

Two ages therefore date a birth in the guardianship file:

• A guardianship in which the child does the choosing shows the child had reached 14.
• The guardian's final settlement dates the ward's coming of age — 21 for a boy, 18 for a girl before 1919 — and so brackets a birth year within a year or so. A daughter's settlement frequently reveals her married surname as well.

Children born outside marriage

Colorado gave a child born outside marriage two paths into a family's estate. Such a child inherited the same as a child born in wedlock if the parents afterward married and the father then recognized the child as his⁵⁵. A single marriage, followed by the father's acknowledgment, could therefore turn a child born years earlier into a full heir — so when an inheritance runs to a child whose birth predates the parents' marriage, the marriage and the acknowledgment are the records to look for. From 1903 the child also inherited from the mother the same as a child born in wedlock⁵⁵. Where such a person died intestate, the estate passed first to a surviving spouse and children, failing those to the mother and her children and their descendants in halves, and failing those to the mother's nearest blood relatives⁵⁶.

Where the father never married the mother, paternity could still be established in court, in what the statutes call a bastardy proceeding. It is worth knowing about for one reason: the file names the reputed father, and it sits with the county court records⁵⁷.

Wills, executors, and witnesses

The age to make a will depended on the property and, until 1947, on the sex of the testator — the person making the will. Every male of 21 and every unmarried female of 18, of sound mind and memory, could dispose of land and goods alike by will; and any person of 17 could dispose of personal property, meaning money, livestock, and household goods⁵⁸. The will ages tracked the age of majority. A married woman's power to make a will came from the married women's chapter instead, with the one-half limit described above. In 1947 the age became a uniform 18 for both sexes and for property of every kind⁵⁹.

An executor or executrix is the person a will names to carry it out. To serve, that person had to be at least 17 when the court granted authority to act, of sound mind, and not convicted of a serious crime. Where the named person fell short, the court simply granted the authority to someone else, as though he had never been named⁶⁰.

Before 1903 a married woman named as executrix was passed over in the same way, unless her husband gave bond alongside her. A change of administrator soon after a wedding often has that explanation⁶⁰. Where a person died without a will, the widow or next of kin had the first claim to administer the estate, and a principal creditor came next⁶¹.

A will of land had to be in writing and signed by the testator — or by someone else in his presence and at his direction — and then signed in his presence by two or more creditable witnesses⁶². No age was set for those witnesses. What mattered was credibility and having nothing to gain from the will.

The "nothing to gain" part was enforced by a rule that shows up often in probate files. A gift of land or goods to a witness who signed the will was void, unless the will had enough other proper witnesses without counting him. Two exceptions softened it: a witness who would have inherited anyway had there been no will kept that much of his share, and a creditor whose debt the will charged on the land was still a good witness⁶³.

In the earlier period Colorado also recognized a nuncupative will — a spoken will, made in the testator's last sickness before two witnesses of good character whom he called on to witness it, and written down within a reasonable time. It was good for personal property only. The wills act of 1903 required every will, of land or goods, to be in writing and attested⁶⁴.

Taxation

What was taxed

Three taxes on individuals leave usable records: the property tax, on all real and personal property not expressly exempt; the poll tax, a flat tax on a person rather than on property; and, in the twentieth century, a state income tax.

The property tax is the one that reaches most families. It was levied on everything not exempt and entered in the county assessment rolls. The exemptions ran to public property, churches, schools, charities, cemeteries, and irrigation ditches, and — for ten years after statehood — to mines and to the added land value from planting orchards and trees⁶⁵.

The property tax had no minimum age. The statute taxed all property not expressly exempt, without regard to how old the owner was, so a child who owned land was assessed on it like anyone else⁶⁵. Where the child had a guardian, the guardian had charge of the estate and paid the charges on it out of the ward's money under the court's direction⁸. A minor's name in an assessment roll is therefore not a mistake, and it is often the earliest record placing that child in a county.

The rolls list owners year by year, so they place a family in a county and show what it held. A household that owned nothing appears instead on the poll list. A state income tax was enacted in 1937 and reaches only the last years covered here⁶⁶.

The poll tax

The poll tax — a capitation, or flat head tax on a person rather than on property — was assessed on every able-bodied male inhabitant of the state over the age of 21 and under 50, whether a citizen of the United States or an alien⁶⁷. A man became liable in the year he turned 21 and dropped off the list at 50, so a run of poll entries brackets a birth year within a few years. Because aliens paid it alongside citizens, the poll list is one of the few Colorado records that reaches the whole adult male population regardless of citizenship or property.

Two other head taxes ran alongside it. A military poll tax of fifty cents was levied on every male inhabitant of 21 and upward to create a state military fund, and it stood at a dollar by 1908. A road poll tax ran alongside both⁶⁸.

The military poll tax ended in 1919. An act of that year replaced it with a property levy of seven hundredths of a mill for the state military fund, assessed and collected like other state taxes, and repealed the poll tax sections outright⁶⁸. So a man who appears on a military poll list is being recorded before 1919; after that year the military fund comes out of property, and only the general and road poll taxes still reach him personally.

Two groups were excused. A working member of a fire company was exempt while he served, and permanently after five years' faithful service. A militiaman who produced his commander's certificate of proper performance of duty was exempt for that year⁶⁹. When a man drops off a poll list while he is still alive elsewhere in the record, one of those exemptions — or simply his fiftieth birthday — is usually the explanation.

Poll and road tax records are county records. They were assessed and collected with the property tax, so they sit in the county assessor's and treasurer's rolls rather than in any state series, and they survive unevenly from county to county⁶⁷.

Courts

Jury service

The qualification was short. Any male inhabitant of the state who was 21, was a United States citizen or had declared his intention to become one, and had not been convicted of a felony could serve on a jury⁷⁰. That covered both kinds of jury — the grand jury, which decided whether to bring charges, and the petit or trial jury, which decided the case.

Two things are worth noticing. No property was required, so a man who owned nothing could still serve. And the rule took in aliens who had filed a declaration of intent, so a juror was not necessarily a citizen.

Certain men could ask to be excused: state and county officers, judges and clerks of courts, justices of the peace and constables, attorneys and counselors at law, and any person aged 60 or over⁷¹. Working firemen and militiamen were exempt outright⁶⁹. So the working test for most of the period was an adult male of 21, citizen or declared-intent alien, without a felony conviction.

Women on juries

Women became eligible for jury service in Colorado in 1945. A constitutional amendment adopted in 1944 opened jury duty to women on the same terms as men, with an exemption available to a person whose presence was needed to care for others, on whom jury service would work undue hardship, or who belonged to a religious sisterhood following its profession⁷².

Criminal responsibility

Colorado fixed the ages of criminal responsibility by statute from the territorial period, in its own criminal code rather than by the received common law, and the figures are not the common-law ones. A person was considered of sound mind, and so answerable for a crime, once he had reached the age of 14 — or before that age, if he knew the distinction between good and evil. Below that, an infant under the age of ten years could not be found guilty of any crime or misdemeanor at all⁷³. So the working line is 10 rather than the common law's 7: from 10 to 14 a child answered only where the State showed he understood right from wrong, and at 14 he answered as an adult did.

One companion rule creates a record. Anyone who counselled, advised, or encouraged a child under 10 to commit an offense was prosecuted for that offense as the principal and punished as if he had committed it himself⁷⁴. Where a very young child was involved in a crime, therefore, the criminal case file is in the adult's name.

The juvenile court

Colorado was a national pioneer in treating children differently. Three acts built the system⁷⁵:

• 1903 — the General Assembly created the juvenile court and gave it its own name, docket, and records.
• 1907 — a juvenile court was established in every county of more than 100,000 people, which at the time meant Denver alone, with jurisdiction over criminal cases involving children under 16.
• 1923 — the line rose, and the law now applied to children under 18.

The consequence for a researcher is simple. After these acts a child under the statutory age has a juvenile-court file rather than an ordinary criminal case file, and juvenile files are typically closed.

Witnesses

Colorado swept away most of the old grounds for shutting a witness out. By an act of 1870, carried forward into every later compilation, no person was disqualified from testifying in a civil case because he had an interest in the outcome, or because he had been convicted of a crime. Either fact could be shown to the jury to affect how much they believed him, but neither closed his mouth³⁷. In criminal cases the injured party was likewise a competent witness, and a solemn affirmation counted as well as an oath — which mattered for a child or for anyone who would not swear⁷⁶.

Age was never a disqualification. A witness of any age could testify if he understood that he was bound to tell the truth and could relate what he had seen. The trial judge examined a child personally before allowing the testimony, and where a very young child did testify, the jury weighed the evidence for what it was worth.

What the statutes did keep was a rule about dead people's transactions: a party could not testify about his own dealings with someone who had since died, when the other side was suing or defending as that person's executor, administrator, or heir. This is the rule that most often keeps an interested relative off the stand in a Colorado estate case³⁷. It survived into the 1935 code⁷⁷.

Between spouses a special rule applied: a husband or wife could be examined for or against the other only with that spouse's consent, and neither could be examined, during the marriage or after, about communications made between them during the marriage. In a proceeding by one spouse against the other the rule gave way, and under the non-support statutes the wife was a competent witness against her husband with or without his consent⁷⁸.

Women and people of color as witnesses and jurors

Women were competent witnesses throughout the period, subject only to the spousal rule above, and they served on juries from 1945.

Colorado never barred anyone from testifying or from jury service on account of race. This is worth stating positively, because many states did. The witness statutes list the grounds of disqualification and race is not among them³⁷, and the juror statute is framed in terms of age, citizenship, and freedom from a felony conviction⁷⁰. In the whole of the General Laws of Colorado, 1877 the only provision that turns on race is the marriage bar described above¹⁶. So Black men who met the ordinary test were eligible for juries from the territorial period, and people of color testified under the same rules as anyone else.

Eligibility on paper is not the same as service in fact, and a researcher should not assume from the statute alone that any particular jury was open in practice.

Sources & Where to Verify

Constitutions and Treaties

• Colorado Constitution of 1876. Art. II, § 23 (jury service, as amended 1944); art. II, § 26 (slavery prohibited); art. II, § 27 (property rights of aliens). Justia. https://law.justia.com/constitution/colorado/cnart2.html (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Colorado. Constitution of the State of Colorado. Printed with the official source note under each section, which records every amendment and the session law that carried it. In Colorado Revised Statutes 2023, title 00. Digital images. Colorado General Assembly. https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2023-title-00.pdf (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 2 February 1848. Arts. VIII–IX (property rights of Mexican residents) and the deleted art. X (land grants). Avalon Project, Yale Law School. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/guadhida.asp (accessed 4 August 2026).

Codes and Compilations

• 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated. Denver: Bradford-Robinson Printing Co., 1936–. The code in force in the last decades covered here, and the volume against which the Women's Bureau report checked its citations. Chapters used: 20 (bastardy), 40 (conveyances), 56 (annulment), 76 (guardian and ward), 83 (non-support), 93 (exemptions), 97 (assignments), 107 (marriages), 108 (married women), 176 (wills and estates), 177 (witnesses and evidence). Issued in multiple volumes; the Internet Archive copy linked here is one volume of the set. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/1935coloradostat00colo (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Clark, William M., comp. General Laws of the State of Colorado. Denver: Tribune Steam Printing House, 1877. Comprises the portion of the Revised Statutes still in force, the territorial acts of 1870 to 1876, and the acts of the first state general assembly, in numbered chapters with continuous section numbering. This is the workhorse volume for the guide. Chapters used: IV (Aliens), XVIII (Conveyances), XXIV (Criminal Code), XXVI (Descents and Distributions), XXXVI (Firemen), XLIII (Guardian and Ward), LIV (Jurors), LXIII (Marriages), LXIV (Married Women), CIII (Wills, Executors and Administrators), CIV (Witnesses), and the revenue and militia chapters. Cited below in short form as General Laws of Colorado, 1877. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00clargoog (accessed 4 August 2026).
• The General Statutes of the State of Colorado, 1883. Denver: Times Steam Printing and Publishing House, 1883. Arranged in alphabetically titled chapters with continuous section numbering. Chapters used: 28 (Descents and Distributions), 48 (Guardian and Ward), 61 (Jurors), 71 (Marriages), 72 (Married Women), 94 (Revenue), 115 (Wills). Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=9eq0AAAAIAAJ (accessed 4 August 2026).
• The Revised Statutes of Colorado: As Passed at the Seventh Session of the Legislative Assembly, Convened on the Second Day of December, A.D. 1867; Also, the Acts of a Public Nature Passed at the Same Session, and the Prior Laws Still in Force; Together with the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Organic Act, and the Amendments Thereto. Central City: Printed by David C. Collier, at the Register Office, 1868. The first compilation of the territorial laws, and the volume that abolished dower and curtesy and set the ages of criminal responsibility. Chapters used: XX (Descents and Distributions), the Criminal Code, and the schedule of prior statutes repealed. Cited below in short form as Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/esrp680530032 (accessed 4 August 2026).
• The Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1908. Denver: Smith-Brooks Printing Co., 1908. Recodified descent, wills, and guardianship in ch. 157 after the general revision of 1903, and its source notes trace each section back to the 1883, 1877, 1868, and 1861 provisions. Chapters used: 60 (Guardian and Ward), 77 (Jurors), 89 (Marriages and militia), 90 (Married Women), 122 (Revenue), 157 (Wills and Estates). Full view and public domain. To reach a page directly, open the scanned volume and append &seq= with the image number. Digital images. HathiTrust, catalog record, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008966936; scanned volume, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101068097185 (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Colorado Encyclopedia. "Colorado Territory." On the organization of the territory in 1861 out of parts of Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico territories. https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Compiled Laws of Colorado, 1921. The compilation in force between the 1908 revision and the 1935 code. Session laws of the 1920s and early 1930s amend and repeal by its section numbers — the marriage-license act of 1931, ch. 114, Session Laws of Colorado, p. 443, repeals its §§ 5551, 5553, 5557, 5558, and 5561 — so it is the key to tracing a provision across those years.
• Soto, Frank L., ed. Colorado Statutes Annotated, with All Acts and Amendments up to and Including 1911 Session Laws. Denver: W. H. Courtright Publishing Co., 1911–12. 2 vols. Useful for the annotations under each section between the 1908 revision and the 1921 compilation. Digital images. Internet Archive. Vol. 1, https://archive.org/details/coloradostatute00sotogoog; vol. 2, https://archive.org/details/coloradostatute01sotogoog (accessed 4 August 2026).

Session Laws

• Act of 21 June 1860, ch. 167, 12 Stat. 71 (confirming the Sangre de Cristo Grant). Cited and discussed in Tameling v. United States Freehold & Emigration Co., below.
• Session Laws of Colorado, 1861–1900. Digitized act by act, each with its chapter, page, and session. Colorado Law Scholarly Commons, University of Colorado Law School. https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/session-laws-1861-1900/ (accessed 4 August 2026). The acts cited above from this run: the act adopting the common law (1861, p. 35); the dower act (approved 7 November 1861, p. 363, repealed by the revision of 1868); descents and distributions (approved 31 October 1861, p. 246; amended 1876, p. 65); married women's separate property (1872, p. 122; 1874, p. 185; 1881, p. 53); the marriage-license act (1881, pp. 181–84); and the interracial-marriage act of 1864 as amended in 1883, p. 243.
• Session Laws of Colorado, 1901–1950. Digitized act by act. Colorado Law Scholarly Commons, University of Colorado Law School. https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/session-laws-1901-1950/ (accessed 4 August 2026). The acts cited above from this run: the general revision of 1903 (pp. 469–87); the juvenile court act of 7 March 1903, ch. 85, p. 178; the juvenile court act of 3 April 1907, ch. 149, p. 324; the act of 1923 raising the delinquency age to 18, ch. 75, p. 197; the marriage-license act of 1931 (ch. 114, p. 443); the annulment act of 1933 (ch. 127, p. 677); the act abolishing the military poll tax (1919, ch. 194, p. 667); the act making 21 the age of full age in property matters for both sexes (1919, p. 406, approved 28 March 1919); the income-tax amendment (1937, p. 675); the health-certificate act (1939, p. 455); women on juries and the prohibition of marriage under 16 (1945, pp. 424, 426, 478); the uniform will age (1947, p. 947); and the repeal of the interracial-marriage bar (1957, ch. 124, p. 334).

Court Cases

• Brimble v. Sickler. 83 Colo. 494 (1928).
• Clayton Coal Co. v. Industrial Commission. 93 Colo. 145 (1933).
• Gallegos v. Tinsley. 139 Colo. 157, 337 P.2d 386 (1959).
• Graham v. Graham. 130 Colo. 225 (1954).
• Hedlund v. Hedlund. 87 Colo. 607 (1930).
• Herr v. Johnson. 11 Colo. 393 (1888).
• Klipfel's Estate v. Klipfel. 41 Colo. 40 (1907).
• Payne v. Payne. 121 Colo. 212, 214 P.2d 495 (1950).
• Perkins v. Westcoat. 3 Colo. App. 338 (1893).
• Sipes v. Sipes. 87 Colo. 301 (1930).
• Tameling v. United States Freehold & Emigration Co. 93 U.S. 644 (1876). Justia. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/93/644/ (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Taylor v. Taylor. 10 Colo. App. 303 (1897).
• Wamsley v. People. 64 Colo. 521 (1918).
• Wells v. Caywood. 3 Colo. 487 (1877).
• Whyman v. Johnston. 62 Colo. 461 (1917).
• Williams v. Williams. 20 Colo. 51 (1894).
• Wilson v. Wilson. 55 Colo. 70 (1913).

Secondary and Reference Works

• Colorado Encyclopedia. Entries on San Luis, Colorado Territory, the Mexican land grants, common-law marriage, and Ben Lindsey. https://coloradoencyclopedia.org (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Colorado Virtual Library. "Time Machine Tuesday: Judge Ben Lindsey and the Juvenile Court." https://www.coloradovirtuallibrary.org/resource-sharing/state-pubs-blog/time-machine-tuesday-judge-ben-lindsey-and-the-juvenile-court/ (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Densho Encyclopedia. "Japanese Americans in Colorado." On the alien land law proposals defeated in the legislature and at the polls in 1944. https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Japanese_Americans_in_Colorado/ (accessed 4 August 2026).
• Denver Public Library. "Civic Duty: Colorado Women and the Jury Box." https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/events/civic-duty-colorado-women-and-jury-box (accessed 4 August 2026).
• History Colorado. "Colorado Hispanic/Latino Historical Overview." https://www.historycolorado.org/colorado-hispanic-latino-historical-overview (accessed 4 August 2026).
• History Colorado. "Forbidden Unions." On the interracial-marriage statute and its repeal. https://www.historycolorado.org/story/2025/09/19/forbidden-unions (accessed 4 August 2026).
• King, Michael. "Colorado Juvenile Court History: The First Hundred Years." The Colorado Lawyer 32 (April 2003): 63. The source for the chapter and page of the juvenile court acts of 1903 and 1907.
• Lindsey, Benjamin B., comp. The Juvenile Court Laws of the State of Colorado, as in Force and as Proposed, and Their Purpose Explained. [Denver]: Juvenile Improvement Association of Denver, 1905. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/juvenilecourtla00denvgoog (accessed 4 August 2026).
• United States. Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: January 1, 1948, Report for Colorado. By Sara Louise Buchanan. Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-5 (Revised). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949. Used here to confirm the 1935-code sections on marriage age and annulment, the marriage license and consent rule, the widow's allowance, the surviving spouse's election, and homestead conveyance, each of which it quotes with its chapter and section. Digital images. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-05-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf (accessed 4 August 2026).
• University of Colorado Law School. "Historical Statutory Research." Colorado Law and Legal Research research guide. https://guides-lawlibrary.colorado.edu/c.php?g=703879&p=9064058 (accessed 4 August 2026).

Citations

1. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 2 February 1848, arts. VIII–IX (ratifications exchanged 30 May 1848); digital images, Avalon Project, Yale Law School (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/guadhida.asp : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩ ↩
2. An Act to Provide a Temporary Government for the Territory of Colorado, 28 February 1861, 12 Stat. 172, organizing the territory out of parts of the Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, and New Mexico territories. Kansas Territory was created by the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 30 May 1854 and Kansas became a state on 29 January 1861; Utah and New Mexico territories were both created in 1850. The extralegal Territory of Jefferson organized itself in October 1859 and gave way to Colorado Territory in June 1861. See Colorado Encyclopedia, "Colorado Territory" (https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/colorado-territory : accessed 4 August 2026). The statutory trace of the Kansas period is the territorial legislature's confirmation of the judgments of the "Kansas" courts, at General Laws of Colorado, 1877, §§ 1456–1457, pp. 537–38 ↩ ↩
3. Act adopting the common law, Session Laws of the Territory of Colorado, 1861, p. 35; digital images, Colorado Law Scholarly Commons (https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/session-laws-1861-1900/35/ : accessed 4 August 2026). The marriage chapter of the General Laws of Colorado, 1877, §§ 1735–1746, has been read through and fixes no minimum age for marriage; capacity therefore rested on the common law received by this act, under which a male could marry at 14 and a female at 12. ↩ ↩
4. Herr v. Johnson, 11 Colo. 393, 18 P. 342 (1888) (civil law governed the region until the legislature adopted the common law) ↩
5. William M. Clark, comp., General Laws of the State of Colorado (Denver: Tribune Steam Printing House, 1877), §§ 1456–1457, pp. 537–38 (judgments of the miners', people's, claim-club, and "Kansas" courts confirmed); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00clargoog : accessed 4 August 2026). The provision descends from the territorial acts of 1861 through Revised Statutes, as Passed at the Seventh Session of the Legislative Assembly, Convened on the Second Day of December, A.D. 1867 (Central City: Printed by David C. Collier, at the Register Office, 1868), p. 385; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/esrp680530032 : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩
6. The Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1908 (Denver: Smith-Brooks Printing Co., 1908), ch. 157, § 7112 ("Males of the age of twenty-one years and females of the age of eighteen years shall be considered of full age for all purposes; before those ages they shall be considered minors"); digital images, HathiTrust (https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008966936 : accessed 4 August 2026). The section rests on the act of 1903, p. 487, § 48. The differing ages ended with the act approved 28 March 1919, amending § 7112 to read that in relation to property rights all persons of the age of twenty-one years are of full age: Session Laws of Colorado, 1919, p. 406, § 1. That text was carried to 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated (Denver: Bradford-Robinson Printing Co., 1936–), ch. 176, § 82; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/1935coloradostat00colo : accessed 4 August 2026). The will-making age and the marriage-consent age, below, confirm the female-18 rule back to the territorial period ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
7. Sipes v. Sipes, 87 Colo. 301, 304, 287 P. 284 (1930); and, on necessaries, Perkins v. Westcoat, 3 Colo. App. 338, 341, 33 P. 139 (1893) ↩ ↩
8. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. XLIII (Guardian and Ward), § 1312 (§ 10), p. 490: the district court may, "for just and reasonable cause, being satisfied that the guardian has faithfully applied all the personal estate, order the sale of the real estate of the ward, on the application of the guardian by petition in writing stating the facts." The court directs the time, place, and notice of sale; the guardian makes return of the proceedings; and the return, once approved and recorded, "shall vest in the purchasers all the interest the ward had in the estate so sold." The guardian's account of the proceeds is at § 1313 (§ 11). On the guardian's charge of the estate generally, and payment out of the ward's money under the court's direction, see §§ 1307, 1311 (§§ 5, 9), pp. 489–90. Digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00clargoog/page/n0/mode/2up?q=%22order+the+sale+of+the+real+estate+of+the+ward%22 : accessed 4 August 2026). Carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 48, and Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 60 (Guardian and Ward) ↩ ↩ ↩
9. 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 97, § 226 ↩
10. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. LXIII (Marriages), § 1735 (§ 1) ("Marriage is considered in law a civil contract, to which the consent of the parties is essential"). The chapter is headed as a re-enactment of ch. LIX of the Revised Statutes; the section descends from the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, p. 452, § 1, and appears later at The General Statutes of the State of Colorado, 1883 (Denver: Times Steam Printing and Publishing House, 1883), ch. 71, § 2247; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=9eq0AAAAIAAJ : accessed 4 August 2026); and at Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 89, § 4162 ↩
11. "Concerning Annulments of Marriage," ch. 127, Session Laws of Colorado, 1933, pp. 677–78 (Senate Bill No. 363, by Senators Quiat, Elliot, and Brady). § 1: "All marriages wherein either party is under the age of eighteen years, are hereby declared to be voidable." § 2: actions for annulment maintainable on that ground "providing the party seeking such annulment is under the age of nineteen years at the time of the institution of the suit," and otherwise "in such other cases as are recognized in equity." § 3: a cause of action for annulment may be joined with one for divorce. § 4: the district court and the county court have concurrent jurisdiction in annulment actions. § 6: "No decree annulling a marriage shall affect the legitimacy of any child born as the issue of such void or voidable marriage, and any such child shall be deemed to be the legitimate child of each of said parents." Digital images, Colorado Law Scholarly Commons (https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/session-laws-1901-1950/3902/ : accessed 4 August 2026). Carried to 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 56, §§ 33–34, and quoted there in United States, Women's Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: January 1, 1948, Report for Colorado, by Sara Louise Buchanan, Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-5 (Revised) (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949), § 18; digital images, FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-05-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf : accessed 4 August 2026). For the place-of-celebration rule applied to an underage party, see Payne v. Payne, 121 Colo. 212, 214 P.2d 495 (1950) ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
12. Session Laws of Colorado, 1945, p. 478 (marriage prohibited where either party is under 16, and void unless approved by court decree); confirmed at Women's Bureau, Report for Colorado, § 18 ↩
13. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1740 (§ 6), headed "Marriage of parties under age — consent"; carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 71, § 2257, Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 89, § 4172, and 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 107, §§ 5–6; the section descends from the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, p. 453, § 6 ↩
14. 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 107, §§ 5–6: no license where the male is under 21 or the female under 18 unless the written consent of the parent or guardian, verified under oath, is filed as part of the application, the application itself being under oath and showing the actual ages of the parties; Women's Bureau, Report for Colorado, § 18 ↩
15. Klipfel's Estate v. Klipfel, 41 Colo. 40, 46, 92 P. 26 (1907); Clayton Coal Co. v. Industrial Commission, 93 Colo. 145, 25 P.2d 170 (1933), both resting on the civil-contract rule; and see Taylor v. Taylor, 10 Colo. App. 303 (1897), and Graham v. Graham, 130 Colo. 225 (1954) ↩
16. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1736 (§ 2), pp. 611–12, declaring void marriages between parents and children including grandparents and grandchildren of every degree, between brothers and sisters of the half as well as the whole blood, between uncles and nieces and aunts and nephews, "and cousins of the first degree," and "all marriages between negroes and mulattoes, of either sex, and white persons," extending to illegitimate as well as legitimate children, with the proviso protecting "the people living in that portion of the state acquired from Mexico"; penalty at § 1737 (§ 3). Carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 71, § 2248, Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 89, § 4163, and 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 107, § 2 ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
17. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1738 (§ 4); 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 107, § 4 ↩
18. Session Laws of Colorado, 1939, p. 455 ↩
19. The prohibition began with an 1864 territorial act and descends through the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, p. 452, § 2, the General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1736 (§ 2), and General Statutes of 1883, ch. 71, § 2248 (as amended by the act of 1883, p. 243), to Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 89, § 4163, and 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 107, § 2; repealed by ch. 124, Session Laws of Colorado, 1957, p. 334 ↩
20. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, §§ 1739, 1741 (§§ 5, 7) ↩
21. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1746 (§ 12), p. 613: all marriages solemnized in the state "whether by any president or judge of any mining district, elected under and acting by the laws thereof, or by any justice of the peace or clergymen, prior to the tenth day of March, A. D. 1864, are hereby declared confirmed and made legal," the issue of such marriages to have the same rights in law and equity as if the marriage had been solemnized under the chapter; carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 71, § 2265 ↩
22. General Statutes of 1883, ch. 71, §§ 2251–2264, being the marriage-license act of 4 February 1881, Session Laws of Colorado, 1881, pp. 181–84 ↩
23. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. XVIII (Conveyances), § 160 (§ 1); the chapter is headed as a re-enactment of ch. XVII of the Revised Statutes ↩
24. Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, ch. XX (Descents and Distributions), § 1 ("Dower and the tenancy by the courtesy are abolished, and neither husband nor wife shall have any share in the estate of the other, save as herein provided"), giving one-half to the surviving husband or wife where there are children or their descendants and the whole estate where there are none; re-enacted, with the order among parents and collaterals refined by the act of 1876, p. 65, § 1, at General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. XXVI, § 882 (§ 1), pp. 344–45; carried through General Statutes of 1883, ch. 28, § 1039, and the act of 1903, p. 469, § 1, to Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7040, and 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 176, § 1 ↩ ↩ ↩
25. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. LXIV (Married Women), § 1747 (§ 1), p. 614, in force 1 July 1868, reaching property owned at marriage with its "rents, issues, profits and proceeds" and property coming "by descent, devise or bequest, or the gift of any person except her husband, including presents or gifts from her husband, as jewelry, silver, table ware, watches, money and wearing apparel"; the section descends from the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, p. 454, § 1, and appears later at General Statutes of 1883, ch. 72, § 2266, Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 90 (Married Women), and 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 108, § 1 ↩
26. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1748 (§ 2); extended to real as well as personal property by the act of 1874, p. 185; 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 108, § 10 ↩
27. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1749 (§ 3); 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 108, § 2 ↩
28. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1752 (§ 6); 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 108, § 3 ↩
29. Acts of 1872, p. 122, 1874, p. 185, and 1881, p. 53, printed at General Statutes of 1883, ch. 72, §§ 2277–2280; 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 108, §§ 9, 11 ↩
30. Williams v. Williams, 20 Colo. 51, 56, 37 P. 614 (1894); Hedlund v. Hedlund, 87 Colo. 607, 609, 290 P. 285 (1930); and, that either spouse may convey to the other, Wells v. Caywood, 3 Colo. 487, 494 (1877) ↩
31. General Statutes of 1883, ch. 72, § 2276 (§ 11) ("the separate deed of the husband shall convey no interest in the wife's lands"); 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 108, § 8 ↩ ↩
32. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 162 (§ 3), no estate in joint tenancy to be held under any grant, devise, or conveyance other than to executors and trustees unless expressly declared, every such estate otherwise deemed a tenancy in common; and see Whyman v. Johnston, 62 Colo. 461, 463, 163 P. 76 (1917) ↩
33. An act concerning dower, approved 7 November 1861, Session Laws of the Territory of Colorado, 1861, p. 363; digital images, Colorado Law Scholarly Commons (https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/session-laws-1861-1900/126/ : accessed 4 August 2026). § 1: "A widow shall be endowed of the third part of all the lands whereof her husband shall die seized of an estate of inheritance," reaching equitable estates and land contracted for in his lifetime whose title was completed after his death; § 12: no act, deed, or conveyance of the husband without the assent of his wife, evinced by her acknowledgment, passes the estate of a married woman, and no judgment, laches, default, or forfeiture of the husband prejudices her dower; §§ 5–9: jointure in lieu of dower, a devise barring dower unless the will provides otherwise, and the widow's written renunciation to be delivered to the court of probate within one year of probate; § 10: curtesy, and the effect of divorce on dower and curtesy; § 13: the heir at law to lay off and assign dower as soon as practicable after the husband's death. Repealed by the revision of 1868 ↩ ↩ ↩
34. 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 40, § 119 ("To convey or encumber a homestead, both husband and wife must join in the conveyance or encumbrance of their respective interests"); the homestead exemption itself, not exceeding $2,000 in value, at ch. 93, §§ 23–27. Both confirmed at Women's Bureau, Report for Colorado, §§ 3–4 ↩
35. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, §§ 172–173 (§§ 13–14), listing the officers before whom a deed may be acknowledged or proved within the state, out of the state, and in a foreign country, and requiring that the signer be personally known to the officer or proved by at least one competent, credible witness named in the certificate ↩ ↩
36. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 174 (§ 15), proof of an unacknowledged deed by the sworn examination of a subscribing witness; 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 40, § 111 (recording is notice to all persons claiming an interest; an unacknowledged or defectively acknowledged instrument of record ten years is deemed properly acknowledged), from the act of 1927, p. 589, § 5, as amended by the act of 1937, p. 481, § 3 ↩ ↩
37. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. CIV (Witnesses), §§ 2951–2955, pp. 981–83, the chapter being headed as the act of 1870. § 2951 (§ 1): "no person shall be disqualified as a witness in any civil action, suit or proceeding, except as hereinafter stated, by reason of his or her interest in the event thereof, as a party or otherwise, or by reason of his or her conviction of any crime," either fact being admissible only to affect credibility. § 2952 (§ 2): the exception for a party testifying to transactions with a person since deceased, where the adverse party sues or defends as executor, administrator, heir, legatee, devisee, guardian, or trustee, with five enumerated exceptions to the exception. § 2955 (§ 5): husband and wife. The chapter states the grounds of disqualification exhaustively and race is not among them. Digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00clargoog/page/n0/mode/2up?q=%22no+person+shall+be+disqualified+as+a+witness%22 : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩
38. Colo. Const. of 1876, art. II, § 26; Justia (https://law.justia.com/constitution/colorado/cnart2.html : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩
39. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. IV (Aliens), § 16, re-enacting ch. III of the Revised Statutes: all aliens may take by deed, will or otherwise and alienate, sell, assign and transmit lands, whether the persons taking be citizens or not; on the death of an alien the land passes and descends as if he were a citizen; and all such persons are "placed upon the same footing as natural born citizens of the United States," with the personal estate of an alien dying intestate distributed in the same manner ↩
40. Colo. Const. of 1876, art. II, § 27 ("Aliens, who are or may hereafter become bona fide residents of this state, may acquire, inherit, possess, enjoy and dispose of property, real and personal, as native born citizens"). The section carries no amendment note — its only source line is "Entire article added, effective August 1, 1876, see L. 1877, p. 32" — so the text has stood unchanged since 1876, and the amendment to it proposed in 1921 (Session Laws of Colorado, 1921, ch. 71, p. 172) was not adopted. Colorado Revised Statutes, Constitution of the State of Colorado, art. II; digital images, Colorado General Assembly (https://content.leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2023-title-00.pdf : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩
41. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 887 (§ 6), p. 345 ("The alienage of the descendants shall not invalidate any title to real estate which shall descend from him or her"); carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 28, § 1044, and Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7045 ↩
42. Colorado never enacted an alien land law. In 1944 the General Assembly took up a constitutional amendment that would have added one; the House passed it and the Senate defeated it 15 to 12, after which its proponents placed the proposal on the general election ballot, where it also failed, 52 percent of voters opposing. Densho Encyclopedia, "Japanese Americans in Colorado" (https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Japanese_Americans_in_Colorado/ : accessed 4 August 2026); and see Densho Encyclopedia, "Alien land laws," whose list of states enacting such laws or carrying constitutional bars does not include Colorado. An earlier attempt to amend the constitutional guarantee to aliens was proposed at Session Laws of Colorado, 1921, ch. 71, p. 172, and was not adopted ↩
43. Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, art. IX, and the Senate's deletion of art. X; confirmation through the Office of the Surveyor General for New Mexico (Act of 22 July 1854) and Congress; Act of 21 June 1860, ch. 167, 12 Stat. 71 (confirming the Sangre de Cristo Grant); Tameling v. United States Freehold & Emigration Co., 93 U.S. 644, 662–63 (1876) (a congressional confirmation is conclusive and closed to judicial review); Justia (https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/93/644/ : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩
44. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, §§ 885–886 (§§ 4–5), p. 345 ↩
45. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 889 (§ 8), p. 346; carried to Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7047 ↩
46. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, §§ 892–893, pp. 346–47 (the widow's specific-chattel allowance, with money or other property in place of articles not in the estate); the sections descend from the act of 1861, p. 248, §§ 11–12, and the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, ch. XX, §§ 11–12; carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 28, §§ 1049–1050 ↩
47. 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 176, § 211: $2,000 in cash, or at the widow's election an equivalent value in real or personal property, and where the decedent leaves minor stepchildren of hers her allowance is limited to $1,000, the balance being reserved to those children. Confirmed at Women's Bureau, Report for Colorado, § 16; and see Brimble v. Sickler, 83 Colo. 494 (1928), and Wilson v. Wilson, 55 Colo. 70 (1913) (the allowance is independent of the distributive share) ↩
48. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1751 (§ 5), p. 614 ("In case any married man shall hereafter deprive his wife of over one-half his property, by will, it shall be optional with such married woman, after the death of her husband, to accept the conditions of such will, or one-half of his whole estate, both real and personal"); the section descends from the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, p. 455, § 5, and appears later at General Statutes of 1883, ch. 72, § 2270, and Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7070, where it was combined with the will-capacity section ↩
49. 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 176, § 37; confirmed at Women's Bureau, Report for Colorado, § 17 ↩
50. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1750 (§ 4), p. 614; General Statutes of 1883, ch. 72, § 2269 ↩
51. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. XLIII (Guardian and Ward), §§ 1303–1304 (§§ 1–2), p. 489, re-enacting ch. XL of the Revised Statutes: courts of probate "shall admit orphan minors above the age of fourteen years, the father being dead, to make choice of guardians, and appoint guardians for such as are under the age of fourteen years," and shall summon an unguarded minor above 14 to appear and choose, appointing for him if he neglects or refuses. Carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 48, §§ 1585–1586, and Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 60, §§ 2910–2911 ↩
52. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1305 (§ 3), p. 489, reaching a minor "having a father living" who becomes entitled to an estate "not derived from his or her father"; carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 48, § 1587, Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7113, and 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 176, § 83 ↩
53. Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 60, § 2912; 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 76, § 3. The section descends from the act of 1861, p. 348, § 17, and the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, p. 350, § 17, through General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1319, and General Statutes of 1883, § 1601 (amended by the act of 1895, p. 186) ↩
54. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. XLIII (Guardian and Ward), § 1310 (§ 8), p. 490, providing that a guardian's lease of the ward's land "shall never be for a longer time than during the minority of the ward, and the minority of females shall cease at the age of eighteen years." This is the clearest statement in the chapter that a female ward's minority, and so the guardianship, ended at 18 while a male ward's ran to 21; it matches the general age-of-majority section cited above. Digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00clargoog/page/n0/mode/2up?q=%22minority+of+females+shall+cease%22 : accessed 4 August 2026). The distinction ended with the act approved 28 March 1919, Session Laws of Colorado, 1919, p. 406, § 1, which made 21 the age of full age for all persons in relation to property rights ↩
55. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 888 (§ 7), p. 346 ("Illegitimate children shall inherit the same as those born in wedlock, if the parents subsequently intermarry, and such children be recognized, after such intermarriage, by the father, to be his"); the act of 1903, p. 471, § 7, added that such a child inherits from the mother the same as a child born in wedlock. The section descends from the act of 1861, p. 247, § 7, and the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, ch. XX, § 7; carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 28, § 1045, and Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7046 ↩ ↩
56. General Statutes of 1883, ch. 28, § 1048 (§ 10); the section descends from the act of 1861, pp. 247–48, § 10, and the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, ch. XX, § 10, and passed through the act of 1903, p. 472, § 10, to Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7049, and 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 176, § 11 ↩
57. 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 20, §§ 1–6 ↩
58. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. CIII (Wills, Executors and Administrators), § 2788 (§ 1), p. 929, re-enacting ch. XC of the Revised Statutes: "Except as provided in the chapter concerning married women, every person aged twenty-one years, if a male, or eighteen years, if a female and not married, being of sound mind and memory, shall have power to devise" real and personal estate, and "all persons of the age of seventeen years, and of sound mind and memory, shall have power to dispose of their personal estate, by will or testament." The section descends from the act of 1861, p. 398, § 1, and the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, p. 642, § 1; carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 115, § 3481, and, by the act of 1903, p. 472, § 12, to Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7070 ↩
59. Session Laws of Colorado, 1947, p. 947 (any person of sound mind aged 18 may dispose of an estate of every kind) ↩
60. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 2821 (§ 34), pp. 939–40: a person named executor or executrix who at the time administration ought to be granted is "under the age of seventeen years, or of unsound mind; or convicted of any crime rendering him or her infamous, or shall be a married woman" is passed over, letters being granted as if he had not been named, unless in the case of a married woman her husband gives bond with her with two or more sufficient securities. The act of 1903, p. 486, § 47, dropped the married-woman disqualification and added habitual drunkenness and general unfitness; carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 115, §§ 3513–3514, and Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7111 ↩ ↩
61. General Statutes of 1883, ch. 115, § 3524; Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7105 (husband or widow preferred; a creditor may apply after 20 days); 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 176, § 74 ↩
62. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 2789 (§ 2), p. 929; the act of 1903, p. 473, § 13, extended the writing-and-two-witness requirement to wills of every kind. The section derives from the Illinois Revised Statutes of 1845, § 2, and descends from the act of 1861, p. 398, § 2, and the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, p. 642, § 2; carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 115, § 3482, and Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7071 ↩
63. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, §§ 2792–2793 (§§ 5–6), p. 930 (a devise or bequest to a subscribing witness null and void unless the will is otherwise duly attested by a sufficient number of witnesses exclusive of that person, with a saving for a witness who would have taken a share on intestacy; a creditor whose debt is charged on the land by the will admitted as a witness); carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 115, § 3485, and Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7074 ↩
64. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 2790 (§ 3), p. 929 (nuncupative will valid for personal estate only); the wills act of 1903, p. 473, § 13, required every will to be in writing and attested by two witnesses; Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 157, § 7071 ↩
65. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, §§ 2243–2244, p. 742 (all property, real and personal, not expressly exempt is subject to taxation, the statute fixing no minimum age for the owner); General Statutes of 1883, ch. 94 (Revenue), §§ 2814–2815 (same, with exemptions for public property, churches, schools, charities, cemeteries, irrigation works, and — for ten years after 1876 — mines and the value added by orchards and trees); later at Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 122 (Revenue). Digital images of the 1877 text, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00clargoog/page/n0/mode/2up?q=%22subject+to+taxation%22 : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩ ↩
66. Income tax act, Session Laws of Colorado, 1937, p. 675; digital images, Colorado Law Scholarly Commons (https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/session-laws-1901-1950/ : accessed 4 August 2026). The tax reaches only the last thirteen years of the period covered by this guide, and the returns are not open records ↩
67. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 2241 (§ 2), p. 741 ("A poll tax shall be assessed on every able-bodied male inhabitant of the state, over the age of twenty-one and under fifty years, whether a citizen of the United States or an alien"); carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 94, § 2813 ↩ ↩
68. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1783, p. 623 (an annual military poll tax of fifty cents on each male inhabitant of the state of 21 and upward, assessed and collected as state poll taxes are); the road poll tax at General Statutes of 1883, ch. 94, § 2816 (§ 5); the military poll tax at one dollar by Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 89, § 4457. The military poll tax was abolished by "Levying a Tax for the Support and Maintenance of the State Military Fund and to Repeal Sections 4457, 4458 and 4463 of the Revised Statutes of Colorado," ch. 194, Session Laws of Colorado, 1919, p. 667 (House Bill No. 13, by Mr. Fairfield), § 1 levying instead ".07 of a mill on each and every dollar of the assessed valuation" of taxable property beginning in 1919, and § 3 repealing the poll tax sections. Digital images, Colorado Law Scholarly Commons (https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/session-laws-1901-1950/2005/ : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩ ↩
69. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. XXXVI (Firemen), §§ 1213–1214, p. 464 (a working member of a fire company exempt from jury service and from the poll tax, and permanently exempt after five years' faithful service, on a certificate from the foreman filed with the city or town clerk); § 1779, p. 622 (a militiaman producing his commander's certificate exempt for that year from all poll taxes, involuntary jury duty, and military duty except in his own corps) ↩ ↩
70. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. LIV (Jurors), § 1460 (§ 1), p. 538, re-enacting ch. XLIX of the Revised Statutes ("All male inhabitants of the state of the age of twenty-one years, who are citizens of the United States or have declared their intention to become such citizens, and who have not been convicted of felony, shall be competent to serve as grand and petit jurors in all courts and judicial proceedings in this state"); carried to General Statutes of 1883, ch. 61, § 1891, and Revised Statutes of 1908, ch. 77, § 3668 ↩ ↩
71. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 1461 (§ 2), pp. 538–39; General Statutes of 1883, ch. 61, § 1898 ↩
72. Colo. Const. of 1876, art. II, § 23, whose source line reads "L. 43: Entire section amended, see L. 45, p. 424" — proposed by the General Assembly in 1943, ratified at the general election of November 1944, and printed as amended at Session Laws of Colorado, 1945, p. 424, with the enabling act at p. 426. As amended the section provides that the right of any person to serve on a jury shall not be denied or abridged on account of sex, and that the General Assembly may provide by law for exemptions from jury service ↩
73. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. XXIV (Criminal Code), §§ 698–699 (§§ 3–4), pp. 261–62, re-enacting ch. XXII of the Revised Statutes: "A person shall be considered of sound mind who is neither an idiot, nor lunatic, nor affected with insanity, and who hath arrived at the age of fourteen years, or before that age, if such person know the distinction between good or evil," and "An infant under the age of ten years shall not be found guilty of any crime or misdemeanor." The same two sections stand in the Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, Criminal Code ("An act concerning Criminal Jurisprudence," approved 9 January 1868), Division I, §§ 3–4. The rule ran forward unchanged, was applied as the law of Colorado in Gallegos v. Tinsley, 139 Colo. 157, 337 P.2d 386 (1959), and survives as C.R.S. 18-1-801 ↩
74. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, § 702 (§ 7), p. 262; Revised Statutes of Colorado, 1868, Criminal Code, Division I, § 7 (a person counselling, advising, or encouraging an infant under ten, a lunatic, or an idiot to commit any offense is prosecuted for that offense as principal and suffers the punishment that would have been inflicted had he committed it directly) ↩
75. Act of 7 March 1903, ch. 85, Session Laws of Colorado, 1903, p. 178, "An Act Concerning Delinquent Children," giving the juvenile court its own name, docket, and records; Act of 3 April 1907, ch. 149, Session Laws of Colorado, 1907, p. 324, establishing a juvenile court in every county of more than 100,000 with jurisdiction over children under 16; and ch. 75, Session Laws of Colorado, 1923, p. 197, amending § 1 of the act of 1903 to read "This Act shall apply only to children under eighteen years of age" and defining a delinquent child as one of eighteen or under who violates any law or ordinance or is disorderly, immoral, or incorrigible; digital images, Colorado Law Scholarly Commons (https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/session-laws-1901-1950/2609/ : accessed 4 August 2026). The compiled early acts are printed in Benjamin B. Lindsey, comp., The Juvenile Court Laws of the State of Colorado ([Denver]: Juvenile Improvement Association of Denver, 1905); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/juvenilecourtla00denvgoog : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩
76. General Laws of Colorado, 1877, ch. XXIV (Criminal Code), Division III ("Who May Be Witnesses in Criminal Cases"), §§ 610–612 (§§ 15–17), p. 264: the party or parties injured "shall in all cases be competent witnesses, unless he, she or they shall be rendered incompetent by reason of his, her or their infamy or other legal incompetency other than that of interest," their credibility left to the jury; approvers not allowed to give testimony; and "the solemn affirmation of witnesses shall be deemed sufficient," a false affirmation carrying the penalties of perjury. The provision for affirmation in place of an oath is what admits a witness — a child among others — who will not or cannot swear. Digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/generallawsstat00clargoog/page/n0/mode/2up?q=%22who+may+be+witnesses+in+criminal+cases%22 : accessed 4 August 2026) ↩
77. 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 177 (Witnesses and Evidence), carrying forward the competency rules first enacted by the act of 1870 and cited above, including the bar on a party testifying to transactions with a person since deceased. No section of the chapter makes age a ground of incompetency. For the spousal rule within the same chapter, see § 9, cited below ↩
78. 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, ch. 177, § 9 (spousal competency and marital communications); ch. 83, § 5 (the wife a competent witness against the husband under the non-support statutes) ↩

Note: This law guide was created with assistance from multiple AI tools. Though a diligent effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, there may be unintentional errors. It's important to check the primary sources as needed to ensure accuracy.