Minnesota Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

An English legal system received through Wisconsin

Minnesota's law is English common law (judge-made law, handed down through court decisions rather than written by a legislature), and it arrived by a particular route. When Congress created Minnesota Territory in 1849, it provided that the laws in force in the Territory of Wisconsin should remain valid and operative in Minnesota until altered, modified, or repealed by the Minnesota legislature¹. The first territorial legislature compiled that inherited law into the Revised Statutes of 1851, following the arrangement of Wisconsin's own revision².

A Minnesota rule can often be traced back through Wisconsin to New York, and from there to England. Minnesota was a separate-property state throughout: each spouse owned his or her own property, and each spouse's estate descended on its own account.

Four sovereign powers have claimed the ground that became Minnesota — England, France, Spain, and the United States — but only England shaped its law. Title came to the United States by treaty, and the Dakota treaties of 1851 and the successive Ojibwe treaties opened most of the state to settlement, so title to nearly every Minnesota farm begins with a federal patent. The Constitution of 1857 established an elected probate court in every county³, so wills, administrations, guardianships, and court-ordered sales of a minor's land are county records from the beginning; deeds went to the register of deeds of the county where the land lay, and marriage licenses and returns to the clerk of the district court.

A common law rewritten by statute

Four dates carry most of the weight, and each one changes what to expect in the records: dower and curtesy — a surviving wife's or husband's right to use the other's land for life — were abolished in 1875 and replaced the next year by a share owned outright; the Torrens system of registered land title arrived in 1901; the Children's Code of 1917 built the juvenile court and rewrote the law of illegitimacy; and common-law marriage was abolished in 1941.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Twenty-one for men and eighteen for women

From 1866 Minnesota set full legal age by sex. One sentence governs: males of the age of twenty-one years, and females of the age of eighteen years, were of full age for all purposes; before those ages they were minors⁴.

That phrase "for all purposes" is doing real work. It is the reason a Minnesota woman could make a will at 18, marry without her parents' consent at 18, and see her guardianship close at 18 — three years earlier than her brother. A guardian's final account for a daughter dates to her eighteenth birthday; for a son, to his twenty-first.

For the territorial years and the first decade of statehood the two ages governed particular subjects rather than the whole of a person's capacity. The code of 1851 fixed 21 for a male and 18 for a female for marriage consent, and ran guardianship to 21 for every minor⁵.

Full age became 18 for both sexes in 1973⁶, after this period.

A minor's capacity

A minor could own property outright. What the law restricted was the power to give it away. A conveyance had to be made by a grantor — the person making the deed — of lawful age, so a minor's land was ordinarily sold not by the child but by a guardian, under an order of the probate court.

Marriage

Who was old enough

The territorial legislature settled the marrying ages in 1851: every male of the full age of 18 and every female of the full age of 15 was capable in law of contracting marriage, if otherwise competent⁷. The same words were carried into the General Statutes⁸.

An act of 1927 raised the woman's age and created the exception that goes with it. A female now had to have reached 16; but one of 15 could receive a license with the consent of her parents and of her guardian if she had one, and only where the judge of the juvenile court of her county approved her application after a careful inquiry into the facts and surrounding circumstances⁹. A marriage by a girl of 15 between 1927 and 1949 therefore leaves a juvenile court approval alongside the license.

An act of 1937 set a minimum age of 15 for both sexes, adding to the list of prohibited marriages any marriage where one or both parties were under 15 years of age¹⁰.

An act of 1949, at the very end of this period, opened the same door to boys. The marrying ages stayed at 18 for a male and 16 for a female, and a male of the full age of 16 could now receive a license on the consent of his parents and his guardian, with the same juvenile court approval already required of a female of 15¹¹.

A marriage in which one party was under the age of consent but otherwise competent was voidable — it stood unless a court was asked to undo it¹². The 1937 act changed that for the youngest parties: a marriage where either party was under 15 became absolutely void, without any decree¹³. Above 15 an underage marriage stayed voidable, and in practice an ancestor's underage marriage was almost certainly valid.

Parental consent ran to full age

Consent was required of anyone under age who had not had a former wife or husband — and "under age" here meant legal age, not marrying age¹⁴. So a man needed his parents' consent until 21 and a woman until 18, whatever the minimum marrying age happened to be.

The consent had to be given in person before the clerk of the district court, or certified in writing under the parent's or guardian's hand and attested by two witnesses, one of whom appeared before the clerk and swore he had seen the parent sign¹⁵. That attested consent is filed with the license application, and it names a parent or guardian — sometimes the only such naming to be found.

How a marriage was made

A Minnesota marriage was made in three steps, and each left paper. The couple applied to the clerk of the district court for a license — from the county where the woman lived, or where the marriage was to take place if she lived out of the state¹⁶. The ceremony followed before an authorized officiant, with at least two witnesses present besides him, in whatever form the parties chose¹⁷. The officiant then filed a certificate with the clerk who had issued the license, and a duplicate with the clerk of the county where the marriage took place, so a couple who married away from home is recorded twice.

The resulting record names both parties, their residence by county, the dates of application, license, and marriage, and the officiant; it gives ages only occasionally before 1949, on the parties' own statements. Look in the woman's county first, even when the wedding happened elsewhere.

Two provisions matter more than they look. Quaker marriages were valid in their own form, the certificate signed by the parties and at least six witnesses where the marriage was not made in a meeting¹⁸. And a marriage held good where the couple believed in good faith that the person who performed it had authority to do so¹⁹.

Common-law marriage and the date it ended

Until 1941 a Minnesota couple could marry themselves. A present agreement to be husband and wife made the marriage, and the supreme court held in 1896 that the agreement alone was enough — cohabitation and reputation were evidence that the couple had agreed, not extra requirements²⁰. Such a marriage was as good as any solemnized in a church.

That changed on a fixed date. A marriage had to be contracted in the presence of two witnesses and solemnized by someone authorized, or believed in good faith to be authorized, to do it; and marriages subsequent to 26 April 1941 not so contracted were null and void²¹. Marriages formed informally before that date kept their full validity, and the courts have said so²².

A couple living together as husband and wife before 26 April 1941 may be lawfully married with no license and no certificate anywhere. Their children are legitimate, the widow takes her statutory share, and the absence of a marriage record proves nothing.

The restrictions on marriage

Through the nineteenth century the bar was narrow. No marriage could be contracted while either party had a husband or wife living, nor between parties nearer of kin than first cousins, reckoned by the rules of the civil law, whether of the half or the whole blood²³. First cousins could marry.

The Revised Laws of 1905 added two more. A marriage was barred where either party was epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded, or insane, and neither party could marry again within six months of a divorce²⁴. The kinship line stayed where it was.

An act of 1911 moved the degree to second cousins, which put first cousins outside it²⁵. The 1937 act carried the whole list forward²⁶. Where a couple falls in one of these classes, or stands within the forbidden degrees, look for a marriage contracted in a neighboring state.

Marriage across racial lines

A couple of any race could marry in Minnesota under the ordinary law. The bars to a Minnesota marriage were the ones set out above — an existing marriage, kinship, want of the age of consent, and from 1905 health — and they applied to all persons alike. The list of prohibited marriages ran on those grounds alone from the territorial code of 1851²⁷ through every later revision to the code in force at the end of this period²⁸. Black, mixed-race, and Native couples married under that law, appear in the ordinary license and return books, and their children were legitimate on the ordinary footing.

Marriage by Dakota or Ojibwe custom was a separate matter, governed by tribal law and by federal Indian law rather than by the marriage chapter, and a couple married by tribal custom will not normally appear in the county clerk's books at all.

Property Ownership

Which men could own land

Every free man could acquire, hold, and convey land in Minnesota, and from the territory's first statute book that included the foreign-born. Any alien could acquire and hold land by purchase, by devise (a gift of land by will), or by descent, and could convey, mortgage, and devise it, and if he died intestate — without leaving a will — it descended to his heirs — in every case exactly as if he had been a native citizen²⁹. A companion section barred anyone from attacking an existing title on the ground of alienage³⁰.

Minnesota wanted settlers, and wrote its land law to get them. Down to 1887, a foreign-born ancestor's deeds need no naturalization behind them: he could buy land the week he landed.

Free men of color held land on the same terms, bought and sold it, and appear in the deed books accordingly. The conveyancing chapter and the chapter on descent set no racial qualification on who could take, hold, or pass land³¹.

The state reversed itself in 1887. An act of that year made it unlawful for anyone who was neither a citizen of the United States nor a lawful declarant to acquire, hold, or own real estate acquired after the act took effect on 1 July 1887³². Four things were carved out, and they matter: land taken by devise or inheritance, land taken in good faith in the collection of a debt or on foreclosure, land held under a treaty right, and farms of 160 acres or less occupied by actual settlers who took possession before 1 January 1889. An act of 1889 rewrote the section, softened the forfeiture, and widened the settler and city-lot exemptions³³.

The restriction then stayed on the books through 1950, carried through the Revised Laws of 1905 and Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927 into the code in force in 1945, which still barred a non-citizen who had not declared his intention from acquiring more than 90,000 square feet, subject to the same exemptions³⁴.

So the date of a foreign-born ancestor's purchase decides what to look for. A deed before 1 July 1887 needs nothing behind it. A deed after that date ordinarily means he had filed a declaration of intention in some court — a findable record, often years before his final naturalization papers — or that he took the land by inheritance, on a debt, or as an actual settler on a small farm.

Women and land ownership

A single woman or widow — a feme sole, "woman alone" — could buy, own, sell, mortgage, sue, and be sued exactly as a man could.

A married woman was a feme covert, "covered woman," under coverture — the common-law rule that a wife's legal identity merged into her husband's, so that he controlled her property and took its rents and profits.

Minnesota dismantled coverture in stages. An act of 1869 made all property a married woman owned, or brought to the marriage, her separate property notwithstanding the marriage — free of her husband's control and of liability for his debts, and including the avails of her own contracts and industry³⁵. The same act bound her by her contracts and made her answerable for her torts — the harms she caused others — but left one thing standing: no conveyance of her real estate was valid unless her husband joined in it, apart from mortgages given to secure the purchase price of the land itself, and leases of three years or less³⁶. An act of 1887 declared and protected her legal personal identity, and the courts held that even that did not let her convey her land independently of him³⁷. Only with the Revised Laws of 1905, as amended in 1907, could either spouse convey his or her own land by separate deed, subject to the other's statutory interest, with the homestead — the family dwelling and the land around it, which the law shielded from creditors — always excepted³⁸.

So a married woman's own land was conveyed by a deed carrying both signatures until 1905, and by her separate deed afterwards.

A wife's conveyance stood whatever her age: her minority left any deed she executed fully valid³⁹. A signing wife may well have been under 18.

When a wife had to sign her husband's deed

Two entirely separate rules put a wife's name on a Minnesota deed, and they answer different questions.

The first is her share in his land. Before 1875 that share was dower — a widow's life estate in one-third of her husband's land, meaning the use of that third for her lifetime rather than ownership of it. Minnesota dower reached every parcel of which the husband was seized (held in ownership) at any time during the marriage⁴⁰, so a buyer needed the wife to release it, which she did by joining in the deed and acknowledging it — appearing before an officer to confirm that the signature was hers — or by joining in a later deed⁴¹. That was the ordinary acknowledgment any grantor gave, taken with her husband present.

Dower and curtesy (the husband's answering life estate in his wife's land) were abolished in 1875, except where a death had already fixed the right⁴². The same act put something better in their place, and made it the same for both sexes: the survivor took a life estate in the homestead, free of the deceased's debts, and one undivided third in fee simple — owned outright — of all other lands of which the deceased died seized or possessed⁴³.

Those last words mattered for a year. As the act of 1875 stood, the third reached only what the husband still held when he died, so a buyer took free of it and a wife's signature added nothing to his deed. The act of 1876 changed the words to all other lands of which the deceased was at any time during coverture seized or possessed⁴⁴, which reached back over every parcel held during the marriage — and put the wife's signature back on Minnesota deeds for good.

The second rule is the homestead, and it never bent. Where the owner was married, no mortgage of the homestead except for unpaid purchase money, and no sale or other alienation of it, was valid without the signatures of both husband and wife⁴⁵. The courts enforced this to the letter: a deed, a contract for deed, or a mortgage of the homestead lacking the wife's signature was void, not merely voidable⁴⁶.

So a Minnesota deed signed by a husband alone tells you the parcel was not the family homestead. A deed carrying both names, before 1905, tells you either that the land was the homestead or that the wife was releasing her one-third — and after 1905 it may tell you the land was hers.

A survivor who had wilfully and without just cause deserted the deceased, and lived apart for the year immediately before the death, took nothing in the lands⁴⁷. A recital of desertion in a probate file is worth reading closely.

Which children could own land

A child could own land at any age, taking it by inheritance, gift, or purchase. Selling it went through the probate court: the guardian petitioned, gave bond, and sold under a court order. A single sale of a child's land therefore leaves a petition, a bond, an order, and a deed signed by someone other than the owner — and the petition usually names the whole sibling group.

Deeds and their witnesses

A Minnesota deed was good on the grantor's own signature. From the territorial code onward, a conveyance of land or of any interest in it was made by deed, signed and sealed by the person from whom the estate was to pass, being of lawful age, acknowledged before an authorized officer, and recorded in the county where the land lay — "without any other act or ceremony whatever"⁴⁸.

Witnesses appear on Minnesota deeds all the same, because they gave the grantee — the person receiving the land — a second route to record. Where a grantor died, left the state, or resided outside it without having acknowledged his deed, the execution could be proved by any competent witness to it, before a court of record⁴⁹. Where the subscribing witnesses — those who had signed the deed — were themselves dead or out of the state, the deed could be proved by the handwriting of the grantor and of a subscribing witness⁵⁰. And a grantor living in the state who refused to acknowledge his deed could be summoned before a justice of the peace to hear the subscribing witness testify⁵¹.

The conveyancing chapter set no age for a witness. It required only that the grantor be of lawful age, and where a witness was called on to prove the deed it asked that he be competent — able to perceive what happened and relate it — rather than of any particular age⁵². In practice deed witnesses were adults, because a witness might have to appear in court to prove the deed years later.

From 1901 an owner could instead register his title under the Torrens act and take a certificate of title, in the larger counties at first⁵³ and in every county from 1909⁵⁴. A registered parcel leaves the deed books, and its later conveyances are endorsed on the certificate held by the county registrar of titles.

Native land

Land held by Dakota and Ojibwe people passed under federal law, not state law. The Nelson Act of 1889 applied allotment to the Minnesota Ojibwe reservations, pressing removal to White Earth and opening "surplus" land to sale; Red Lake was never allotted⁵⁵. Allotments were held in trust or in restricted fee, so they generate federal allotment schedules, trust patents, and heirship files rather than county deeds.

Inheritance

Before 1875: dower, curtesy, and the children

For the territorial years and the first two decades of statehood, a widow took dower — a life interest in one-third of the land her husband had held at any time during the marriage — and a widower took curtesy, a life estate in his wife's land⁵⁶. Neither owned the land; ownership passed at once to the children, who took in equal shares. This is why an estate of this period so often shows a widow living on a farm the children already own.

From 1875: a share owned outright

The act of 1875 abolished dower and curtesy and gave the survivor, husband or wife alike, a life estate in the homestead free of the deceased's debts and one undivided third of the other lands in fee simple⁵⁷. The act of 1876 recast the whole statute of descent and extended that third to land held at any time during the marriage.

Land descended by that statute, and the residue of the personal estate — whatever was left after the debts and the allowances were paid — was distributed in the same proportion, to the same persons, and for the same purpose⁵⁸ — so Minnesota ran a single scheme where many states ran two. The same section applied its rules as well to a surviving husband as to a surviving wife⁵⁹, so a widower's share is found under the same rules as a widow's.

The surviving spouse's share

The residue — whatever the survivor's third and homestead did not take — descended in equal shares to the children and to the issue of any deceased child — that child's own descendants — by right of representation, meaning they divided between them the share their parent would have taken⁶⁰.

The Probate Code of 1935 carried the scheme forward and added a refinement that changes the arithmetic:

The real-property share reached all land of which the decedent was seized or possessed at any time while married to that spouse⁶¹. Reconstructing a family from a Minnesota estate division turns on getting the one-third and the one-half right.

The widow's allowance and taking against a will

On top of the share, the surviving spouse was allowed out of the personal estate the wearing apparel, and, as selected by the survivor, household furniture and goods to $500 and other personal property to $500; where there was no surviving spouse the minor children received it, and a maintenance allowance ran during administration⁶². In the nineteenth-century form the widow took her own apparel and her husband's, furniture to $500, and other personal property to $300, and these allowances were made whether he died intestate or left a will⁶³. Where the whole estate came to $300 or less, the probate court simply assigned all of it to the widow and children⁶⁴. An estate small enough for that summary assignment, or one holding no real estate, left no administration file at all; and where a spouse survived, an estate was often left unsettled until she died or the land was sold, so a file may be opened years after the death.

The statutory share could not be swept away by a will. It came to the survivor free of any testamentary disposition to which the survivor had not consented in writing, or by electing to take under the will⁶⁵. So the probate file holds either a written consent, an election, or neither — and which of the three it is tells you what the widow ended up owning.

Minors, guardians, and the age of fourteen

A guardian was appointed whenever the judge of probate thought it necessary or convenient — a discretionary trigger rather than a fixed list — reaching minors in the county and minors living outside the state who owned property in it⁶⁶. In practice the occasion was almost always property: a child who inherited land or money needed someone bonded to hold it, and where a child inherited nothing, often no guardianship was opened.

The usual Minnesota guardianship is of the estate, not the person, and the parent is still alive. The guardian had the care and management of the estate, but the father, if living, and on his death the mother, kept the custody of the child's person and the care of his education⁶⁷. A guardianship opened while a parent lives is evidence that money reached the child from somewhere else, rather than evidence of an orphan. A father could also name the guardian in his will, with the same powers as a court-appointed one⁶⁸.

The guardian gave bond, returned an inventory, accounted on oath within a year and whenever the court directed afterwards, and at the end of the trust settled with the judge of probate — or with the minor himself, once he was of full age⁶⁹.

Three moments end a guardianship, and each dates something. The minor reaching full age — 21 for a boy, 18 for a girl⁷⁰ — brings the final settlement, which approximates a birth year and for a girl frequently reveals a married surname. A girl's marriage ends it outright⁷¹, so a guardianship closing with no birthday to explain it is very often a wedding; from 1935 her marriage ended the guardianship of her person while the guardianship of her estate continued⁷², so late files may close in two stages. And a female guardian's marriage extinguished her authority, so a change of guardian frequently dates a widowed mother's second marriage⁷³.

At fourteen the minor chose. Below that age the judge of probate nominated and appointed; above it, the minor nominated his own guardian and the court appointed that person if it approved⁷⁴. A guardianship file in which the child chooses is evidence the child had turned 14, which brackets a birth year.

Children born outside marriage

Every illegitimate child was an heir of his mother in all cases, and inherited her estate as though born in lawful wedlock. He was also an heir of the man who acknowledged himself in writing, signed in the presence of a competent witness, to be the father⁷⁵. What he could not do was claim, as representing either parent, any part of the estate of that parent's kindred — unless before his death his parents intermarried and had other children and the father then acknowledged or adopted him⁷⁶. The Probate Code of 1935 kept the written, witnessed acknowledgment as the route to inheritance from the father⁷⁷.

Alongside that, the subsequent marriage of the parents to each other legitimated the children outright, and the issue of marriages declared null in law were legitimate notwithstanding⁷⁸.

Three practical points follow. A written acknowledgment of paternity is a findable document and may be recorded. A marriage that postdates a child's birth may be the instrument that made the child an heir, so the marriage record is the one to look for. And where paternity was contested, it was settled in a bastardy proceeding against the putative father (the alleged father), whose file names him.

Wills, executors, and witnesses

The age to make a will was full age — 21 for a man, 18 for a woman. Every person of full age and sound mind, seized of lands in his own right, could devise them by will in writing⁷⁹; every person of full age and sound mind could bequeath his personal estate the same way⁸⁰. To bequeath is to give goods or money by will. A married woman could devise and dispose of any real or personal property held in her own right, and alter or revoke her will, exactly as if she were unmarried⁸¹. The Probate Code of 1935 restated the capacity as belonging to every person of sound mind "not a minor"⁸², which kept the same two ages.

A will had to be in writing and signed at the end by the testator (the person making the will), or by another in his presence and at his express direction, and attested and subscribed in his presence by two or more competent witnesses⁸³. A witness competent when he signed stayed good even if he later became incompetent⁸⁴.

A witness could be of any age, provided he was competent, and took nothing under the will. All beneficial devises, legacies, and gifts to a subscribing witness were void, unless there were two other competent subscribing witnesses⁸⁵. Where such a witness would have inherited had there been no will, so much of that share as did not exceed the gift was saved to him⁸⁶. So where a will carried only two witnesses and one of them was left something, that gift failed.

Minnesota wills are signed, witnessed, written documents. A will written entirely in the testator's own hand — a holographic will — needed its two witnesses like any other. A nuncupative (spoken) will was good for a soldier in actual military service or a mariner at sea, and only as to personal property⁸⁷.

Serving as executor required full age. Letters testamentary — the court's written authority to act — issued to the executor named in the will if he was legally competent, accepted the trust, and gave bond⁸⁸. Where the named executor was under full age when the will was proved, authority to settle the estate under the will — administration with the will annexed — was granted during his minority to whoever would have been entitled had the deceased died without a will, and the minor could be admitted as joint executor on reaching full age, giving bond⁸⁹. A change of representative some years into an administration is often that coming-of-age, and it dates a birth.

Administration of an intestate estate went to the surviving spouse or next of kin, or a person they selected, if suitable and competent; then to the principal creditors⁹⁰. A woman's marriage did not extinguish her authority as executrix or administratrix⁹¹, so a change of surname mid-administration is a wedding rather than a replacement.

Taxation

What was taxed

Two taxes fell on individuals through most of this period: the property tax, laid every year on real and personal estate, and the road poll tax, a labor obligation on working-age men. An inheritance tax on property passing at death was laid from 1905⁹², and Minnesota added a state individual income tax in 1933⁹³.

The property tax followed ownership at any age, so a minor holding inherited land appears on the roll in his own name. The road tax was the one keyed to age.

Who was taxed and at what age

Every male inhabitant above 21 and under 50 was assessed not less than one nor more than four days' work on the roads each year⁹⁴. He could turn up and work, send an able-bodied substitute who worked ten hours a day, or commute the obligation for money⁹⁵; refusing to do either brought a fine of two dollars a day⁹⁶. The overseer of highways gave the town clerk a list of the inhabitants of his road district, and the supervisors assessed the year's labor and road tax from it⁹⁷.

The labor obligation ended in 1921. The highway act of that year provided that all road taxes thereafter levied were to be paid in cash, and the road tax became an ordinary levy on property in the town rather than a personal duty owed by men of working age⁹⁸. So a road-district list of names is a record of the years before 1921; after that the road tax appears only on the property rolls.

Exemptions

A man stopped being liable for the road tax in three ways:

• He turned 50. The road tax stopped, though he stays on the property rolls if he owned anything.
• He joined a fire company. A village council could vote to exempt a limited number of resident legal voters from highway tax and from serving on juries, where they belonged to a fire company organized under the council's direction⁹⁹.
• He was a disabled veteran. Discharged volunteers of the war of 1861, honorably discharged on account of wounds, having lost a limb or being otherwise permanently disabled, were exempt from poll tax and from sitting as jurors¹⁰⁰.

A man dropping off the poll and jury lists in the same year while staying on the property roll is very often the last of these, and it points to a pension file.

Courts

Jury service

Jurors were drawn from the qualified electors of the county¹⁰¹, so the qualification for jury service was the qualification to vote, and the working age was 21. A Minnesota juror qualified on his vote alone, whether or not he owned land. Grand and petit jurors were held to the same standard¹⁰², and so were talesmen, the bystanders summoned on the spot to fill out a short panel.

The Constitution of 1857 admitted to the vote, and so to the jury list, every male of 21 and upwards in four classes: white citizens; white men of foreign birth who had declared their intention to become citizens; men of mixed white and Indian blood who had adopted the customs and habits of civilization; and men of Indian blood who had adopted the language, customs, and habits of civilization and had been examined and pronounced capable by a district court¹⁰³. A man qualifying under the fourth class left a district court examination file naming him.

Two amendments changed that list inside this period, and the printed constitution in any given statute volume shows which rule was then in force. The word "white" came out of the first two classes in 1868, so from that year the vote and the jury list reached men of color¹⁰⁴. The declarant class came out in 1896, so from that year only a citizen could vote or be drawn¹⁰⁵. A foreign-born ancestor therefore reached the jury list on his declaration of intention, years before his final naturalization, but only down to 1896; after that his name on a jury list means he had completed his naturalization.

The exemption list is long and useful. Any man over 60 could claim exemption, as could a man disabled by bodily infirmity, and so could a long roll of occupations — federal officers, judges of courts of record, state officers, sheriffs and deputies, coroners, constables, attorneys, ministers of the gospel, preceptors and teachers of incorporated academies, one teacher in each common school, practicing physicians and surgeons, one miller to each grist mill, one ferryman to each licensed ferry, telegraph operators, and members of organized fire companies¹⁰⁶. An ancestor's absence from jury lists may be his age or his occupation talking.

Women and men of color on juries

Men of color became electors, and therefore jurors, in 1868, when Minnesota's voters approved the amendment striking the racial limit from the elector clause — two years before the Fifteenth Amendment¹⁰⁷.

Women became eligible in 1921. The statutes on the qualifications of jurors and on exemption from jury duty were amended to include women as well as men, and all sex qualification was removed¹⁰⁸; the same act rewrote the definition of a petit jury to read a body of twelve men or women, or both¹⁰⁹. A Minnesota jury list from 1922 onward carries women's names.

The age of criminal responsibility

Minnesota fixed criminal capacity by statute¹¹⁰:

• Under 7 — a child was incapable of committing a crime.
• 7 to 11 — presumed incapable, a presumption the State could remove by proving the child had sufficient capacity to understand the act and to know that it was wrong.
• 12 and over — responsible, like any adult.

Statute then moved the whole class of cases out of the criminal courts, in two steps. Minnesota's first juvenile court act, of 1905, applied only to children under 17¹¹¹. The Children's Code of 1917 consolidated and replaced it and raised the line to 18¹¹², and a judge or justice before whom a minor came had to inquire into his age and transfer the case forthwith. So after 1917 a Minnesota child under 18 ordinarily has a juvenile file rather than a criminal one — across most of the state kept by the judge of probate, in the same office as the estates¹¹³ — and those records could be withheld from public inspection at the court's discretion, though they stood always open to the child they concerned¹¹⁴. The criminal route stayed open for the gravest charges: a boy over 12 and under 16 convicted of murder in the third degree could still be sentenced to the state prison¹¹⁵.

Witnesses

Minnesota swept away the old disqualifications in one sentence. All persons having the power and faculty to perceive, and to make known their perceptions to others, could be witnesses — parties and interested persons were not excluded, nor those convicted of crime, nor anyone on account of religious opinions or belief, though credibility could always be attacked¹¹⁶. A person charged with a crime was a competent witness at his own request, and his refusal to testify created no presumption against him¹¹⁷.

Two classes were excepted: persons of unsound mind or intoxicated at the time they were produced, and children under ten who appeared incapable of receiving just impressions of the facts, or of relating them truly¹¹⁸. So a child of any age could testify if the judge was satisfied he understood; under ten, the judge examined him first.

Spouses were the significant limit. A husband could not be examined for or against his wife without her consent, nor she for or against him without his, and neither could be examined as to communications made during the marriage — except in a proceeding by one against the other, or for a crime committed by one against the other¹¹⁹.

Women and men of color as witnesses

Both could testify, on the same terms as anyone else. The competency statute reached every person able to perceive and to communicate, and the disqualifications it named were interest, criminal conviction, religious belief, unsound mind, and childhood — all of them abolished or reduced to questions of credibility, and none of them turning on race or sex¹²⁰. What limited a married woman's testimony was the spousal rule above, which bound husband and wife alike.

Sources & Where to Verify

Constitutions

• Minnesota Constitution of 1857. Art. VI (probate court in each county); art. VII, § 1 (the four classes of electors, including the district-court examination for persons of Indian blood). Printed in the front matter of Minnesota Statutes 1945. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1945/document/misc/Preface/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. Minnesota Constitution, with the text of amendments and their ratification dates. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/guides/guides?issue=constitution (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. "State Constitutional Amendments Considered," a table of every amendment put to the voters since 1858, with the ballot year, the result, and a link to the proposing act. The source for the dates of the elector amendments of 1868 and 1896. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/mngov/constitutionalamendments (accessed 10 August 2026).

Territorial and State Codes and Compilations

• The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota. Saint Paul: Frederick Driscoll, State Printer, 1865. The 1863 revision; the majority section is marked "New." in the revisers' margin. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1863/cite/59/pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).
• The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota. St. Paul: Davidson & Hall, State Printers, 1872. The 1866 revision, in the 1872 printing; the essential volume for dower, curtesy, and the pre-1876 estate. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1866/cite/48/pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).
• The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota, as Amended by Subsequent Legislation. Prepared by George B. Young. 4th ed. Saint Paul: West Publishing Company, 1883. The 1878 compilation with supplements to the 1883 session — the single most useful volume for this guide (deeds ch. 40, descent ch. 46, wills ch. 47, dower ch. 48, executors ch. 50, intestates ch. 51, guardians ch. 59, marriage ch. 61, married women ch. 69, homestead ch. 68, witnesses ch. 73, grand juries ch. 107). Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1878/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota. Compiled and edited by Henry B. Wenzell, assisted by Eugene P. Lane; annotated by Francis B. Tiffany and others. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1894. 2 vols. Married women, §§ 5531–5532, with the case annotations. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1894/cite/69/pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).
• General Statutes of Minnesota 1913. Compiled and edited by Francis B. Tiffany. St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1913. Marriage §§ 7089–7105; homestead conveyance § 3456, with the cases holding a one-signature homestead deed void. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1913/cite/70/pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927. Compiled and edited by the editorial staff of the Citer-Digest Company; William H. Mason, editor in chief. St. Paul: Citer-Digest Company, 1927. 2 vols. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1927/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• 1940 Supplement to Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927 (1927 to 1940). Edited by William H. Mason. Saint Paul, Minn.: Mason Publishing Co., 1940. The text of the marriage sections as amended in 1937 (§ 8564, prohibited marriages; § 8580, marriages void). Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1940/cite/70/pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. "History of the Publication of Minnesota Statutory Law," in the Preface to Minnesota Statutes. A bibliographic essay giving the compiler, publisher, place, and year of every Minnesota compilation from 1849 forward, and the legislative effect of each. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/2024/document/misc/Preface/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. Statutes Archive, 1849 to the present — every Minnesota compilation, chapter by chapter, as searchable images. The fastest route to any Minnesota rule in force in a given year. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/archive (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota Statutes 1945. Edited by William B. Henderson, Revisor. Minneapolis: Syndicate Printing Co. for the State of Minnesota, [1946]. The code in force at the end of this period, with the derivation of each section printed beneath it: marriage ch. 517, conveyancing ch. 507, registration of land ch. 508, probate ch. 525, juries ch. 593, juvenile court ch. 260, crimes ch. 610. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1945/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• The Public Statutes of the State of Minnesota (1849–1858). Compiled by Moses Sherburne and William Hollinshead, Commissioners. Published by State Authority. St. Paul: The Pioneer Printing Co., 1859. Guardians and wards, ch. 54; the volume carries no general majority section, and was never enacted by the legislature. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1858/cite/54/pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Republication of Important General Laws of Wisconsin Now in Force in the Territory of Minnesota by Provision of the Organic Act. St. Paul: James M. Goodhue, 1850. The Wisconsin laws that governed Minnesota before the Revised Statutes of 1851, printed as chapters xlv to lxiii of the first volume of territorial session laws. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/archive (accessed 5 August 2026).
• The Revised Laws of Minnesota 1905. Edited and annotated by Mark B. Dunnell. St. Paul: Published by the State, 1906. Enacted 18 April 1905, to take effect 1 March 1906. Marriage, ch. 70 (prohibited marriages, § 3554); the accused as a witness, ch. 92, § 4661. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1905/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• The Revised Statutes of the Territory of Minnesota. Saint Paul: James M. Goodhue, Territorial Printer, 1851. The foundation volume: alienation by deed and the recording of conveyances, ch. 46; estates in dower, by the curtesy, and general provisions concerning real estate, ch. 49 (with the alien landholding rule at §§ 35–36); title to real property by descent, ch. 50; marriage, ch. 65; guardians and wards, ch. 67. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1851/cite/46/pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).

Session Laws and Federal Acts

• "An Act to Establish the Territorial Government of Minnesota." 3 March 1849, effective 10 March 1849. Section 12 continues the laws of Wisconsin Territory in force. Printed in the front matter of Minnesota Statutes 1945. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1945/document/misc/Preface/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• General Laws of the State of Minnesota. St. Paul: McGill-Warner Co., 1901. Ch. 237, the Torrens land title act. Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1901/0/General+Laws/Chapter/237/pdf/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• General Laws of Minnesota and Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1849 to the present. Every Minnesota session-law volume, chapter by chapter, as searchable images. The acts cited in this guide: 1868, ch. 85 (disabled soldiers exempt from poll tax and jury service); 1869, ch. 26 (the homestead signature), ch. 56 (married women's property), and ch. 61 (a married woman's power to make a will); 1873, ch. 59 (a married woman as guardian) and ch. 72 (jury exemptions); 1874, ch. 65 (marriage of an executrix); 1875, ch. 40 (dower and curtesy abolished); 1876, ch. 37 (title to real property by descent); 1887, ch. 207 (legal personal identity of married women); 1905, chs. 285 and 305 (juvenile court; registration of land); 1907, ch. 123 (separate deeds); 1909, ch. 183 (registration extended to all counties); 1887, ch. 204 (ownership of real estate restricted to citizens and declarants) and 1889, ch. 113 (that act amended); 1905, ch. 288 (the inheritance tax); 1911, ch. 222 (prohibited marriages, the degree moved to second cousins); 1917, ch. 397 (the Children's Code); 1921, ch. 323 (road taxes payable in cash); 1921, ch. 365 (women on juries); 1927, ch. 166 (the female marrying age raised to 16, with a juvenile court route at 15); 1931, ch. 401, and 1939, ch. 243 (marriage licenses and parental consent); 1935, ch. 72, the Minnesota Probate Code, approved 29 March 1935 and in force from 1 July 1935; 1937, ch. 407 (minimum marrying age of 15 for both sexes); 1941, ch. 459 (common-law marriage abolished); 1949, ch. 374 (a consent route to marriage for a male of 16); 1933, ch. 405 (the state income tax); and 1973, ch. 725 (majority at 18). Digital images. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes. https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/ (accessed 5 August 2026). The nineteenth-century volumes were printed for the state by a commercial house; from 1917 the volumes are official publications issued by the Secretary of State, and from 1949 by the Commissioner of Administration.
• "An act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota" (the Nelson Act). 25 Stat. 642, approved 14 January 1889. Allotment of the Minnesota Ojibwe reservations. Digital images. GovInfo, United States Government Publishing Office. https://www.govinfo.gov/link/statute/25/642 (accessed 10 August 2026).

Court Cases

• Althen v. Tarbox. 48 Minn. 18, 50 N.W. 1018 (1892). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8012340/althen-v-tarbox/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Baker v. Baker. 222 Minn. 169, 23 N.W.2d 582 (1946).
• Barton v. Drake. 21 Minn. 299 (1875). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8008160/barton-v-drake/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Bozich v. First State Bank of Buhl. 150 Minn. 241, 184 N.W. 1021 (1921).
• Horseth v. Fuglesteen. 165 Minn. 38, 205 N.W. 607 (1925).
• Hulett v. Carey (also reported as In re Hulett's Estate). 66 Minn. 327, 69 N.W. 31, 34 L.R.A. 384 (1896). The leading Minnesota case on common-law marriage before 1941.
• Laikola v. Engineered Concrete. 277 N.W.2d 653 (Minn. 1979). https://law.justia.com/cases/minnesota/supreme-court/1979/48566-1.html (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Lennartz v. Montgomery. 138 Minn. 170, 164 N.W. 899 (1917).
• Lundstrum v. Mample. 205 Minn. 95, 285 N.W. 83 (1939).
• State v. Olson. 156 Minn. 181, 194 N.W. 942 (1923).
• Von Felden v. Von Felden. 212 Minn. 54, 2 N.W.2d 426 (1942).
• Weitzner v. Thingstad. 55 Minn. 244, 56 N.W. 817 (1893). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8013187/weitzner-v-thingstad/ (accessed 5 August 2026).

Secondary and Reference Works

• Minnesota House of Representatives, Research Department. Sam Rankin. Alien Farmers in Minnesota, 1851-2004. December 2004. A dated chronology of every Minnesota act on landowning by non-citizens, from the territorial rule of 1851 through the restrictions of 1887 and after. https://www.house.mn.gov/hrd/pubs/alnfarm.pdf (accessed 10 August 2026).
• Minnesota Historical Society. MNopedia. "African American Suffrage in Minnesota, 1868." https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/event/african-american-suffrage-minnesota-1868 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota Historical Society Library. Ojibwe Family History research guide, land records — Nelson Act allotment registers, trust patents, and heirship files. https://libguides.mnhs.org/ojibwefh/land (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota Historical Society Library. Research guides to court and probate records, marriage records, and land records — used for what a document contains and where it was filed. https://libguides.mnhs.org/courtrecords/probate; https://libguides.mnhs.org/vital/marriage; https://libguides.mnhs.org/lrecords/ownership (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. "Legal Age in Minnesota," a dated walkthrough of every Minnesota age rule and the acts that changed it. https://www.lrl.mn.gov/guides/guides?issue=legalage (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota Legislative Reference Library. Minnesota Women's Legislative Timeline (Laws 1921, ch. 365, and the companion jury acts). https://www.lrl.mn.gov/womenstimeline/details?recid=3 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Minnesota State Law Library. Research guides on marriage and on minors, linking the governing acts by date. https://mncourts.libguides.com/marriage; https://mncourts.libguides.com/minors (accessed 5 August 2026).
• United States Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America. Bulletin 157 series. The Minnesota report digests majority, married women's property, the statutory share, wills, intestacy, guardianship, marriage, and jury service, with citations to the then-current code. Digital images. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/legal-status-women-united-states-america-5430 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Walling, Barbara, and Judge Lynn Driver. "100 Years of Juvenile Court in Minnesota." William Mitchell Law Review 32 (2006). https://open.mitchellhamline.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1127&context=wmlr (accessed 5 August 2026).

Citations

1. "An Act to Establish the Territorial Government of Minnesota," 3 March 1849, § 12 (laws in force in the Territory of Wisconsin to be valid and operative in Minnesota until altered, modified, or repealed); printed in the front matter of Minnesota Statutes 1945 (Minneapolis: Syndicate Printing Co. for the State of Minnesota, [1946]); digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1945/document/misc/Preface/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
2. The Revised Statutes of the Territory of Minnesota (Saint Paul: James M. Goodhue, Territorial Printer, 1851); digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1851/cite/46/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026). The Revisor's own historical note records that the compilers followed the arrangement of the Wisconsin revision ↩
3. Minn. Const. of 1857, art. VI, printed in the front matter of Minnesota Statutes 1945 ↩
4. The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota (St. Paul: Davidson & Hall, State Printers, 1872), ch. 59, § 2, hereinafter General Statutes of 1866, the 1866 revision in the 1872 printing: "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, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1866/cite/59/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026). The section was drafted new for the revision: it carries the marginal note "New." in the commissioners' revision prepared under the act of 17 February 1863, The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota (Saint Paul: Frederick Driscoll, State Printer, 1865), ch. 59, § 2; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1863/cite/59/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026). It runs unchanged into The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota, as Amended by Subsequent Legislation, prepared by George B. Young, 4th ed. (Saint Paul: West Publishing Company, 1883), ch. 59, § 2, hereinafter General Statutes of 1878, the short title carried in the volume's own running head; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1878/cite/59/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026). The earlier compilation carries no general majority section: The Public Statutes of the State of Minnesota (1849–1858), comp. Moses Sherburne and William Hollinshead, Commissioners (St. Paul: The Pioneer Printing Co., 1859), ch. 54, "Guardians and Wards" ↩
5. Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 65 (marriage), § 7, requiring consent where a party is "under the age of twenty-one years, if a male, or under the age of eighteen, if a female, and shall not have had a former wife or husband"; and ch. 67 (guardians and wards), § 7, giving the guardian custody and management "until such minor shall arrive at the age of twenty-one years," without distinction of sex ↩
6. Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1973 (St. Paul: Official Publication of the State of Minnesota, 1973), ch. 725, redefining "minor" as an individual under 18 and "adult" as one 18 or older, in Minn. Stat. § 645.451; approved 24 May 1973, effective 1 June 1973; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1973/0/Session+Law/Chapter/725/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
7. Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 65 (marriage), § 2, making every male of the full age of 18 and every female of the full age of 15 "capable in law of contracting marriage, if otherwise competent" ↩
8. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 2; the same words carried from the Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 65 (marriage), § 2, through the General Statutes of 1866, ch. 61, and The Revised Laws of Minnesota 1905, ed. Mark B. Dunnell (St. Paul: Published by the State, 1906); digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1905/ : accessed 5 August 2026), into General Statutes of Minnesota 1913, comp. and ed. Francis B. Tiffany (St. Paul: West Publishing Co., 1913), § 7089; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1913/cite/70/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026), and Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 517.02 ↩
9. Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1927 (Mike Holm, Secretary of State, 1927), ch. 166, "An act to amend Section 8563, General Statutes 1923, relating to marriages," § 1 (approved 13 April 1927), raising the female age to 16 and adding the proviso for a female of 15 with the consent of her parents and guardian and the approval of "the judge of the juvenile court of the county in which she resides" after "a careful inquiry into the facts and surrounding circumstances"; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1927/0/Session+Law/Chapter/166/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
10. Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927, comp. and ed. the editorial staff of the Citer-Digest Company, William H. Mason, editor in chief (St. Paul: Citer-Digest Company, 1927), § 8564, as amended by Laws 1937, ch. 407, § 1 (approved 24 April 1937), printed in the 1940 Supplement to Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927 (1927 to 1940), ed. William H. Mason (Saint Paul, Minn.: Mason Publishing Co., 1940); digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1940/cite/70/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026); carried to Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 517.03 ↩
11. Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1949 (St. Paul: Earl L. Berg, Commissioner of Administration, 1949), ch. 374, § 1, amending Minn. Stat. 1945, § 517.02, so that a male of the full age of 18 and a female of the full age of 16 are capable of contracting marriage, and "a male person of the full age of 16 years may, with the consent of his parents and his guardian, if there be one, and a female person of the full age of 15 years may, with the consent of her parents and her guardian, if there be one, receive a license to marry," on the approval of the judge of the juvenile court of the county of residence; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1949/0/Session+Law/Chapter/374/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026). Section 2 of the same act amends § 517.08 and leaves the parental consent for a license where it stood, at under 21 for a male and under 18 for a female ↩
12. Von Felden v. Von Felden, 212 Minn. 54, 2 N.W.2d 426 (1942) ↩
13. Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927, § 8580, "What marriages void," as amended by Laws 1937, ch. 407, § 2, printed in the 1940 Supplement; before that amendment the void list reached only consanguinity and a living husband or wife — General Statutes of 1913, § 7106 ↩
14. Lundstrum v. Mample, 205 Minn. 95, 285 N.W. 83 (1939); clarified by Laws 1939, ch. 243 ↩
15. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 8; carried from the Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 65 (marriage), § 7, through General Statutes of 1913, § 7095, where the trigger is stated only as "under age." Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927, § 8569, as amended by Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1931 (Mike Holm, Secretary of State, 1931), ch. 401, § 1, and 1939 (Mike Holm, Secretary of State, 1939), ch. 243, § 1, spells it out as "under the age of twenty-one if a male and under the age of eighteen if a female" ↩
16. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 9 ↩
17. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 5 ↩
18. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 16 ↩
19. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 15 ↩
20. Hulett v. Carey, 66 Minn. 327, 69 N.W. 31, 34 L.R.A. 384 (1896), also reported as In re Hulett's Estate, holding that "whenever there is a present, perfect consent to be husband and wife, the contract of marriage is completed," and that habit and repute are evidence of the contract rather than elements of it ↩
21. Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1941 (Mike Holm, Secretary of State, 1941), ch. 459, § 1, headed "Common law marriages prohibited," amending Mason's Minnesota Statutes of 1927, § 8562; approved 26 April 1941; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1941/0/Session+Law/Chapter/459/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026); carried to Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 517.01 ↩
22. Baker v. Baker, 222 Minn. 169, 23 N.W.2d 582 (1946); and see Laikola v. Engineered Concrete, 277 N.W.2d 653 (Minn. 1979) ↩
23. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 3, "Persons prohibited from marrying," reaching a living husband or wife and parties "nearer of kin than first cousins, computing by the rules of the civil law, whether the half or the whole blood"; the rule runs back unchanged to Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 65 (marriage), § 3 ↩
24. The Revised Laws of Minnesota 1905, ed. Mark B. Dunnell (St. Paul: Published by the State, 1906), ch. 70, § 3554, "Marriages prohibited": no marriage while either party has a husband or wife living, "nor within six months after either has been divorced from a former spouse; nor between parties who are nearer of kin than first cousins … nor between persons either one of whom is epileptic, imbecile, feeble-minded, or insane," the printed derivation reading "(4770; '01 cc. 208, 234)"; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1905/cite/70/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026). The health bar and the six-month bar therefore enter with this section, drawn from the acts of 1901; the corresponding section of the earlier compilation, General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 3, reaches bigamy and kinship alone ↩
25. Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1911 (St. Paul: The Pioneer Co., 1911), ch. 222, § 1, "An Act to amend section 3554 Revised Laws of Minnesota for 1905, relating to prohibited marriages," marginal heading "Marriage of second cousins prohibited," in force from 1 July 1911; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1911/0/General+Laws/Chapter/222/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026). The act re-enacts § 3554 with one change, substituting "second cousins" for "first cousins"; carried at that degree into General Statutes of 1913, § 7090, Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927, § 8564, as amended in 1937, and Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 517.03 ↩
26. Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927, § 8564, as amended 1937, above; Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 517.03 ↩
27. Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 65 (marriage), § 3 ↩
28. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 3; General Statutes of 1913, § 7090; Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 517.03 ↩
29. Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 49 (estates in dower, by the curtesy, and general provisions concerning real estate), § 35 ↩
30. Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 49 (estates in dower, by the curtesy, and general provisions concerning real estate), § 36 ↩
31. Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 46 (alienation by deed, and the proof and recording of conveyances), § 1, which requires only that the grantor be "of lawful age"; and ch. 50 (title to real property by descent), §§ 1–3. Neither chapter, nor the corresponding chapters of any later Minnesota compilation, imposes a racial qualification. Compare General Statutes of 1878, ch. 40, § 1, and ch. 46, § 3 ↩
32. General Laws of Minnesota, 1887 (Minneapolis, Minn.: Harrison & Smith, 1887), ch. 204, "An act to restrict the ownership of real estate in the state of Minnesota to American citizens and those who have lawfully declared their intentions to become such, and so forth, and to limit the quantity of land which corporations may acquire, hold, or own," § 1 (the prohibition, with the provisos for treaty rights and for actual settlers on farms of not more than 160 acres settling before 1 January 1889, and for land taken by devise, inheritance, or in the collection of debts), § 4 (forfeiture to the state), and § 5 (in force from and after 1 July 1887); approved 2 March 1887; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1887/0/General+Laws/Chapter/204/pdf/ : accessed 10 August 2026) ↩
33. General Laws of Minnesota, 1889 (Saint Paul: The Pioneer Press Company, 1889), ch. 113, "An act to amend chapter two hundred and four (204), general laws eighteen hundred and eighty-seven (1887), relating to ownership of real estate by aliens and corporations," re-enacting § 1 with wider exemptions and a three-year limit on forfeiture actions; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1889/0/General+Laws/Chapter/113/pdf/ : accessed 10 August 2026) ↩
34. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 500.22, subd. 1, "Restrictions on acquisition of title — by aliens and non-American corporations": no person "unless he be a citizen of the United States or has declared his intention to become a citizen" shall acquire lands or any interest therein exceeding 90,000 square feet, excepting land taken by devise or inheritance or held as security for a debt, and excepting actual settlers on farms of not more than 160 acres and persons whose right to hold land is secured by treaty; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1945/cite/500/pdf : accessed 10 August 2026). The rule descends from Laws 1887, ch. 204, through the Revised Laws of 1905, §§ 3235–3239, and Mason's Minnesota Statutes 1927, §§ 8076–8080 ↩
35. General Laws of Minnesota, 1869 (Saint Paul: Press Printing Company, 1869), ch. 56, § 1, amending ch. 69 of the General Statutes, "Married Women"; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1869/0/General+Laws/Chapter/56/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026); General Statutes of 1878, ch. 69, § 1; carried into The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota, comp. Henry B. Wenzell (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1894), § 5531; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1894/cite/69/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
36. General Laws of 1869, ch. 56, § 2, as printed at General Statutes of 1878, ch. 69, § 2: "A married woman shall be bound by her contracts, and responsible for torts committed by her, and her property shall be liable for her debts and torts, to the same extent as if she were unmarried." Section 1 keeps as her separate property all property "owned by any married woman, or owned or held by any woman at the time of her marriage … notwithstanding such marriage" ↩
37. General Laws of Minnesota, 1887 (Minneapolis, Minn.: Harrison & Smith, 1887), ch. 207, "An act to declare and protect the legal, personal identity of married women," § 1 (approved 2 February 1887), giving a woman "the same legal existence and legal personality after marriage as before marriage," with the right to sue in her own name; printed at General Statutes of 1894, § 5532, with the annotation to Althen v. Tarbox, 48 Minn. 18, 50 N.W. 1018 (1892) ↩
38. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 507.02; the rule descends from the Revised Laws of 1905, §§ 3335 and 3456, as amended by General Laws of Minnesota, 1907 (Delano: The Eagle Printing Co., 1907), ch. 123, § 1, which recast § 3335 so that "the husband, by his separate deed, may convey any real estate owned by him, except the homestead, subject to the rights of his wife therein; and the wife, by her separate deed, may convey any real estate owned by her, except the homestead, subject to the rights of her husband therein" ↩
39. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 507.02 ↩
40. General Statutes of 1866, ch. 48, § 1 ↩
41. General Statutes of 1866, ch. 48, § 13 ↩
42. General Laws of Minnesota, 1875 (Saint Paul: The Pioneer-Press Company, 1875), ch. 40, "An act to abolish estates in dower and by the curtesy and provide for estates of inheritance, or otherwise, in lieu thereof," § 1, excepting rights already fixed by a death before its passage; approved 9 March 1875. General Statutes of 1878 heads its chapter 48 with the note "(Repealed by 1875, c. 40, § 5, saving all vested rights. See ante, c. 46, § 3.)," and prints the chapter for vested rights only; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1875/0/General+Laws/Chapter/40/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
43. General Laws of 1875, ch. 40, §§ 2–3 ↩
44. General Laws of Minnesota, 1876 (Saint Paul: John Jay Lemon, State Printer, 1876), ch. 37, § 3, approved 2 March 1876; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1876/0/General+Laws/Chapter/37/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026); carried into General Statutes of 1878, ch. 46, § 3 ↩
45. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 68, § 2, headed "Mortgages and conveyances must be signed by wife — exception — mechanics' lien," carrying the parenthetical "(As amended 1869, c. 26, § 1.)" — General Laws of Minnesota, 1869, ch. 26, § 1, "An Act to amend Section two, of Chapter sixty-eight, of the General Statutes, relating to Homestead Exemption," approved 4 March 1869: a married owner's mortgage or alienation of the homestead is valid only with the wife's signature, save a mortgage for the purchase money; carried through the Revised Laws of 1905, § 3456, and General Statutes of 1913, § 3456, to Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 507.02 ↩
46. Weitzner v. Thingstad, 55 Minn. 244, 247, 56 N.W. 817 (1893) (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8013187/weitzner-v-thingstad/ : accessed 5 August 2026), where the court said it had repeatedly held such conveyances "not merely voidable, but wholly void," and void for every purpose, so that they founded no action against the party who signed; Barton v. Drake, 21 Minn. 299, 305 (1875) (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/8008160/barton-v-drake/ : accessed 5 August 2026), holding a contract to convey a homestead signed by the husband alone void, so that the buyer took by it no title to, estate in, or lien upon the homestead; Lennartz v. Montgomery, 138 Minn. 170, 164 N.W. 899 (1917); and Horseth v. Fuglesteen, 165 Minn. 38, 205 N.W. 607 (1925). A spouse who did sign could be estopped from attacking the deed: Bozich v. First State Bank of Buhl, 150 Minn. 241, 184 N.W. 1021 (1921) ↩
47. General Laws of 1875, ch. 40, § 4, as printed at General Statutes of 1878, ch. 46, § 4, barring a survivor who "wilfully and without just cause deserted and lived separate and apart from said deceased person for the space of one year immediately prior to such decease" ↩
48. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 40, § 1; the "without any other act or ceremony whatever" formula is that of the Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 46 (alienation by deed, and the proof and recording of conveyances), § 1, which also requires the grantor to be of lawful age ↩
49. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 40, § 11, allowing proof "by any competent witness thereto, before any court of record in this state" where the grantor dies, departs, or resides out of the state without having acknowledged his deed ↩
50. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 40, § 12, allowing proof, where all the subscribing witnesses are dead or out of the state, "by proving the handwriting of the grantor, and of any subscribing witness thereto" ↩
51. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 40, § 13 ↩
52. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 40, § 1 (the grantor must be "of lawful age"; no age or other qualification is set for a witness), and § 11 (proof "by any competent witness thereto") ↩
53. General Laws of the State of Minnesota (St. Paul: McGill-Warner Co., 1901), ch. 237, "An act concerning land titles in counties of this state having over seventy-five thousand (75,000) inhabitants," § 1 (scope) and § 98 (in force from and after 1 September 1901), approved 11 April 1901; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1901/0/General+Laws/Chapter/237/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026); re-enacted as Laws 1905, ch. 305, and carried to Minnesota Statutes 1945, ch. 508 ↩
54. General Laws of Minnesota, 1909 (Minneapolis: Harrison & Smith Co., 1909), ch. 183, amending the title and §§ 1, 12, and 81 of Laws 1905, ch. 305, and Revised Laws of 1905, §§ 3370, 3381, and 3451, "so that the same shall apply to all counties"; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1909/0/General+Laws/Chapter/183/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
55. "An act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota," 14 January 1889, 25 Stat. 642; digital images, GovInfo, United States Government Publishing Office (https://www.govinfo.gov/link/statute/25/642 : accessed 10 August 2026) ↩
56. General Statutes of 1866, ch. 48, § 1 (dower), and § 30 (curtesy) ↩
57. General Laws of 1875, ch. 40, §§ 1–3 ↩
58. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 51, § 1, subd. Sixth: "The residue, if any, of the personal estate, shall be distributed in the same proportion, and to the same persons, and for the same purpose, as prescribed for the descent and disposition of real estate." The section carries the parenthetical "(As amended 1876, c. 42, § 1.)" ↩
59. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 51, § 1, subd. Seventh: "All of the foregoing provisions shall apply as well to a surviving husband as to a surviving wife or widow" ↩
60. General Laws of 1876, ch. 37, §§ 2–3, as printed at General Statutes of 1878, ch. 46, §§ 2–3: the survivor holds the homestead "for the term of his or her natural life, free from all claims on account of the debts of the deceased," and one undivided third in fee simple of all other lands the deceased was "at any time during coverture seized or possessed" of, free of any disposition the survivor has not assented to in writing. And see General Statutes of 1878, ch. 46, § 3, First: the residue descends "in equal shares to his children, and to the lawful issue of any deceased child, by right of representation," a phrase defined at § 15 as the descendants of a deceased heir taking the share their parent would have taken if living ↩
61. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 525.16, subds. (1)–(4), from Laws 1935, ch. 72, § 29, "Descent of Property": the surviving spouse takes one-third of the personal property and an undivided one-third of all real property of which the decedent "at any time while married to such spouse was seized or possessed"; where a spouse and only one child or the issue of a deceased child survive, that share "shall be one-half instead of one-third"; and subject to those subsections the whole descends to the children and the issue of deceased children by right of representation, or wholly to the spouse where none survives. The rule descends from Laws 1876, ch. 37, § 3, through General Statutes of 1878, ch. 46, § 3 ↩
62. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 525.15, from Laws 1935, ch. 72, § 28, "Allowances to Spouse, Etc.": the wearing apparel, and as selected by the survivor furniture and household goods not exceeding $500 in value and other personal property not exceeding $500 in value, with a maintenance allowance during administration ↩
63. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 51, § 1, subds. First and Second: the widow takes her own apparel and ornaments and her husband's wearing apparel, furniture of her own selection to $500, and other personal property to $300, "as well when the widow receives the provisions made for her in the will of her husband, as when he dies intestate," with a reasonable maintenance allowance for her and the children during the settlement ↩
64. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 51, § 1, subd. Fourth: where the inventory shows the whole estate at $300 or less, the court assigns all of it, after funeral charges and expenses of administration, to the widow or widow and children, or to children under ten if there is no widow ↩
65. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 525.16, subds. (1)–(2); and see General Statutes of 1878, ch. 46, § 3, to the same effect ↩
66. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 59, § 1 ↩
67. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 59, § 5 ↩
68. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 59, §§ 6–7 ↩
69. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 59, § 27, headed "Conditions of bond of guardian," carrying forward § 17 of the earlier numbering ↩
70. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 59, §§ 2 and 5 ↩
71. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 59, § 42 ↩
72. General Laws of Minnesota, 1935 (Mike Holm, Secretary of State, 1935), ch. 72, § 142, "Termination": the marriage of a girl under guardianship as a minor, and not under a juvenile court guardianship, "shall terminate the guardianship of her person but not of her estate," and does not affect her capacity to join with her husband in instruments involving his interest in real estate ↩
73. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 59, § 41 ↩
74. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 59, §§ 3–4; the Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 67 (guardians and wards), § 2, is to the same effect: under 14 the judge of probate appoints, and "if he is above the age of fourteen years, he may nominate his own guardian, who if approved by the judge shall be appointed accordingly" ↩
75. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 46, § 5, making the child an heir of the man who "shall, in writing, signed in the presence of a competent witness, acknowledge himself to be the father," and "in all cases" an heir of his mother; by § 6 such a child dying intestate without issue leaves the estate to the mother or her heirs at law ↩
76. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 46, § 5: the child could not claim, as representing a parent, any part of the estate of that parent's kindred unless the parents intermarried and had other children and the father then acknowledged or adopted him, in which case all the children were treated as brothers and sisters ↩
77. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 525.172, from Laws 1935, ch. 72, § 32, "Illegitimate as Heir": such a child inherits from the mother as if born in lawful wedlock, and from the man who "in writing and before a competent attesting witness shall have declared himself to be his father," but not from the kindred of either parent by right of representation ↩
78. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 61, § 17; carried from the Revised Statutes of 1851, ch. 65 (marriage), through the Revised Laws of 1905, into General Statutes of 1913, § 7105 ↩
79. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 47, § 1, confining the power to devise to a person "of full age and sound mind," full age being fixed at 21 and 18 by ch. 59, § 2 ↩
80. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 47, § 4 ↩
81. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 47, § 1, letting "any married woman … devise and dispose of any real or personal property held by her, or to which she is entitled in her own right … in like manner as if she was unmarried." The amending act is General Laws of Minnesota, 1869, ch. 61, "An Act to amend Section one, of Chapter forty-seven, of the General Statutes, relating to Wills" (approved 6 March 1869), striking the proviso from the section. ↩
82. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 525.18, from Laws 1935, ch. 72, § 34, "Requisites": "Every person of sound mind, not a minor, may dispose of his estate … by his last will in writing," attested and subscribed in his presence by two or more competent witnesses; § 185 of the same act defines a minor as "a male person under the age of twenty-one years or a female person under the age of eighteen years," which fixes the will age at 21 and 18 ↩
83. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 47, § 5, requiring a will to be in writing, signed at the end by the testator or by another in his presence and at his express direction, and attested and subscribed in his presence by two or more competent witnesses; Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 525.18 ↩
84. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 525.181 ↩
85. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 47, § 7: a beneficial devise, legacy, or gift to a subscribing witness is wholly void "unless there are two other competent subscribing witnesses to the same" ↩
86. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 47, § 8 ↩
87. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 47, § 6, allowing a nuncupative will of personal estate only to a soldier in actual military service or a mariner at sea; Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 525.182 ↩
88. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 50, § 1 ↩
89. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 50, § 7, "Proceedings when executor is a minor": administration with the will annexed during the minority, to the person entitled had the deceased died intestate, the minor to be admitted as joint executor on reaching full age and giving bond ↩
90. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 51, § 3, granting administration to "the widow, or next of kin, or both … or such person as the widow or next of kin may request to have appointed, if suitable and competent," and on their default to one or more of the principal creditors; carried through Laws 1935, ch. 72, to Minnesota Statutes 1945, §§ 525.25 and 525.28 ↩
91. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 50, § 9, "Marriage of executrix, etc.," carrying the parenthetical "(1874, c. 65, § 1.)" — General Laws of Minnesota, 1874 (Saint Paul: Saint Paul Press Company, 1874), ch. 65, "An Act to Allow Married Women to Act as Administrators and Executors," § 1 (approved 12 February 1874): when an unmarried woman who is administratrix or executrix marries, "her marriage shall not extinguish her authority as such administratrix or executrix" ↩
92. General Laws of Minnesota, 1905 (Minneapolis: Harrison & Smith Co., 1905), ch. 288, "An act providing for taxation of and fixing the rate of taxation on inheritances, devises, bequests, legacies and gifts, and providing for the manner of payment as well as the manner of enforcing payment thereof"; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1905/0/General+Laws/Chapter/288/pdf/ : accessed 10 August 2026). A graduated inheritance tax had been authorized by a constitutional amendment ratified in 1894; three earlier acts, of 1897, 1901, and 1903, were held unconstitutional, and the tax first stood in the act of 1905 ↩
93. Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1933 (Mike Holm, Secretary of State, 1933), ch. 405, "An act raising revenues, imposing income taxes and franchise or privilege taxes measured by income"; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1933/0/Session+Law/Chapter/405/pdf/ : accessed 10 August 2026) ↩
94. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 13, § 9, "Persons and property liable": "Every male inhabitant being above twenty-one years and under the age of fifty, excepting paupers" is liable to the road tax ↩
95. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 13, § 18 ↩
96. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 13, § 19 ↩
97. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 13, §§ 3 and 8 ↩
98. Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1921 (Mike Holm, Secretary of State, 1921), ch. 323, § 33, "Taxation for road purposes by towns": "All real and personal property in each town liable to taxation, other than 'moneys and credits' so taxed, shall be taxed for road purposes, and all road taxes hereafter levied shall be paid in cash"; approved 15 April 1921; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1921/0/Session+Law/Chapter/323/pdf/ : accessed 10 August 2026); carried to Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 163.05, which contains no labor or poll obligation ↩
99. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 10, powers of the village council, cl. Tenth, "Exemptions of firemen" ↩
100. General Laws of Minnesota, 1868 (Saint Paul: Press Printing Company, 1868), ch. 85, "An Act to exempt disabled soldiers from poll tax, and sitting as jurors," § 1 (approved 15 February 1868), reaching volunteers of the war of 1861, citizens of and residing in Minnesota, honorably discharged "on account of wounds received while on duty in said service, having lost a limb, or being otherwise permanently disabled"; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1868/0/General+Laws/Chapter/85/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026); printed at General Statutes of 1878, ch. 124, § 82 ↩
101. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 107, § 3, "Who liable to be drawn": "All persons who are qualified electors of this state are liable to be drawn as grand-jurors, except as hereinafter provided." By ch. 71, § 3, "the qualifications and disabilities of petit jurors shall be the same as those prescribed by law for grand-jurors," so one test governs both panels; and see Minnesota Statutes 1945, §§ 593.13–593.14 ↩
102. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 593.04; carried from the Revised Laws of 1905, § 4328 ↩
103. Minn. Const. of 1857, art. VII, § 1, as originally adopted, printed in the front matter of The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota (St. Paul: Davidson & Hall, State Printers, 1872): "First. White citizens of the United States. Second. White persons of foreign birth, who shall have declared their intention to become citizens, conformably to the laws of the United States upon the subject of naturalization. Third. Persons of mixed white and Indian blood, who have adopted the customs and habits of civilization. Fourth. Persons of Indian blood residing in this state, who have adopted the language, customs and habits of civilization, after an examination before any district court"; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1866/document/misc/Preface/ : accessed 10 August 2026) ↩
104. The amendment striking "white" from art. VII, § 1 was approved by the voters on 3 November 1868. Its effect can be read on the page: the same section printed ten years later in The General Statutes of the State of Minnesota, as Amended by Subsequent Legislation, prepared by George B. Young, 4th ed. (Saint Paul: West Publishing Company, 1883), front matter, reads "First. Citizens of the United States. Second. Persons of foreign birth, who shall have declared their intention to become citizens," the racial limit gone from both; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1878/document/misc/Preface/ : accessed 10 August 2026). And see Minnesota Historical Society, MNopedia, "African American Suffrage in Minnesota, 1868" (https://www.mnhs.org/mnopedia/search/index/event/african-american-suffrage-minnesota-1868 : accessed 10 August 2026) ↩
105. The amendment removing the class of declarant aliens was approved by the voters in 1896. The section as printed in Minnesota Statutes 1945, front matter, carries only three classes — "Citizens of the United States who have been such for the period of three (3) months next preceding any election," persons of mixed white and Indian blood, and persons of Indian blood examined before a district court — the class of persons of foreign birth who had declared their intention having been struck out; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1945/document/misc/Preface/ : accessed 10 August 2026). For the date and the vote, Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, "State Constitutional Amendments Considered" (https://www.lrl.mn.gov/mngov/constitutionalamendments : accessed 10 August 2026) ↩
106. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 107, § 4, "Who are exempt": officers of the United States and judges of courts of record, state and county officers, attorneys, ministers, teachers, physicians, one miller to each grist-mill, one ferryman to each licensed ferry, telegraph operators, "all members of companies of firemen organized according to law, all persons of more than sixty years of age, all persons not of sound mind or discretion, persons subject to any bodily infirmity amounting to disability"; and anyone convicted of an infamous crime is disqualified. The section as printed comes from Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1873 (Saint Paul: Press Printing Company, 1873), ch. 72, § 1, "An Act to Amend Section Four of Chapter One Hundred and Seven of the General Statutes Relating to Grand Juries" (approved 10 March 1873), which carries the age-60 exemption in those words; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1873/0/General+Laws/Chapter/72/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026). The compiled volume's own parenthetical reads "1878, c. 72," but the act of that number and year is an act on railroad condemnation; the 1873 act is the amending act ↩
107. See the note on the elector classes above. The amendment was approved on 3 November 1868, and its effect is visible in the constitution as printed in the front matter of the General Statutes of 1878 ↩
108. Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1921 (Mike Holm, Secretary of State, 1921), ch. 365, § 3, headed "All laws relating to jury service to apply to both women and men," approved 19 April 1921; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1921/0/Session+Law/Chapter/365/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026); carried to Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 593.02 ↩
109. Session Laws of 1921, ch. 365, § 1, amending General Statutes of 1913, § 7960, to define a petit jury as a body of twelve men or women, or both; Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 593.01 ↩
110. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 610.08, "Presumption of responsibility"; carried from the Revised Laws of 1905, § 4754, through General Statutes of 1913, § 8473 ↩
111. General Laws of Minnesota, 1905 (Minneapolis: Harrison & Smith Co., 1905), ch. 285, § 1 ("This act shall apply only to children under the age of seventeen (17) years"), approved 19 April 1905; digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1905/0/General+Laws/Chapter/285/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
112. Session Laws of the State of Minnesota, 1917 (Julius A. Schmahl, Secretary of State, 1917), ch. 397, § 1 ("This act shall apply only to children under the age of eighteen years"); digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/laws/1917/0/Session+Law/Chapter/397/pdf/ : accessed 5 August 2026); carried to Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 260.02 ↩
113. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 260.06, "Probate court as juvenile court; record; appeal" ↩
114. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 260.24, "Privacy of hearings and records" ↩
115. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 610.48, "Commitment of child to state training school upon conviction of crime," from Laws 1917, ch. 266, § 1; and see State v. Olson, 156 Minn. 181, 194 N.W. 942 (1923) ↩
116. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 73, § 7, "Who may be witnesses," as amended by Laws 1868, ch. 70: "All persons, except as hereinafter provided, having the power and faculty to perceive, and make known their perceptions to others, may be witnesses," excluding neither interested parties, nor those convicted of crime, nor anyone for religious belief. Section 8 reserves one exception, barring an interested party from giving evidence of a conversation with or admission of a deceased or insane party, as amended by Laws 1877, ch. 40, § 1 ↩
117. Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 611.11, "No presumption from failure to testify": the defendant in the trial of an indictment, complaint, or other criminal proceeding "shall, at his own request and not otherwise, be allowed to testify; but his failure to testify shall not create any presumption against him, nor shall it be alluded to by the prosecuting attorney or by the court." The section sits in the chapter on the rights of the accused rather than the chapter on witnesses; carried in the same words from The Revised Laws of Minnesota 1905, ch. 92, § 4661, headed "Accused," digital images, Minnesota Revisor of Statutes (https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/1905/cite/92/pdf : accessed 5 August 2026), whose printed derivation is General Statutes of 1894, § 5658 ↩
118. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 73, § 9, "Who are not competent witnesses," reaching those of unsound mind or intoxicated when produced, and "children under ten years of age, who appear incapable of receiving just impressions of the facts respecting which they are examined, or of relating them truly"; by § 14 the court may examine an infant witness to ascertain capacity and whether the child understands the nature and obligations of an oath. Carried to Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 595.02, cl. (6) ↩
119. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 73, § 10, First: neither spouse could be examined for or against the other without consent, nor as to communications made during the marriage, "but this exception does not apply to a civil action or proceeding by one against the other, nor to a criminal action or proceeding for a crime committed by one against the other"; carried to Minnesota Statutes 1945, § 595.02, cl. (1), which adds an action for abandonment and neglect of the wife or children ↩
120. General Statutes of 1878, ch. 73, §§ 8–9 ↩

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.