Nebraska Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

An English common law, carried in from the river states

Nebraska's law came from England, by way of the American states its settlers came from. Congress organized the territory in 1854, and the territorial legislatures built their statute book largely out of the Ohio and Iowa codes. The Revised Statutes of 1866, the last territorial compilation¹, is the root of nearly every Nebraska citation chain; the compilers of the 1891 volume called their work a consolidation built upon it². A rule follows forward from there through a fixed sequence of volumes, named in the source note under every section of the modern code³, and the Compiled Statutes carry back-references to the territorial text⁴.

The system was common law — judge-made law handed down through court decisions rather than written by a legislature. Under it a husband and wife were treated as one legal person for most property purposes, and any rule the legislature had not changed stood as the courts had received it. The Nebraska Supreme Court put it directly: the common-law rights of husband and wife exist here except so far as statute has modified them⁵.

Separate property, and one short experiment

Husband and wife each held property in his or her own name for the whole of this period, with one two-year exception. A community property law taking effect on 7 September 1947 made what either spouse acquired during the marriage the common property of both, each holding an undivided half, while anything owned beforehand or later taken by gift, will, or inheritance stayed separate⁶. The Legislature undid it in 1949 and turned the presumption around: property from those two years is not treated as community unless someone proves it was, by a claim the act limits⁷. Anything acquired outside 1947–49 is a separate-property record.

Where a husband and wife took title together, they held as joint tenants or tenants in common⁸, so such a deed carries survivorship only where its own words create it.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Twenty-one for a man, eighteen for a woman

Nebraska set two ages of majority, and the difference runs through this whole guide. A man reached full legal age at 21; a woman at 18, and if she married between 16 and 18 her minority ended at the marriage⁹. A woman of 18 could sell her land, sign a contract, make a will, sue and be sued, and marry without anyone's consent — three years before her brother could.

The rule came in with the territorial code of 1866 and lasted fifty-five years. An act of 1921 raised the age of majority for women to twenty-one and recast the section to read that all persons under twenty-one are minors, keeping the proviso that ended a woman's minority on her marriage¹⁰. Read a woman of 18 as an adult in a document dated before 1921, and as a minor in one dated after it.

What a minor could do

A minor could own property of any kind. What the law limited was the power to give it away or to bind himself:

• A minor's contract was voidable at his own choice after he came of age — it stood until he undid it — except for necessaries, meaning food, clothing, and shelter suited to his condition, for which he paid a reasonable price¹¹.
• A deed followed the same rule, so a minor's land was ordinarily sold for him by a guardian under a court order rather than by his own signature.
• Marriage ended minority for a girl of 16 or over⁹, which is why a 17-year-old bride appears in the deed books in her own right.
• A pauper child could be bound out as an apprentice by local act rather than under any general law, so the terms and ages ran as the particular act set them¹².

Marriage

Who was old enough to marry

Marriage in Nebraska was a civil contract, valid on the consent of parties capable of contracting¹³. The minimum ages were 18 for a man and 16 for a woman. Those figures came in with the territorial code of 1866 and stood, unchanged, past the end of the period covered here¹⁴.

A license was part of the law from the beginning. From 1866 the probate judge issued it before the ceremony, after taking testimony on the parties' names, residences, ages, and any impediment, and entered those facts and the date in a book kept for the purpose — the earliest county marriage record, and one that holds the evidence he was given. Any judge, justice of the peace, or ordained preacher could perform the ceremony¹⁵.

A marriage where a party was below the minimum age was voidable: it was valid until a court annulled it¹⁶. In practice an ancestor's underage marriage was almost certainly valid.

Parental consent

Above the minimum age but below majority, a party needed the consent of the father if living, otherwise the mother, otherwise the guardian or whoever had the minor under his care and government. Consent given in person could be spoken; given in absence it had to be written and proved by at least one competent witness¹⁷. So the working line is this: a man married on his own authority at 21, a woman at 18. Because the consent went to the license and not to the marriage, a couple of the age of consent stayed married even where the license was wrongly issued¹⁸. From 1945 the mother stood equal with the father in authorizing the marriage of their minor child¹⁹.

Marriage by agreement, to 1923

Down to 1923 a couple who agreed to be husband and wife, lived together, and were held in their community to be married were lawfully married — a common-law marriage, formed without license or ceremony. The license was already required of them, but the marriage rested on the agreement, and the courts treated a missing or wrongly issued license as no defect²⁰.

From 1923 a valid Nebraska marriage required a license obtained beforehand and a ceremony performed by a person authorized by law²¹. A marriage by agreement formed in Nebraska before 1923 remained valid afterwards²².

This is the most useful date in Nebraska marriage research: a couple living as husband and wife before 1923 with no license in the county records may still have been lawfully married and their children legitimate. Either way the ceremony left a paper trail: two witnesses besides the officiant had to be present, and the certificate gives both parties' names, ages, and residences, the names and residences of two witnesses, and the time and place²³. Those witnesses are frequently relatives.

Marriages made outside Nebraska

A marriage valid where it was celebrated was valid in Nebraska, even where the couple were residents who crossed a state line for the ceremony and came home: first cousins who married in Iowa were held married here²⁴. The 1923 license requirement reached only marriages solemnized within the state²⁵. A marriage made within an Indian tribe according to tribal custom was a valid Nebraska marriage²⁶ — so for a Native family, a county clerk's silence is not evidence that no marriage took place.

One limit produces annulment files: where the ceremony was void when performed, later cohabitation did not cure it, even after the impediment had gone²⁷.

Who could not marry

From 1866 a marriage was void where either party already had a husband or wife living, where either was insane or an idiot, and where the parties stood within the prohibited degrees — parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, brother and sister of half or whole blood, uncle and niece, aunt and nephew — and first cousins of whole blood, a bar reaching relatives born outside marriage as well as within²⁸. A person suffering from a venereal disease was barred from marrying in the state from 1923; such a marriage was voidable rather than void, so it stood until a court set it aside²⁹.

Later in the period a person adjudged feebleminded, or afflicted with hereditary epilepsy or insanity, could marry only after sterilization³⁰. From 1943 every applicant for a license had to produce a standard serological test for syphilis, made within the thirty days before the license issued; the license was refused where either party was found infected in a communicable stage, except in cases of pregnancy³¹. Those certificates stay in the license file.

Enslaved people and people of color

Slavery had a brief legal life in the territory. The territorial legislature prohibited it outright in January 1861: the act declared slavery and involuntary servitude prohibited in the territory, except as punishment for a crime on conviction, and took effect on its passage, becoming law over Governor Samuel W. Black's veto³². An enslaved person had no legal capacity to marry, so no civil marriage record was created for one.

The bar on interracial marriage entered with the territorial code: a marriage was void where one party was a white person and the other possessed one-fourth or more Negro blood²⁸. By the twentieth century the acts of 1911 and 1913 had extended it to a person of one-eighth or more Negro, Chinese, or Japanese blood, and it was repealed in 1963. The bar ran without a break across the whole of that span; two reported interruptions were checked against the session volumes of 1865 and 1895 and are not in them³³. Where a marriage was annulled on that ground the children were treated as born outside marriage³⁴.

Property Ownership

Which men could own land

Every free man could acquire, hold, and convey land in Nebraska, and from 1861 that meant every man. A man of full age held land in his own name, bought, sold, mortgaged, and devised it on his own signature, and kept that power through marriage, subject to the two limits set out below — the homestead rule and his wife's marital claim.

A foreign-born man could buy and hold Nebraska land, and took it subject to the homestead signature rule like any other owner. The United States Supreme Court so held against a Norwegian settler who argued that a treaty exempted him³⁵.

Which women could own land

For a woman, the year is what matters. A single woman or widow — a feme sole, "woman alone" — bought, sold, mortgaged, sued, and was sued exactly as a man did, throughout the period.

A married woman before 1871 lived under coverture, the common-law rule that merged a wife's legal identity into her husband's. She kept title to land she brought to the marriage, while her husband managed it and took its rents and profits, and her contracts about it took effect only through him.

The act respecting the rights of married women, approved 1 March 1871 and in force from 1 June that year, gave her an estate of her own. Property she owned at the time of her marriage, with its rents, issues, and profits, and anything she afterwards took by descent, devise, or bequest, or by the gift of anyone but her husband, remained her sole and separate property, beyond her husband's disposal and not liable for his debts. She could bargain, sell, and convey that property, and contract with reference to it, as a married man could with his own; she could sue and be sued as though unmarried; and her earnings from her own trade, business, labor, or services were hers, to be used and invested in her own name³⁶. After 1871 a deed to or from a married woman in her own name is ordinary evidence.

Her wider power to contract came later. The 1871 act reached the contracts she made with reference to her own property and business, and the courts held her general contracts outside it until full parity with a married man arrived in 1957³⁷. One step came earlier: from 1941 a husband and wife could convey property to each other as though unmarried, the grantor keeping the same rights as a spouse in the property conveyed that either would have in any other property of the other³⁸. Her age was her own affair: a deed by a married woman of sixteen bound her³⁹, so never assume a signing wife had reached 21.

Two points help in reading deeds. A wife who joined her husband's deed only to release her own claim was not bound by the promises in it and could not be sued on them⁴⁰; where the land was hers and he joined her deed, she was bound⁴¹. And a married woman's deed of her own separate property, the homestead aside, passed title between the parties even without an acknowledgment⁴² — an acknowledgment being the formal statement, made before a notary or other officer, that the signer signed freely.

When a wife had to sign her husband's deed

This is the most useful dating tool in Nebraska land research, and two separate rules drive it.

The homestead rule came first in force. From 1 September 1879 the homestead of a married person could be conveyed or encumbered only by an instrument executed and acknowledged by both husband and wife. The act carrying that rule replaced the homestead exemption acts of 1875 and 1877⁴³. The homestead was the dwelling the claimant lived in, its outbuildings, and the land under it — up to 160 acres in the country or two adjoining lots in a town or city, to a value of $2,000 — and it could be selected from the husband's own property, or from the wife's with her consent⁴⁴. A mortgage bound the homestead only if both had executed and acknowledged it⁴⁵. An instrument that failed the rule was void: a deed signed by the husband alone passed nothing⁴⁶, and a mortgage carrying a forged signature for the wife was void even though the husband's was genuine⁴⁷.

The second rule was the wife's marital claim. Dower gave a widow the use for life of one-third of the lands her husband was seized of — held title to — at any time during the marriage, not merely those he still held at his death⁴⁸. A buyer therefore wanted her release. From 1866 a wife barred her dower by joining in her husband's deed and acknowledging it, or by joining him in a later deed, so a wife who signed before 1907 was releasing dower — and a wife under age did it by joining with her father or guardian, which is one more reason never to assume a signing wife had reached 21⁴⁹. Dower and curtesy were abolished outright in 1907 and replaced by a share of ownership in the survivor⁵⁰. The new right reached the same land — whatever the husband had been seized of at any time during the marriage — and the act said plainly how to clear it: a conveyance executed by husband and wife together barred it, as did a sale under execution or other judicial sale in the owner's lifetime⁵¹. So a deed signed by the husband alone still passed everything but his wife's interest if she outlived him⁵².

A wife's signature appears on some chattel papers too. Any mortgage, sale, or transfer of household goods owned by a husband or a wife and used in their dwelling or kept for family use was void unless both executed and acknowledged it, in the same way a deed of land had to be signed and acknowledged; and from 1939 an assignment of the wages of the head of a family needed both signatures too⁵³. The chattel mortgage was filed with the county clerk, so a chattel mortgage there carrying both names is usually this rule at work.

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 went through the court: a minor's own deed was voidable, so the land was sold by his guardian on a court order. That sale leaves a petition, an order, a bond, and a deed signed by someone other than the owner, all filed with the county court. Where a Nebraska deed conveys a child's land, the guardianship file holds the family.

Witnessing a deed

A deed of Nebraska land had to be signed by the grantor, being of lawful age, in the presence of at least one competent witness, who subscribed his own name as a witness to it, and then be acknowledged or proved and recorded⁵⁴. The grantor acknowledged the deed to be his voluntary act before a judge or clerk of a court, a justice of the peace, or a notary public⁵⁵. A witness of any age could serve, provided he understood an oath and could relate what he had seen; competency, not age, was the test. In practice witnesses were adults, and often kin or neighbors, which makes the names at the foot of a deed worth harvesting. An unacknowledged deed of land other than the homestead passed title between the parties, but it could not be recorded and so gave no notice to later buyers⁴².

Enslaved people, free people of color, and allotted land

An enslaved person in the territory had no legal capacity to own property; anything in his possession belonged in law to the enslaver. That disability ended with slavery itself in January 1861³².

Free Black men and women acquired, held, and conveyed land on the same terms as anyone else, and appear in the deed books accordingly. The disabilities Nebraska wrote into its statutes by race fell on marriage, dealt with above.

Land allotted to individual tribal members under the federal allotment acts came under Nebraska law only once the United States issued a fee patent; from that point it could be sold, mortgaged, and taxed like any other land, and it enters the county deed and tax records. For an allottee family the early land record is federal rather than county. This paragraph rests on the general federal allotment scheme rather than on a Nebraska statute read for this guide; check it against the allotment acts and the agency records for the particular reservation.

Inheritance

The widow's and widower's claims before 1907

Dower gave the widow the use, during her natural life, of one-third of all the lands her husband was seized of at any time during the marriage⁴⁸. She had the use of that third; ownership passed to the heirs. The probate court assigned her dower to her, and where her husband's will left her something instead she was taken to have accepted the will unless she began proceedings for dower within a year of his death⁵⁶. This is why a widow so often holds a life interest in the record while the children hold the title.

A widow who was living in the family home when her husband died, and who owned no suitable house of her own, could stay in the dwelling rent-free so long as she remained a widow, and had her reasonable support out of the estate for three years⁵⁷. Curtesy was the husband's counterpart: where a married woman who held an estate of inheritance died leaving no children, her lands passed to her surviving husband for his natural life⁵⁸.

Personal property — money, livestock, furniture, and debts owed to the deceased — was distributed by the probate court after debts were paid, and the widow took the same share of the residue that a child of the intestate would take⁵⁹.

The land itself, after the widow's third was set off, descended in equal shares to the children, with the children of a dead child taking their parent's share between them by right of representation. Where no child survived, it went to the other lineal descendants; failing those, to the widow for her life and then to the father; then to the father; then to the brothers and sisters, with the mother taking an equal share alongside them; then to the mother; then to the next of kin; and where a widow survived and no kindred at all, to the widow. Land or goods already given to a child in the parent's lifetime counted against that child's share⁶⁰.

The homestead descended on a track of its own. From 1879, where the homestead had been selected from the separate property of a husband or a wife, it vested on that spouse's death in the survivor for life and afterwards in the heirs forever, free of debts contracted before the death; the deceased could dispose of it by will only subject to the survivor's life estate⁴³.

The surviving spouse's share after 1907

The act of 1907 abolished dower and curtesy and made the surviving spouse an owner rather than a life tenant⁵⁰. The share turns on who else survived, and it reaches real estate the deceased held at any time during the marriage that had not been devised, lawfully conveyed, or sold under a court order⁶¹:

The rest passed to the children, and to the issue of a child who had died, by right of representation — the dead child's share divided among his own children. Where no spouse survived, the whole went to the children in equal shares; where neither spouse nor issue survived, to the parents⁶¹.

Whether or not there was a will, the surviving spouse — or the children where no spouse survived — took the deceased’s wearing apparel, ornaments, and household furniture, everything that had been exempt from execution, and other personal property of their own choosing up to $200; the county court could also allow the family a maintenance out of the estate for up to a year while it was settled⁶². Each allowance is a separate order in the probate file, and it names the family.

A couple could settle the question before they married. An antenuptial contract barred either one's right to inherit the other's land, provided it was in writing, signed by both, and acknowledged as a deed would be⁶³. Such a contract is normally recorded with the register of deeds, and it names both parties and often their children by earlier marriages.

A surviving spouse could not be cut out of a will entirely. The survivor chose between the devise or provision made in the will and the share the statute gave, and could not have both unless the will plainly said so; and if the survivor did nothing, the law treated the will as accepted. To take against it the survivor had to file a written refusal and a declaration of intention to take by inheritance with the county court, acknowledged like a deed, within a year of the issue of letters testamentary⁶⁴. That refusal, or its absence, sits in the probate file.

Minors, guardians, and the age of fourteen

A minor took his inheritance at once, but a guardian, appointed by the court of probate of the county⁶⁵, managed it for him under bond given to the probate judge⁶⁶. Guardianships, like wills and estates, belonged to the probate court of the county, and from 1875 to the county court that succeeded it; the district courts kept the cases turning on the title to land⁶⁷. What called for a guardian, in the ordinary case, was a minor who owned property; where a child inherited nothing, often no guardianship record was made.

Because the two ages of majority differed, the guardianship of a boy's estate ran to 21 and a girl's to 18⁶⁶. The final settlement, filed when the ward came of age, is among the most valuable documents in Nebraska genealogy: it dates the ward's majority, and so brackets a birth year, and it frequently gives a female ward's married surname.

At fourteen a ward could nominate his or her own guardian, who was appointed if the court approved. Below 14 the court chose, and it chose too where the ward named someone it would not approve or, after being cited, named no one. A ward living more than ten miles from the courthouse could send his nomination in through a justice of the peace⁶⁸. A guardianship file in which the child does the choosing is evidence the child had reached 14; sometimes the justice’s certificate is the only paper it left.

Father and mother were the natural guardians of their minor children and equally entitled to their custody, and on the death or disqualification of either the guardianship fell to the other⁶⁹. A surviving parent could appoint a guardian by last will⁷⁰, so look for the appointment in the will as well as in the guardianship docket.

Children born outside marriage

A child born outside marriage was in all cases the heir of the mother. The child was also the heir of a man who had acknowledged himself the father in writing, signed in the presence of a competent witness, so inheritance on the father's side turned on a document worth hunting for. The child could claim in the estate of a parent's wider kindred only where the parents afterwards married and had other children and the father then acknowledged or adopted him; and where such a child died leaving no lawful issue, the estate went to the mother or her heirs⁷¹. The later marriage of the parents made the child legitimate⁷².

Where paternity was disputed the question was settled in a bastardy proceeding against the reputed father, tried to a jury, with the mother admitted as a witness and her credibility left to the jury; the accused gave security of between $500 and $2,000 to answer the charge. A man found to be the father paid the mother her lying-in expenses and whatever further sum she agreed to take, and gave a bond of at least $1,000 to the county where she or the child lived, conditioned for the child's support until it reached the age of ten⁷³. The file names the mother, the reputed father, and the child.

Nebraska replaced that machinery in 1941, making the adjudged father’s liability equal to that of a father of a child born in wedlock and turning paternity into a civil proceeding⁷⁴. A paternity file after 1941 sits on the civil docket.

Wills, executors, and witnesses

Every person of full age and sound mind could dispose of land and personal property by a written will⁷⁵, and a married woman could devise her own property and revoke her will as freely as a person under no disability⁷⁶. "Full age" carries the split set out above: 21 for a man, 18 for a woman. A woman of 19 could make a will; a man had to wait until 21.

A will had to be in writing and signed by the testator — the person making the will — or by another person in his presence and at his express direction, and attested and subscribed in his presence by two or more competent witnesses; a witness who was competent when he signed did not spoil the will by becoming incompetent later⁷⁷. A witness qualified on competency rather than on age. What failed was the gift and not the will: a devise — a gift of land by will — to a witness was void unless two other competent witnesses had also subscribed, though a witness who would have inherited anyway had the will failed kept up to that intestate share⁷⁸. A legatee among the witnesses tells you the drafter thought that person close enough to the family to leave something to.

A spoken will served for a small estate. A nuncupative will — one spoken rather than written — passed personal property worth up to $150 where the testator called on the people present to bear witness, three of them afterwards swore to it, and the words were put in writing within six days⁷⁹.

An executor had to be of full age. Where the person named executor in a will was under full age when the will was proved, administration with the will annexed was granted during his minority, unless another executor accepted the trust and gave bond; the minor could then be admitted as joint executor, on giving bond, once he came of age⁸⁰. Where a person died without a will the widow had the first claim to administer, alone or with the next of kin, or she could name a suitable person; only where those neglected the estate for thirty days could a principal creditor be appointed⁸¹. One quirk is worth watching: an unmarried woman serving as administratrix lost her authority the moment she married⁸². A change of administrator soon after a wedding is usually this rule, and it dates the wedding.

Taxation

What was taxed

Two taxes on individuals leave usable records: the annual tax on property, and the road or labor tax, which was Nebraska's form of the poll or head tax — a flat charge laid on a person's head rather than on anything he owned. The state's income and sales taxes arrived in 1967, and the same reform ended the head and poll taxes⁸³.

All property not expressly exempt was taxable, valued at its actual value in the market and assessed at twenty percent of that value⁸⁴. Exempt were the property of the state, the counties, and the municipalities, and property used exclusively by agricultural and horticultural societies or for schools, religious, cemetery, and charitable purposes⁸⁵.

The territorial arrangement, which governed to statehood in 1867, was simpler and cruder. For roads the county levied a poll tax of one dollar or one day's work, together with a land tax of up to three dollars on the quarter section, and the person taxed chose whether to pay in money or to work it off at a dollar and fifty cents a day; ordinary county revenue, including the support of the poor, took not more than six mills on the dollar⁸⁶. A territorial road-work list is therefore a list of the county's men, and a man who worked his tax off leaves a labor entry rather than a payment.

Who listed the property

Two rules make the assessor's list unusually good genealogy. Every person of full age and sound mind listed his own personal property, and a minor child's property was listed by his guardian; if he had no guardian, by the father if living; if not, by the mother if living; and failing both, by whoever had the property in charge⁸⁷. A child's name entered on a tax list under an adult's is therefore a stated family relationship.

The assessor also entered, opposite each person's name, that person's post office address and the numbers of the school and road districts in which the property lay⁸⁸. Those two columns put a family on the map more precisely than a census page does.

The road, or labor, tax

Every male inhabitant of a road district over the age of 21 and under the age of 50 — paupers, idiots, and lunatics aside — was assessed a labor tax. Down to 1903 it stood at three dollars, and a man could pay it in cash or work it off on the roads⁸⁹. The general revenue act of 1903 cut it to two dollars and fifty cents and made it payable in cash, at the same time as the tax on personal property. A man living in a city or incorporated village who was liable under its own ordinances to pay a poll or labor tax, or to work on the streets, was not assessed under the state section⁹⁰.

Those men were the polls. The county tax list carried a column for polls and a column for road tax alongside the property entries⁹¹, so a man enters the poll column at 21 and leaves it at 50, which brackets both dates. The 21-to-50 range was already in place under the Compiled Statutes of 1881; when it first replaced the territorial arrangement is not traced here. When a man disappears from the poll column while still living in the county, his fiftieth birthday is usually the explanation.

Courts

Jury service

A juror had to be 21⁹² and a qualified elector of the county where he was called. Under the territorial code that meant a free white male over 21, of sound mind and discretion, holding the qualifications of an elector, with judges, court clerks, sheriffs, coroners, and jailers excluded and men over sixty and ministers exempt. Under the Constitution of 1875 an elector was every male person of 21 years or upwards who met the residence rules and was either a citizen of the United States or a man of foreign birth who had declared his intention to become one at least thirty days before the election⁹³. So into the twentieth century the working test was an adult man of 21 on the county’s voting rolls, and an immigrant who had filed his first papers qualified alongside the citizens.

The qualification was rewritten in 1911, and the new figure is the one to carry into a jury list of the following decades. A juror had to be a male resident of the county with the qualifications of an elector, over 25, and of sound mind and discretion; the county board drew the list from men of 25 or over and under 70 who could read, write, and understand English and were citizens of the United States. A long roster of officers and professional men could not be compelled to serve⁹⁴. Two things went with that act: the territorial word “white,” and the declarant alien, since from 1911 the list was drawn from citizens.

By the close of the period the disqualifications were unsoundness of mind, an unpardoned conviction for treason or felony, judicial or law-enforcement office, and being a party to a case set for trial⁹⁵. Whether the minimum age stayed at 25 through the amendments of 1917, 1939, and 1943 is not settled here.

An act of 1905 would have handed the drawing of the panel to jury commissioners working from the election tally sheets. It never governed: the Supreme Court held the act void, so the old sections stood on⁹⁶. A jury list of those years is the county board’s ordinary list.

Every juror qualified on that test alone. A talesman — a bystander summoned on the spot to fill out a short jury — was held, from 1915, to the same qualifications as a juror on the regular panel⁹⁷, and neither had to own land.

Criminal responsibility

The common law fixed the age of criminal responsibility, and it governed in Nebraska throughout:

• Under 7 — a child was incapable of committing a crime.
• 7 to 14 — the child was presumed incapable, and the prosecution had to overcome the presumption by showing he understood that the act was wrong.
• 14 and over — full responsibility, tried and punished as an adult.

Nebraska's first Juvenile Court Act came in 1905, and the courts upheld it as the state acting as guardian rather than as prosecutor⁹⁸. A charge that a child was delinquent was not a charge of crime, and commitment to the industrial school on such a charge was not a conviction⁹⁹. The juvenile court's jurisdiction was concurrent with the criminal courts: the county attorney chose whether to file a delinquency petition or a complaint under the general criminal laws¹⁰⁰. So a Nebraska child could still be tried and convicted as an adult after 1905, and both kinds of file exist. The delinquency case belongs to the district court, the county court hearing it only when the district judge was away, and those files are typically closed; the criminal case sits in the ordinary dockets.

Witnesses

A witness of any age could testify, if he or she understood the duty to tell the truth and could give a rational account of what happened. The trial judge examined a child before allowing the testimony.

The statutory rules on competency turned on the marriage relation, and they kept their 1866 shape for most of the period. Neither husband nor wife could be examined about anything the one had said to the other while married, and that silence outlasted the marriage; neither could be a witness against the other except in a criminal proceeding for a crime one had committed against the other; and either could be a witness for the other in any criminal prosecution. From 1905 a wife was competent against her husband on a charge of abandoning his wife or child and refusing to provide¹⁰¹. By the 1940s the exceptions had widened to rape, adultery, bigamy, and incest as well¹⁰².

Women and people of color as witnesses and jurors

A woman was a competent witness in Nebraska throughout the period. In a bastardy trial the mother was expressly admitted as a witness, her credibility left to the jury, unless she had been convicted of a crime that would disqualify any other witness⁷³. A person of color faced an extra hurdle in the territorial years. Any human being who understood the obligation of an oath was a competent witness, but the same section listed as incompetent those Indians and Negroes who appeared incapable of receiving just impressions of the facts or of relating them truly — a capacity test no white witness had to pass, and one a judge could apply to keep such a witness off the stand. That screen was no relic. It stood word for word in the compilation in force in 1905, the Supreme Court was still reciting it among the section’s exceptions in 1909, and the annotated statutes of 1911 print the section with no amendment recorded since 1866. It is gone from the code of 1943, which turns on interest and the marriage relation alone¹⁰³.

On juries, the territorial rule seated white men only. That changed with statehood: the Nebraska Supreme Court held in 1873 that a Black man had the right to sit on a jury under the state constitution, and repeated eighty years later that nothing in the jury statute disqualified him¹⁰⁴. The words stayed on the statute book much longer than the rule did: the section was not amended until 1911, when the rewritten text dropped them⁹⁴. Practice in individual counties was another matter, but the legal rule was settled early.

Jury service was open to men only until 1943, when the Legislature admitted women. Service was compulsory for them as for men, a woman called being excusable for good cause¹⁰⁵. By the 1960s her inclusion also turned on the presiding district judge certifying that the courthouse accommodations were adequate, and a woman called could ask to be excused for health, hardship at home, or any cause that would excuse a man¹⁰⁶. That condition mattered on the ground: some counties seated no woman for another twenty years, one of them not until 1966¹⁰⁷. When looking for a woman on a jury list, check the county as well as the year.

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

Sources & Where to Verify

Every rule above is tagged with the law it rests on. The lists below show where to read those laws in full, and the reference works consulted, so anything here can be checked against the original sources.

Constitutions

• Nebraska. Constitution of 1875. Printed in full in the Laws of the Fifteenth Session (1879), pp. 3–56 — art. VI, §§ 15–16 (county courts and probate jurisdiction) and art. VII, §§ 1–2 (electors, and so jury qualification). Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=5mUyAAAAIAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Constitution of 1875, as amended. Art. VII, § 1 (electors, and so jury qualification); art. IX, §§ 1–2 (revenue and exemptions). Nebraska Legislature. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/browse-constitution.php (accessed 28 July 2026). The articles as they stood in the 1890s are reprinted in Wilson, Concise Compilation (below).

Codes and Compilations

• Brown, Guy A., comp. The Compiled Statutes of the State of Nebraska, Comprising All Laws of a General Nature in Force July 1, 1881. Lincoln: Journal Company, State Printers, 1883. Ch. 23 (decedents, dower, wills, administration), ch. 34 (majority), ch. 36 (homesteads), ch. 52 (marriage), ch. 73 (real estate). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/compiledstatute00nebrgoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Brown, Guy A., and Hiland H. Wheeler, comps. The Compiled Statutes of the State of Nebraska, 1881. Lincoln: Lincoln Paper House, 1891. The same base volume in a later printing. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/compiledstatute01nebrgoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Brown, Guy A., and Hiland H. Wheeler, comps. The Compiled Statutes of the State of Nebraska, 1881. Twelfth edition, with amendments 1882 to 1905, all laws of a general nature in force November 1, 1905. Lincoln, Neb.: State Journal Company, Printers, 1905. The most useful single volume for the years between Wilson and the 1907 reforms: every section carries a bracketed back-reference to the Revised Statutes of 1866 and the General Statutes of 1873, and the annotations give the case law to 1905. Ch. 23 (decedents, dower, descent, wills), ch. 34 (guardians and wards, majority), ch. 52 (marriage), tit. X (evidence), tit. XIX (juries). Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=m4Q0AQAAMAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Cobbey, Joseph E., comp. Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes of Nebraska, Supplement of 1905. Beatrice, Neb.: J. E. Cobbey, 1905. All general laws of the 1905 session, annotated; Mockett's Juvenile Court Law is §§ 5449–5467. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=godCAQAAMAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Cobbey, Joseph E., comp. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, Edition 1909. Beatrice, Neb.: Milburn & Scott Co., 1909. The compiler’s certificate is dated 1 July 1909. Complete in one volume — constitutions, the codes, and all the general laws — and the most useful single volume for the years between the reforms of 1907 and the end of this period: §§ 4901–4908 (descent, the surviving spouse’s share, exempt property, election), §§ 4931–4941 (children born outside marriage), §§ 5301–5307 (marriage), § 6033 (household goods). Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=9JxGAQAAIAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Cobbey, Joseph E., comp. Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes of Nebraska, Edition 1911. Beatrice, Neb.: Milburn & Scott Co., 1911. The compiler’s certificate is dated 1 July 1911. Every section carries a history line and the case notes to that date, which makes it the best single check on what had and had not been amended by then: § 1313 (competency of witnesses), §§ 1316–1317 (husband and wife), § 1673 (jurors). This volume carries the constitutions and the civil and criminal codes only; the general laws by subject — decedents, descent, marriage, homestead, guardians, wills, chattel mortgages — are in the second volume. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=6Z1GAQAAIAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Cobbey, Joseph E., comp. Consolidated Statutes of Nebraska, 1891. Lincoln, Neb.: State Journal Company, Printers, 1891. Built on the Revised Statutes of 1866; the wills sections are §§ 1184–1187. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/consolidatedsta00unkngoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Compilation of the Revenue Laws of the State of Nebraska from the Compiled Statutes of Nebraska of 1909. Lincoln: State Journal Company, Printers, 1909. The revenue chapter entire — the labor tax, the listing rules, and the form of the county tax list. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/compilationofrev00nebr (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, 1929. Lincoln, Neb.: State Journal, 1930. With its 1941 cumulative supplement, the last full compilation inside the period covered here. Not read directly in preparing this guide, and not among the openly digitized Nebraska volumes; for the sections cited from the 1943 code, the openly available substitutes are the Compiled Statutes of 1922 and Cobbey’s annotated editions of 1907, 1909, and 1911.
• Nebraska. Compiled Statutes of the State of Nebraska 1881 with Amendments 1882 to 1895. Lincoln: State Journal Co., 1895. And the companion volume in force 10 July 1897. One of these is the reprinting Wilson worked from; the chapter and section numbers she quotes are the standing numbers of the Compiled Statutes series and hold good in the twelfth edition of 1905. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=SoU0AQAAMAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. General Statutes of Nebraska, 1873; Revised Statutes of Nebraska, 1913; Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, 1922. The intervening compilations named in the source notes of the current code. Not read directly in preparing this guide. The 1873 and 1922 volumes are the ones to open for the questions still flagged in the notes. Digital images. Google Books. 1873, https://books.google.com/books?id=qKwwAQAAMAAJ; 1922, https://books.google.com/books?id=D6FGAQAAIAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Revised Statutes of Nebraska, 1943. The code in force at the close of the period covered here, and the source of the twentieth-century section numbers cited above. Not read directly in preparing this guide; the sections are taken from the source notes of the current code and from the Women's Bureau digest listed below. Internet Archive holds a 1944 printing under restricted access. https://archive.org/details/revisedstatuteso05nebr (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Revised Statutes of Nebraska (current). Each section printed with its full source note — the fastest route backward through the compilations, and the authority for the citation chains in this guide. Nebraska Legislature. https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/browse-statutes.php (accessed 28 July 2026). Sections used here: 42-102 (marriage age), 42-103 (void marriages), 42-104 (license), and 43-2101 (majority).
• Nebraska. The Revised Statutes of the Territory of Nebraska, in Force July 1, 1866. Revised by Experience Estabrook. Omaha: E. B. Taylor, Public Printer, 1866. The last territorial compilation and the root of nearly every Nebraska citation chain, with marginal notes giving the substance of each section, a full index, and an appendix of the special and local laws of the eleventh session. Ch. 14 (decedents, dower, curtesy, descent, wills), ch. 23 (guardians and wards, majority), ch. 34 (marriage), tit. X (evidence), tit. XIX (juries), and the revenue chapter. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/esrp733083634 (accessed 28 July 2026).

Session Laws

• Nebraska. Laws, Joint Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Eighth Session of the Legislative Assembly, State of Nebraska. Des Moines: Mills & Co., Printers and Publishers, 1871. Carries the act respecting the rights of married women at pp. 68–69. Digital images. Internet Archive (Library of Congress Early State Records Project), file 1871.010. https://archive.org/details/esrp608413600 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Laws, Joint Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Sixth and Seventh Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Nebraska. Des Moines: Mills & Co., Printers and Publishers, 1871. Carries the 1870 act on the support of illegitimate children at pp. 4–5. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=fTg4AAAAIAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Laws, Joint Resolutions, and Memorials Passed by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Nebraska, at its Fifteenth Session. Lincoln: Journal Company, State Printers, 1879. Carries the homestead act at pp. 57–61 and reprints the Constitution of 1875 at pp. 3–56. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=5mUyAAAAIAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Laws, Joint Resolutions, and Memorials, Passed by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Nebraska at the Twenty-Fourth Session. Omaha, Neb.: Omaha Printing Co., State Printers, 1895. Checked for the reported repeal of the interracial-marriage statute; the volume contains no act touching marriage or persons of color. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=e1oyAAAAIAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Laws, Joint Resolutions, Appropriations and Memorials, Passed by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska at its Thirty-Second Session. 1911. Ch. 171 (House Roll No. 288), §§ 1–2, pp. 548–549 — the act rewriting the juror qualification and the jury list. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d022945677 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Laws Passed by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska. 1907. Ch. 49, "Succession Estates of Decedents," pp. 197 and following — § 4 abolishing dower and curtesy, § 5 on barring the right to inherit, § 6 on antenuptial contracts, and §§ 7–8 on the surviving spouse's election. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d02294565b&seq=282 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Laws Passed by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska. 1919, special session, and 1921. Ch. 247 (S.F. 95), p. 853, raising the age of majority for women to twenty-one. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d02294572e&seq=876 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Laws Passed by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska. 1947. Ch. 156 (Legislative Bill 410), pp. 426 and following, the Community Property Law. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3683626&seq=431 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Laws Passed by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska. 1949. Ch. 129 (Legislative Bill 13), p. 337, undoing the Community Property Law. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3683627&seq=339 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska. Session laws, 1867 to the present, indexed by year. The acts cited above by chapter, section, and page: 1871 (married women's property), 1879 (homestead), Laws 1905, S.F. 6 (juvenile court), and S.F. 108 (jury selection), Laws 1907, ch. 49 (dower and curtesy abolished), Laws 1911, c. 76, § 1, p. 322, and Laws 1913, c. 72, § 1, p. 216 (void marriages), Laws 1921, ch. 247 (S.F. 95), § 1, p. 853 (majority raised for women), Laws 1923, c. 40, §§ 1–2, p. 154 (marriage age and license), Laws 1939, c. 18, p. 110, and Laws 1943, c. 45, § 1, p. 191 (jury service), Laws 1947, ch. 156, and Laws 1949, ch. 129 (community property), Laws 1963, c. 242, § 1, p. 735, and c. 243, § 1, p. 736 (marriage age and void marriages), and the acts named in the notes on jurors, on chattel papers, and on children born outside marriage: Laws 1917, c. 139, § 1, p. 325 (juror qualifications), Laws 1915, c. 248, § 10, p. 572 (tales jurors), Laws 1939, c. 39, § 1, p. 195 (assignment of wages), Laws 1941, c. 81, p. 323 (children born out of wedlock), Laws 1941, c. 153, § 19, p. 598 (Uniform Property Act), Laws 1943, c. 103, p. 345 (serological test before a marriage license), and Laws 1945, c. 99, p. 327 (mother’s consent to a minor’s marriage). The Advancing Genealogist. https://advancinggenealogist.com/historic-nebraska-statutory-law/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska Territory. Laws, Joint Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Seventh Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska. Nebraska City: Thomas Morton, "Nebraska City News," 1861. Carries the act to prohibit slavery at p. 43, with the certificates of its passage over the governor's veto. Digital images. Internet Archive (Library of Congress Early State Records Project), file 1860.120. https://archive.org/details/esrp608413600 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska Territory. Laws, Joint Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Tenth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska. City of Omaha: Taylor & McClure, Public Printers, 1865. Checked for an act on interracial marriage; neither index carries an entry for marriage or for persons of color. Digital images. Internet Archive (Library of Congress Early State Records Project), file 1865.010. https://archive.org/details/esrp608413600 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• United States. Library of Congress. Early State Records Project. Nebraska territorial and early state session laws, 1855–1873, scanned volume by volume from microfilm and issued as one archive item, each session a separate file named for the year and month it convened. The place to read the territorial session laws act by act, including the reported act of 1895 on interracial marriage. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/esrp608413600 (accessed 28 July 2026).

Court Cases

• Allen v. Allen. 121 Neb. 635 (1931).
• Aultman, Taylor & Co. v. Obermeyer. 6 Neb. 260 (1877).
• Bacon v. Western Securities Co. 125 Neb. 812 (1934).
• Baker v. Baker. 112 Neb. 738 (1924).
• Bell v. State. 159 Neb. 474 (1954).
• Berg v. Griffiths. 126 Neb. 235 (1934).
• Binger v. Binger. 158 Neb. 444 (1954).
• Bourelle v. Soo-Crete, Inc. 165 Neb. 731 (1958).
• Bowman v. Bowman. 163 Neb. 336 (1956).
• Brittle v. People. 2 Neb. 198 (1873).
• Christensen v. Christensen. 144 Neb. 763 (1944).
• Collins v. Hoag & Rollins. 122 Neb. 805 (1932).
• DeBacker v. Brainard. 183 Neb. 461 (1968). https://law.justia.com/cases/nebraska/supreme-court/1968/36989-1.html.
• Engen v. Union State Bank of Harvard. 118 Neb. 105 (1929).
• First National Bank of Wymore v. Guenther. 125 Neb. 807 (1934).
• Fugate v. Ronin. 167 Neb. 70 (1958).
• Harrison v. Cargill Commission Co. 126 Neb. 185 (1934).
• Hart v. State. 14 Neb. 572 (1883).
• John Fletcher College v. Estate of Pailing. 121 Neb. 847 (1931).
• Kerner v. McDonald. 60 Neb. 663 (1900).
• Krueger v. Callies. 190 Neb. 376 (1973).
• Laurie v. State. 108 Neb. 239 (1922).
• Lennox v. Anderson. 140 Neb. 748 (1942).
• Linton v. Cooper. 53 Neb. 400 (1898).
• Marmet v. Marmet. 160 Neb. 366 (1955).
• Melcher v. Melcher. 102 Neb. 790 (1918).
• Ortley v. Ross. 78 Neb. 339 (1907).
• Pauley v. Knouse. 109 Neb. 716 (1923).
• Pochin v. Conley. 74 Neb. 429 (1905).
• Priest v. State. 10 Neb. 393 (1880).
• Pumphrey v. State. 84 Neb. 636 (1909).
• Ragan v. Ragan. 158 Neb. 51 (1954).
• Real v. Hollister. 17 Neb. 661 (1885).
• Richardson v. Johnson. 97 Neb. 749 (1915).
• Russell v. State. 62 Neb. 512 (1901).
• Staley v. State. 89 Neb. 701 (1911).
• State ex rel. Miller v. Bryant. 94 Neb. 754 (1913).
• State ex rel. v. Reneau. 75 Neb. 1 (1905).
• State v. McCoy. 145 Neb. 750 (1945).
• Todok v. Union State Bank. 281 U.S. 449 (1930).
• Walden v. Walden. 122 Neb. 804 (1932).
• Ward v. Laverty. 19 Neb. 429 (1886).
• Willits v. Willits. 76 Neb. 228 (1906).
• Zvacek v. Posvar. 118 Neb. 163 (1929).

Secondary and Reference Works

• The Advancing Genealogist. "Historic Nebraska Statutory Law." A year-by-year index of every digitized Nebraska session law, code, and topical compilation, with links. https://advancinggenealogist.com/historic-nebraska-statutory-law/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Creighton University School of Law Library. "Compiling a Nebraska Legislative History." How to read a Nebraska source note back to the bill behind it. https://culibraries.creighton.edu/NebLegisHist/compiling (accessed 28 July 2026).
• History Nebraska (Nebraska State Historical Society). The state archives, custodian of the county court, district court, and county officers' records described above, and publisher of the collection inventories and research guides against which those record statements should be checked. https://history.nebraska.gov (accessed 28 July 2026).
• History Nebraska. "Women Serve on a Frontier County, Nebraska, Jury for the First Time in 1966." How the courthouse-facilities condition kept women off juries in some counties long after the statute admitted them. https://history.nebraska.gov/women-serve-on-a-frontier-county-nebraska-jury-for-the-first-time-in-1966/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Justia. Nebraska decisions and historical codes, with full text and the source notes of superseded sections. https://law.justia.com/cases/nebraska/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Nebraska Department of Revenue. "Property Tax History." The structure of the property tax and the 1967 repeal of the head and poll taxes. https://revenue.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/pad/research/annual-reports/2010/annrpt2010-5_Property_Tax_History.pdf (accessed 28 July 2026).
• U.S. Women’s Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: United States Summary, Cumulative Supplement, 1938–1945. Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 157-A. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946. Lists every change of law affecting women by state and subject for those years, with the session-law citation for each — the source for the Nebraska acts of 1941, 1943, and 1945 cited above. Digital images. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157_a_dolwb_1946.pdf (accessed 28 July 2026).
• U.S. Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: Report for Nebraska. Bulletin 157-26, revised as of 1 May 1964. A section-by-section digest of majority, married women's property, homestead, intestacy, wills, guardianship, marriage, and jury service, keyed to the 1943 code. Read alongside Wilson (below): the two together show which figures the twentieth-century amendments changed. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/legal-status-women-united-states-america-5430/legal-status-women-united-states-america-report-nebraska-may-1-1964-539582 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Wilson, Zara A. A Concise Compilation of Nebraska Laws of Special Interest to Women. Lincoln, Neb.: The Franklin Press, 1897. The single most useful period digest for this guide: it prints the majority, marriage, homestead, dower, wills, administration, guardianship, and bastardy sections as they stood in the 1890s, with the chapter and section numbers of the Compiled Statutes and the leading case notes. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/aconcisecompila00wilsgoog (accessed 28 July 2026).

Citations

1. Experience Estabrook, reviser, The Revised Statutes of the Territory of Nebraska, in Force July 1, 1866, with Marginal Notes, Showing the Contents of Each Section, and a Full and Complete Index; to Which is Added an Appendix, Embracing All of the Special and Local Laws Passed at the Eleventh Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska (Omaha: E. B. Taylor, Public Printer, 1866); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/esrp733083634 : accessed 28 July 2026). Cited below in short form as R.S.1866, by chapter or title, section, and printed page ↩
2. Joseph E. Cobbey, comp., Consolidated Statutes of Nebraska, 1891 (Lincoln, Neb.: State Journal Company, Printers, 1891), title page, describing the volume as based upon the Revised Statutes of 1866; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/consolidatedsta00unkngoog : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
3. The sequence is visible in the source note printed under each section of the current code: R.S.1866, the General Statutes of 1873, the Compiled Statutes of 1881 with its amended reprintings of 1895 and 1897, R.S.1913, C.S.1922, C.S.1929, and R.S.1943. For a worked example see Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 42-104, source note, Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=42-104 : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
4. Guy A. Brown and Hiland H. Wheeler, comps., The Compiled Statutes of the State of Nebraska, 1881, twelfth ed., with Amendments 1882 to 1905, All Laws of a General Nature in Force November 1, 1905 (Lincoln, Neb.: State Journal Company, Printers, 1905); digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=m4Q0AQAAMAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026). The compilers print under each section a bracketed back-reference to the Revised Statutes of 1866 and the General Statutes of 1873, which fixes the chapter mapping used throughout this guide: Compiled Statutes ch. 23 (Decedents) is R.S.1866 ch. XIV, p. 56; ch. 34 (Guardians and Wards) is R.S.1866 ch. XXIII, p. 178, and G.S.1873, p. 396; ch. 52 (Marriage) is R.S.1866 ch. XXXIV, p. 254, and G.S.1873, p. 462 ↩
5. Aultman, Taylor & Co. v. Obermeyer, 6 Neb. 260 (1877) ↩
6. "An act relating to husband and wife; to make provision for a Community Property Law," Laws 1947, ch. 156 (Legislative Bill 410), pp. 426–427 and following, headed "Establishing the Community Property Law"; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3683626&seq=431 : accessed 28 July 2026). Sections 1 and 2 leave as each spouse's separate property whatever that spouse owned or claimed before the marriage or before the act took effect, whichever was later, together with anything afterwards taken by gift, devise, or descent or received as compensation for personal injuries. Section 3 makes everything else acquired by either during the marriage and after the effective date the community or common property of both, "and each shall be vested with an undivided one half interest therein," and presumes the effects held when a marriage is dissolved to be common gains unless the contrary is satisfactorily proved. Section 4 gives the wife the management and disposal of her separate property and of her own earnings, rents, interest, and dividends out of the community. The act was codified as Revised Statutes Supplement, 1947, §§ 42-601 to 42-616 ↩
7. "An act relating to community property," Laws 1949, ch. 129 (Legislative Bill 13), p. 337, repealing §§ 42-601, 42-602, and 42-604 through 42-616 of the Revised Statutes Supplement, 1947, amending § 42-603, and carrying an emergency clause; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3683627&seq=339 : accessed 28 July 2026). Section 1 defines "property acquired" as property taken by either spouse or both during the marriage "on and after September 7, 1947, and prior to the effective date of this act," together with what was later acquired in exchange for it, as its increase, or out of its proceeds or income; and § 2 rewrites § 42-603 so that such property "shall not be regarded as community property unless the contrary be satisfactorily proved." The act's title also promises a procedure and a limitation for claiming that particular property was community; those sections have not been read, so the period allowed for a claim is not stated here ↩
8. Kerner v. McDonald, 60 Neb. 663 (1900) ↩
9. R.S.1866, c. 23, § 1, p. 178, in the chapter on guardians and wards: "All male children under twenty-one, and all females under eighteen years of age, are declared to be minors; but in case a female marries between the age of sixteen and eighteen, her minority ends." Carried word for word to Compiled Statutes of 1881 (twelfth ed., 1905), ch. 34, § 1, numbered § 3678, p. 905, whose bracketed note gives R.S., 178, and G.S., 396 — the same chapter and section that Zara A. Wilson, A Concise Compilation of Nebraska Laws of Special Interest to Women (Lincoln, Neb.: The Franklin Press, 1897), quotes under the heading "Femme Sole. Majority"; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/aconcisecompila00wilsgoog : accessed 28 July 2026). The same words are printed at Joseph E. Cobbey, comp., Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, Edition 1909 (Beatrice, Neb.: Milburn & Scott Co., 1909), compiler’s certificate dated 1 July 1909; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=9JxGAQAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026), § 5371, p. 762, in the chapter descended from ch. 23 of the Revised Statutes of 1866 ↩ ↩
10. "An act to raise the age majority for females to twenty-one years and to amend Sections 1627 and 1634 of the Revised Statutes of Nebraska for 1913 and to repeal said original sections," Laws 1921, ch. 247 (S.F. 95), § 1, p. 853, amending R.S.1913, § 1627, to read: "All persons under twenty-one years of age are declared to be minors," the proviso ending a woman's minority on her marriage continuing after it. Digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d02294572e&seq=876 : accessed 28 July 2026). The full descent of the section is R.S.1866, c. 23, § 1, p. 178; R.S.1913, § 1627; Laws 1921, c. 247, § 1, p. 853; C.S.1922, § 1576; C.S.1929, § 38-101; R.S.1943, § 38-101; now Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 43-2101, source note, Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=43-2101 : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
11. First National Bank of Wymore v. Guenther, 125 Neb. 807 (1934) ↩
12. The territorial code carries no general chapter on apprenticeship. The binding out of minors appears instead as a local act: "An Act to Authorize the County Commissioners of Douglas County to Apprentice Minor Paupers," R.S.1866, appendix, pp. 709–710, empowering the commissioners to bind any minor chargeable to the county as a pauper to a suitable person able to provide for and educate the child, on written terms requiring kind and humane treatment, clothing, food, and schooling, and stipulating a payment of not less than one hundred dollars to the apprentice at the end of the term. Nebraska still had no general apprenticeship law forty-three years later: Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909) carries no chapter on apprentices, its general laws running from Apportionment to Assignments for Creditors with nothing between ↩
13. R.S.1866, c. 34, § 1, p. 254: "In law, marriage is considered a civil contract, to which the consent of parties capable of contracting is essential"; carried to Compiled Statutes of 1881 (twelfth ed., 1905), ch. 52, § 1, numbered § 4273, whose bracketed note gives R.S., 254, and G.S., 462 ↩
14. R.S.1866, c. 34, § 2, p. 254: "At the time of the marriage the male must be of the age of eighteen years or upwards, and the female of the age of sixteen years or upwards." Carried through R.S.1913, § 1541, and C.S.1922, § 1490, amended by Laws 1923, c. 40, § 1, p. 154, then C.S.1929, § 42-102, and R.S.1943, § 42-102, and unchanged until Laws 1963, c. 242, § 1, p. 735; the chain is printed at Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 42-102, source note, Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=42-102 : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
15. R.S.1866, c. 34, §§ 4, 6–8, p. 254: a license from the probate judge of the county before solemnization; the judge taking testimony as to the parties' names, residences, sufficient age, and any legal impediment, and entering the facts and the date of the license "in a book to be kept by him for that purpose"; and every judge, justice of the peace, and licensed or ordained preacher of the gospel authorized to perform the ceremony ↩
16. Willits v. Willits, 76 Neb. 228 (1906), holding the marriage of a party under age voidable but valid until a court annuls it ↩
17. R.S.1866, c. 34, § 5, p. 254: no license to be granted without "the verbal consent, if present, or written consent, if absent, of the father, if living, if not, then of the mother, of such minor, or of the guardian or person under whose care and government such minor may be, which written consent shall be proved by the testimony of at least one competent witness" ↩
18. Baker v. Baker, 112 Neb. 738 (1924) ↩
19. Laws 1945, c. 99, p. 327, giving the mother equal right with the father in authorizing the marriage of their minor child, where formerly her consent was not required unless the father had died; digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: United States Summary, Cumulative Supplement, 1938–1945, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 157-A (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946), 23; digital images, FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157_a_dolwb_1946.pdf : accessed 28 July 2026). The act has not been read against the session volume — read Laws 1945, c. 99 ↩
20. Melcher v. Melcher, 102 Neb. 790 (1918), that before 1923 the absence of a license, or a license wrongfully obtained, did not invalidate a marriage; Harrison v. Cargill Commission Co., 126 Neb. 185 (1934), that common-law marriage was valid before the act of 1923 ↩
21. Laws 1923, c. 40, § 2, p. 154, requiring a license obtained beforehand and solemnization by a person authorized by law; carried into C.S.1929, § 42-104, and R.S.1943, § 42-104. The chain is printed at Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 42-104, source note, Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=42-104 : accessed 28 July 2026). Upheld in Collins v. Hoag & Rollins, 122 Neb. 805 (1932); and see Walden v. Walden, 122 Neb. 804 (1932) ↩
22. Bourelle v. Soo-Crete, Inc., 165 Neb. 731 (1958); Ragan v. Ragan, 158 Neb. 51 (1954); Bowman v. Bowman, 163 Neb. 336 (1956) ↩
23. R.S.1866, c. 34, §§ 9–11, pp. 255–256: at least two witnesses besides the minister or magistrate had to be present at the ceremony; the officiant gave each party, on request, a certificate specifying the names, ages, and places of residence of the parties married, the names and residences of at least two witnesses, and the time and place; and within three months he made and delivered a certificate to the probate judge of the county ↩
24. Staley v. State, 89 Neb. 701 (1911), holding valid in Nebraska the Iowa marriage of first cousins who were Nebraska residents ↩
25. Allen v. Allen, 121 Neb. 635 (1931), that the license section reached only marriages solemnized in Nebraska ↩
26. Ortley v. Ross, 78 Neb. 339 (1907) ↩
27. Binger v. Binger, 158 Neb. 444 (1954), that cohabitation after an impediment is removed does not validate a ceremony void when performed ↩
28. R.S.1866, c. 34, § 3, p. 254, declaring void a marriage where "one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-fourth or more negro blood," where either party had a husband or wife living, where either was "insane or an idiot," and where the parties stood as parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, brother and sister of half as well as whole blood, uncle and niece, or aunt and nephew, the last extending to illegitimate as well as legitimate children and relatives. First cousins of whole blood had been added to the list by the time of Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), § 5302, p. 752, which prints them among the void degrees. The section was further amended by Laws 1911, c. 76, § 1, p. 322, and Laws 1913, c. 72, § 1, p. 216, the acts that widened the racial clause; then R.S.1913, § 1542; C.S.1922, § 1491; C.S.1929, § 42-103; R.S.1943, § 42-103; the racial bar repealed by Laws 1963, c. 243, § 1, p. 736. The chain is printed at Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 42-103, source note, Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=42-103 : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩ ↩
29. Laws 1923, c. 40, § 1, p. 154, adding the venereal-disease disqualification to the minimum-age section; Christensen v. Christensen, 144 Neb. 763 (1944), holding such a marriage voidable rather than void ↩
30. R.S. 1943, § 42-102 and §§ 42-121 to 42-125, as digested in the Women’s Bureau report for Nebraska. The requirement is not in Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), whose marriage chapter at §§ 5301–5302 carries only the age, bigamy, insanity, kinship, and racial bars, so it entered the law between 1909 and 1943. Section numbers in this guide that are drawn from the 1943 code rest on that digest and on the source notes of the current code; the 1943 volume itself has not been read, and neither the date these requirements entered the law nor their text is confirmed here — read the sections in the Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, 1922, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=D6FGAQAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026), or in Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes, Edition 1911 (https://books.google.com/books?id=6Z1GAQAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
31. Laws 1943, c. 103, p. 345, requiring a standard serological test for syphilis of each applicant for a marriage license, made not more than thirty days before the license issued, and denying the license where either applicant was found infected in a communicable stage, except in cases of pregnancy; digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: United States Summary, Cumulative Supplement, 1938–1945, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 157-A (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946), 24. The act has not been read against the session volume — read Laws 1943, c. 103 ↩
32. "An Act to prohibit slavery," Laws, Joint Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Seventh Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska (Nebraska City: Thomas Morton, "Nebraska City News," 1861), general laws, p. 43, with the certificates of its passage over the veto of Governor Samuel W. Black appended to the act; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/esrp608413600 : accessed 28 July 2026), file 1860.120 ↩ ↩
33. Two reported turns in this history were checked against the session volumes and are not borne out. Neither the general nor the special index to Laws, Joint Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Tenth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Nebraska (City of Omaha: Taylor & McClure, Public Printers, 1865) carries an entry for marriage or for persons of color; digital images, Internet Archive (Library of Congress Early State Records Project), file 1865.010 (https://archive.org/details/esrp608413600 : accessed 28 July 2026). And Laws, Joint Resolutions, and Memorials, Passed by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Nebraska at the Twenty-Fourth Session (Omaha, Neb.: Omaha Printing Co., State Printers, 1895) contains no act touching marriage or persons of color anywhere in its 547 pages; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=e1oyAAAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
34. Wilson, Concise Compilation, quoting Compiled Statutes, ch. 25, § 31, under which the issue of a marriage annulled for consanguinity, or of a marriage between a white person and a Negro, was deemed illegitimate ↩
35. Todok v. Union State Bank, 281 U.S. 449 (1930), reversing Engen v. Union State Bank of Harvard, 118 Neb. 105 (1929) ↩
36. "An Act Respecting the rights of Married Women," approved 1 March 1871, Laws, Joint Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Eighth Session of the Legislative Assembly, State of Nebraska (Des Moines: Mills & Co., Printers and Publishers, 1871), general laws, pp. 68–69, §§ 1–7; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/esrp608413600 : accessed 28 July 2026), file 1871.010 ↩
37. Laws of the Eighth Session (1871), p. 68, § 2, limiting the power to contracts made "with reference to" her own property; John Fletcher College v. Estate of Pailing, 121 Neb. 847 (1931); and, describing the law before the 1957 amendment, Marmet v. Marmet, 160 Neb. 366 (1955) ↩
38. Laws 1941, c. 153, § 19, p. 598, part of the Uniform Property Act, digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: United States Summary, Cumulative Supplement, 1938–1945, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 157-A (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946), 15. The act has not been read against the session volume — read Laws 1941, c. 153 ↩
39. Ward v. Laverty, 19 Neb. 429 (1886) ↩
40. Pauley v. Knouse, 109 Neb. 716 (1923); Pochin v. Conley, 74 Neb. 429 (1905) ↩
41. Real v. Hollister, 17 Neb. 661 (1885) ↩
42. Linton v. Cooper, 53 Neb. 400 (1898) ↩ ↩
43. "An Act to provide for the selection and disposition of homesteads, and to exempt the same from judgment liens, and from attachment, levy, or sale, upon execution or other process," Laws, Joint Resolutions, and Memorials Passed by the Legislative Assembly of the State of Nebraska, at its Fifteenth Session (Lincoln: Journal Company, State Printers, 1879), general laws, pp. 57–61, § 4: "The homestead of a married person cannot be conveyed or incumbered unless the instrument by which it is conveyed or incumbered is executed and acknowledged by both husband and wife." Approved 26 February 1879 and in force from 1 September 1879 (§ 19); § 18 repeals the homestead acts of 25 February 1875 and 19 February 1877; homestead succession is § 17. Digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=5mUyAAAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026). The same section is printed at Compiled Statutes, ch. 36, § 4, in Wilson, Concise Compilation ↩ ↩
44. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), §§ 6275–6276, p. 1001, from the act of 1879 ↩
45. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), § 6278, p. 1001 ↩
46. Krueger v. Callies, 190 Neb. 376 (1973) ↩
47. Bacon v. Western Securities Co., 125 Neb. 812 (1934) ↩
48. R.S.1866, c. 14, § 1, p. 56: the widow is entitled to dower, "or the use, during her natural life, of one-third part of all the lands whereof her husband was seized, of all estate of inheritance at any time during the marriage, unless she is lawfully barred thereof." The same words are quoted from the Compiled Statutes, ch. 23, § 1, in Wilson, Concise Compilation ↩ ↩
49. R.S.1866, c. 14, § 12, p. 58: a married woman "may bar her right of dower in any estate conveyed by her husband, or by his guardian if he be a minor, by joining in a deed of conveyance, and acknowledging the same as prescribed by law, or by joining with her husband in a subsequent deed acknowledged in like manner." A jointure settled before marriage barred dower likewise, the wife's assent being expressed, if she was of full age, by becoming a party to the conveyance, and if under age, by joining with her father or guardian, §§ 13–14, p. 58 ↩
50. "An act to define and regulate the succession to estates of decedents," Laws 1907, ch. 49, § 4, p. 197, headed "Dower and Curtesy abolished": "The estates of dower and curtesy are hereby abolished." Digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d02294565b&seq=282 : accessed 28 July 2026). And see Richardson v. Johnson, 97 Neb. 749 (1915), that husband and wife were thereby placed on exact equality as to the rights of each in the property of the other ↩ ↩
51. Laws 1907, ch. 49, § 5, p. 197, headed "Right to inherit. How barred": the right of a married man or woman to inherit part or all of the real estate of which the spouse "was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during the marriage" may be barred by a conveyance executed by husband and wife while residents of the state, or, where either is a non-resident, by a deed executed by both or by the one seized at the time; and it may be barred as well by a sale of the real estate under execution or other judicial sale during the owner's lifetime ↩
52. Zvacek v. Posvar, 118 Neb. 163 (1929) ↩
53. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), § 6033, p. 953, in the chapter on frauds, whose proviso voids any conveyance, mortgage, sale, or transfer of household goods owned by husband or wife and used in the dwelling or held for family use “unless such conveyance, mortgage, sale or transfer shall be executed and acknowledged by both husband and wife in the same manner conveyances of real estate are required to be signed and acknowledged”; the instrument is filed with the county clerk, §§ 6033–6034. Carried to R.S. 1943, § 36-301, and repealed in 1963 with the adoption of the Uniform Commercial Code. The assignment of a family head’s wages is Laws 1939, c. 39, § 1, p. 195, carried to C.S. Supp. 1941, § 36-214, and R.S. 1943, § 36-213; that chain is printed in the source note to Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 36-213, Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=36-213 : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
54. Guy A. Brown, comp., The Compiled Statutes of the State of Nebraska, Comprising All Laws of a General Nature in Force July 1, 1881 (Lincoln: Journal Company, State Printers, 1883), ch. 73, "Real Estate," § 1, requiring a deed to be "signed by the grantor, being of lawful age, in the presence of at least one competent witness, who shall subscribe his name as a witness thereto"; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/compiledstatute00nebrgoog : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
55. Compiled Statutes of 1881, ch. 73, §§ 2–3 ↩
56. R.S.1866, c. 14, §§ 8–9, p. 57, the judge of probate issuing his warrant to three discreet and disinterested persons to set off the dower by metes and bounds, and § 11, p. 58, the widow occupying with the heirs or taking a third of the rents until dower is assigned; and see Compiled Statutes, ch. 23, §§ 8, 17, 18, in Wilson, Concise Compilation ↩
57. Wilson, Concise Compilation, quoting Compiled Statutes, ch. 23, § 22 ↩
58. R.S.1866, c. 14, § 29, p. 61, with a proviso that issue of a former husband to whom the estate might descend take it free of the widower's life interest; and see the same section at Compiled Statutes, ch. 23, § 29, in Wilson, Concise Compilation ↩
59. Wilson, Concise Compilation, quoting the distribution section of Compiled Statutes, ch. 23, under which the widow took "the same share of such residue as a child of the intestate would be entitled to" ↩
60. R.S.1866, c. 14, § 30, p. 61, headed in the margin "Manner in which real estate shall descend": land not lawfully devised descends, subject to the owner's debts, "in equal shares to his children, and to the lawful issue of any deceased child, by right of representation," and where no child survives, to the other lineal descendants, equally if all stand in the same degree and otherwise by representation; then, in order, to the widow for her natural life and afterwards to the father, to the father, to the brothers and sisters with the mother taking an equal share, to the mother, to the next of kin, and, where a widow survives and no kindred, to the widow. Advancements made in the intestate's lifetime count toward the share of the child who received them ↩
61. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), § 4901, pp. 698–699, the descent section substituted by Laws 1907, printed with the note that “In 1907, p. 193, secs. 4901 to 4930 were repealed and the act substituted contains but 8 sections.” The four fractions in the table are its First through Fourth subdivisions, and its Fifth gives the residue to the deceased’s blood relatives, or, where none survive, to the husband or wife. The share reaches real estate not lawfully conveyed by husband and wife, not sold under execution or judicial sale, and not lawfully devised. Carried to R.S. 1943, §§ 30-101 to 30-103 ↩ ↩
62. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), § 4903, p. 700, headed “Distribution of personal property,” subdivisions First through Third; the fourth subdivision lets the county court assign the whole estate to the family where the inventory does not exceed $500. Carried to R.S. 1943, §§ 30-103, 30-229 ↩
63. Laws 1907, ch. 49, § 6, p. 197, requiring the contract to be in writing, signed by both parties to the marriage, and acknowledged in the manner required for a conveyance of real estate, or executed in conformity with the laws of the place where made ↩
64. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), §§ 4907–4908, p. 701, headed “Election to take under statute or by will” and “Time and manner of election”: the survivor takes the devise or the statutory share “but he or she shall not be entitled to both unless it plainly appears by the last will and testament of the deceased to have been so intended,” and is “deemed to have elected to take” under the will unless the written refusal is filed within one year. From Laws 1907; carried to R.S. 1943, §§ 30-107, 30-108 ↩
65. R.S.1866, c. 23, § 2, p. 178, the court of probate in each county appointing guardians to minors resident in the county and to non-residents having an estate within it ↩
66. Wilson, Concise Compilation, quoting the guardianship chapter of the Compiled Statutes, §§ 8–9: the guardian has the management of the estate of the minor, "if a boy, until he is twenty-one years of age; if a girl, until she is eighteen years of age," giving bond with surety to the probate judge ↩ ↩
67. Nebraska Constitution of 1875, art. VI, §§ 15–16, giving county courts original jurisdiction in all matters of probate, the settlement of estates, and the appointment of guardians and settlement of their accounts, and withholding from them actions in which the title to real estate is drawn in question; by the schedule, § 15, the county courts are the successors of the probate courts. Printed in the Laws of the Fifteenth Session (1879), pp. 3–56. For the earlier arrangement, Compiled Statutes of 1881, the probate courts chapter, § 3, states the same jurisdiction in the courts of probate ↩
68. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), §§ 5373–5375, p. 762, carried from ch. 23 of the Revised Statutes of 1866 ↩
69. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), § 5376, p. 762. The rule is worth holding onto in Nebraska research: a mother did not need a court appointment to have the custody of her own children, so the absence of a guardianship record does not mean the father survived ↩
70. Wilson, Concise Compilation, quoting the guardianship chapter of the Compiled Statutes, § 11 ↩
71. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), §§ 4931–4932, pp. 701–702: every illegitimate child is an heir of the mother in all cases, and an heir of the man who has acknowledged himself the father in writing signed before a competent witness; the child may claim as representing a parent in the estate of that parent’s kindred only where the parents afterwards intermarried and had other children and the father then acknowledged or adopted him; and where such a child dies intestate without lawful issue the estate goes to the mother or her heirs. Carried from §§ 31–41 of ch. 14 of the Revised Statutes of 1866, p. 62, and forward to R.S. 1943, §§ 30-109, 30-110 ↩
72. Laws 1941, c. 81, § 6, p. 323, carried to C.S. Supp. 1941, § 43-706, and R.S. 1943, § 13-106, and renumbered as Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 43-1406, whose source note prints the chain, Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=43-1406 : accessed 28 July 2026). The 1941 act has not been read against the volume, so the terms on which a later marriage legitimated the child are not stated here — read Laws 1941, c. 81 ↩
73. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), §§ 6301–6304, pp. 1005–1006, the accused bound over in a recognizance of not less than $500 nor more than $2,000 for the benefit of the county, and the issue tried to a jury on a plea of not guilty; and, for the support bond and the age of ten, "An Act to correct a Clerical Error in Section One, of An Act to Provide for the Support of Illegitimate Children," approved 24 February 1870, Laws, Joint Resolutions and Memorials, Passed at the Sixth and Seventh Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Nebraska (Des Moines: Mills & Co., Printers and Publishers, 1871), general laws, pp. 4–5, amending the act of 15 February 1869; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=fTg4AAAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩ ↩
74. Laws 1941, c. 81, p. 323, the modern support act for children born out of wedlock, digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: United States Summary, Cumulative Supplement, 1938–1945, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 157-A (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946), 27. Section 6 of the same act is the provision carried to C.S. Supp. 1941, § 43-706, and R.S. 1943, § 13-106 (note on legitimation above). The act has not been read against the session volume — read Laws 1941, c. 81 ↩
75. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), §§ 4990–4991, p. 711, every person of full age and sound mind being competent to dispose of real and personal estate by will ↩
76. Wilson, Concise Compilation, quoting Compiled Statutes, ch. 23, § 125 ↩
77. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), § 4992, p. 711: no will passes any estate “unless it be in writing, and signed by the testator, or by some person in his presence, and by his express direction, and attested and subscribed in the presence of the testator by two or more competent witnesses”; a witness competent when he attested does not spoil the will by later incompetency. Carried from ch. 14 of the Revised Statutes of 1866, p. 82 ↩
78. Compiled Statutes of 1881, ch. 23, §§ 130–131, headed "When devise to witness void" and "When devise to witness saved"; and see the case note to the same effect printed with ch. 23, § 127 in Wilson, Concise Compilation ↩
79. Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), §§ 4993–4994, pp. 711–712 ↩
80. Compiled Statutes of 1881, ch. 23, § 168, headed "Minors," providing that when the person named executor "is under full age at the time of proving the will, administration shall be granted with the will annexed, during the minority of the executor" ↩
81. Wilson, Concise Compilation, quoting Compiled Statutes, ch. 23, § 178 ↩
82. Wilson, Concise Compilation, quoting Compiled Statutes, ch. 23, § 188 ↩
83. Nebraska Department of Revenue, "Property Tax History" (https://revenue.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/pad/research/annual-reports/2010/annrpt2010-5_Property_Tax_History.pdf : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
84. Compilation of the Revenue Laws of the State of Nebraska from the Compiled Statutes of Nebraska of 1909 (Lincoln: State Journal Company, Printers, 1909), ch. 77, art. I, § 12, numbered § 4933 in the compilation; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/compilationofrev00nebr : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
85. Revenue Laws of 1909, ch. 77, art. I, § 13 (§ 4934); and Nebraska Constitution, art. IX, §§ 1–2, printed in the same volume ↩
86. R.S.1866, revenue chapter, p. 312, authorizing the county, for roads, "a poll tax of one dollar or one day's work, and a land tax in any rate not exceeding three dollars to the quarter section, to be paid in money, or in labor at the rate of one dollar and fifty cents per day, at the option of the person so taxed," alongside not more than six mills on the dollar for ordinary county revenue including the support of the poor; road and poll taxes were dischargeable in labor, p. 316. This is the last territorial compilation, so the rule is verified as it stood in 1866; whether it ran unchanged from the organization of the territory in 1854 is not established here ↩
87. Revenue Laws of 1909, ch. 77, art. I, § 28 (§ 4949) ↩
88. Revenue Laws of 1909, ch. 77, art. I, § 26 (§ 4947), as amended 1909, H.R. 215 ↩
89. Compiled Statutes of 1881, revenue chapter, § 78, headed “Labor tax for roads”: every male inhabitant of a road district over twenty-one and under fifty, except paupers, idiots, and lunatics, assessed a labor tax of three dollars, which “may be paid in cash or commuted for in labor in the manner provided for in the act on roads.” The same words stand at Consolidated Statutes of 1891, § 3977. The General Statutes of 1873 have not been read, so whether the twenty-one-to-fifty range goes back to statehood is not settled here. ↩
90. Revenue Laws of 1909, ch. 77, art. I, § 137 (§ 5058), headed "Labor tax," as amended 1907, H.R. 89. The whole revenue chapter, this section included, comes from “An act to provide a system of public revenue,” Laws 1903, c. 73, p. 389, in force 1 September 1903, which repealed articles one to five of ch. 77 of the Compiled Statutes of 1901; the chapter note is at Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), §§ 10900–11141, and the labor tax is § 11036 ↩
91. Revenue Laws of 1909, ch. 77, art. I, §§ 139, 142 (§§ 5060, 5063) ↩
92. Hart v. State, 14 Neb. 572 (1883); Russell v. State, 62 Neb. 512 (1901) ↩
93. R.S.1866, tit. XIX, § 657, p. 509, qualifying "all free white males residing in any of the counties of this territory, having the qualifications of electors, and being over the age of twenty-one years, and of sound mind and discretion," and excluding judges and clerks of the supreme and district courts, sheriffs, coroners, and jailers; persons over sixty and ministers are exempted at p. 510. For the state period, Nebraska Constitution of 1875, art. VII, §§ 1–2, printed in the Laws of the Fifteenth Session (1879), p. 32 ↩
94. “An Act to amend Section 1673 and Section 1687 of the Civil Code of Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes for 1909, relating to selection of names for jury lists; to fix the requirements for jury service,” Laws, Joint Resolutions, Appropriations and Memorials, Passed by the Legislature of the State of Nebraska at its Thirty-Second Session (1911), c. 171 (House Roll No. 288), § 1, pp. 548–549, approved 7 April 1911; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.31951d022945677 : accessed 28 July 2026). The act rewrote § 1673, bracketed in the volume as Compiled Statutes Code § 657, to qualify “all males residing in any of the counties of this state, having the qualifications of electors, and being over the age of twenty-five years”; and rewrote § 1687 (§ 668b) to draw the jury list from men of twenty-five or upwards and under seventy who read, write and understand English and are citizens of the United States. Section 2 repealed the original sections. No racial words appear in the amended text. The amended section is printed with its history at Joseph E. Cobbey, comp., Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes of Nebraska, Edition 1911 (Beatrice, Neb.: Milburn & Scott Co., 1911), compiler’s certificate dated 1 July 1911; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=6Z1GAQAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026), § 1673 (Civil Code § 657), p. 721, whose history line reads “Laws 1866, R. S., p. 509, Tit. XIX, sec. 657. Amended 1911 — In force July 6.” The section therefore stood as enacted in 1866, racial words and all, until this act replaced it — as Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), § 1673, p. 217, confirms for 1909 ↩ ↩
95. R.S. 1943, § 25-1601, the disqualifications as they stood at the close of this period. The section descends from R.S.1866, tit. XIX, § 657, p. 509; the first amendment of record after 1866 is Laws 1911, c. 171, § 1, p. 548, followed by R.S.1913, § 8135, Laws 1917, c. 139, § 1, p. 325, C.S. 1922, § 9071, C.S. 1929, § 20-1601, Laws 1939, c. 18, § 1, p. 98, C.S. Supp. 1941, § 20-1601, and Laws 1943, c. 45, § 1, p. 191. The chain is printed in the source note to Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 25-1650 (the section carrying § 25-1601 forward), Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=25-1650 : accessed 28 July 2026). The 1911 act has now been read and carries no racial words, and the section had not been amended between 1866 and 1911 (note on that act above). For the section number in the 1929 compilation see Berg v. Griffiths, 126 Neb. 235 (1934), applying § 20-1601, C.S. 1929. The texts of the amendments of 1917, 1939, and 1943 have not been read, so the minimum age in force after 1911 is not traced here — read Laws 1917, c. 139, § 1, p. 325 ↩
96. “An act to select Grand and Petit Jurors, prevent Favoritism in their Selection, Providing for their Qualifications and to Repeal Sections 657, 657½, 658, 659, 660, 661, 662, 663, 664, 665, of the Code of Civil Procedure,” Laws 1905, S.F. 108, printed at Compiled Statutes of 1881 (twelfth ed., 1905), tit. XIX, §§ 657–665a, numbered §§ 7236 onward — the twelfth edition was compiled before the act was tested. The compilers of 1911 note the act as Laws 1905, c. 176, p. 659, and record that the attempted repeal of the jury sections was held void in State ex rel. v. Reneau, 75 Neb. 1, 106 N.W. 451: Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes (1911), §§ 1672–82 note, p. 721. The two citation forms for the 1905 act have not been matched against the session volume. Because the repeal failed, the territorial sections governed on: Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), § 1673 (Civil Code § 657), p. 217, still prints “all free white males residing in any of the counties of this state, having the qualifications of electors, and being over the age of twenty-one years” four years after the 1905 act ↩
97. Laws 1915, c. 248, § 10, p. 572, the extra jurors summoned from the bystanders to fill out a panel; carried to C.S. 1922, § 9104, C.S. 1929, § 20-1634, and R.S. 1943, § 25-1634, which requires them to have the qualifications of jurors set by § 25-1601. The chain is printed in the source note to Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 25-1665, Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=25-1665 : accessed 28 July 2026). The 1915 act has not been read against the volume — read it in the 1915 session laws, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=aEE4AAAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
98. "An act to regulate the treatment and control of dependent, neglected, and delinquent children," Laws 1905, S.F. 6, in force 8 March 1905, known as Mockett's Juvenile Court Law; printed as J. E. Cobbey, Cobbey's Annotated Statutes of Nebraska, Supplement of 1905 (Beatrice, Neb.: J. E. Cobbey, 1905), §§ 5449–5467, p. 121. Section 5449 confines the act to children under sixteen and defines the dependent, neglected, and delinquent child; § 5450 gives the district court and its judges in vacation original jurisdiction, with the county court concurrent but exercising it only in the district judge's absence. Upheld in State ex rel. Miller v. Bryant, 94 Neb. 754 (1913); digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=godCAQAAMAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
99. Laurie v. State, 108 Neb. 239 (1922) ↩
100. State v. McCoy, 145 Neb. 750 (1945); Fugate v. Ronin, 167 Neb. 70 (1958); and see DeBacker v. Brainard, 183 Neb. 461 (1968), which recounts the history of the act, (https://law.justia.com/cases/nebraska/supreme-court/1968/36989-1.html : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
101. Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes (1911), § 1316 (Civil Code § 331) and § 1317 (§ 332), pp. 515–516. Section 1317 carries the history “Laws 1866, R. S., p. 450, Tit. X, ch. 1, sec. 332” and nothing more. Section 1316 carries the same 1866 origin with a proviso added by Laws 1905, c. 172, p. 655, in force 1 July 1905, making the wife a competent witness against her husband in prosecutions under the section creating the offense of abandonment. That offense is Laws 1903, c. 137, p. 642, in force 1 April 1903, printed at Cobbey’s Compiled Statutes (1909), §§ 2381–2383, p. 356 — abandoning a wife and wilfully refusing to maintain her, or abandoning a legitimate or illegitimate child under sixteen and refusing to provide for it. The 1905 proviso cites the section by its number in Cobbey’s edition of 1903, which is not the 1909 number; the identification here rests on the subject matter, not on a traced renumbering. ↩
102. R.S. 1943, §§ 25-1201, 25-1203, 25-1204, the 1943 numbering of Civil Code §§ 328, 331, and 332 ↩
103. R.S.1866, tit. X, c. 1, § 828, p. 449: "Every human being of sufficient capacity to understand the obligation of an oath, is a competent witness in all cases, civil and criminal, except as otherwise herein declared," the exceptions being persons of unsound mind; "Indians and negroes who appear incapable of receiving just impressions of the facts respecting which they are examined, or of relating them intelligently and truly"; husband and wife as to communications during the marriage; an attorney; and a clergyman or priest. The section still stood word for word forty years later, at Compiled Statutes of 1881 (twelfth ed., 1905), tit. X, c. I, § 328, numbered § 6881, and the Supreme Court recited the clause as part of the section in Priest v. State, 10 Neb. 393, 397 (1880), and again in Pumphrey v. State, 84 Neb. 636 (1909), which is the last decision to quote it. The whole section, this clause included, is printed unchanged at Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes (1911), § 1313 (Civil Code § 328), p. 505, whose history line gives only “Laws 1866, R. S., p. 449, Tit. X, ch. 1, sec. 328” — no amendment in forty-five years. Its opening sentence was still being quoted in its 1866 words as late as Lennox v. Anderson, 140 Neb. 748 (1942). The clause therefore stood until some point between 1911 and the recodification of 1943; whether an amendment struck it or the revisers dropped it is not settled here. It is gone from R.S. 1943, §§ 25-1201, 25-1203, 25-1204, which turn on interest and the marriage relation alone. Those sections were repealed in 1975 with the adoption of the rules of evidence and carry no chain in the current code. Read the competency sections in Cobbey’s Annotated Statutes, Edition 1911, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=6Z1GAQAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026), and in the Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, 1922 (https://books.google.com/books?id=D6FGAQAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
104. Brittle v. People, 2 Neb. 198 (1873); Bell v. State, 159 Neb. 474 (1954). The territorial wording was swept away with the rest of the old jury sections by the act of 1905, below ↩
105. Laws 1943, c. 45, pp. 195–196, admitting women to jury duty on compulsory service, with excuse for good cause; digested in U.S. Women’s Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: United States Summary, Cumulative Supplement, 1938–1945, Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 157-A (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1946), 30. The chapter is the same one that amended the juror-qualification section at p. 191 (note on juror disqualifications above), and it is printed in the source note to Nebraska Revised Statutes, § 25-1650, Nebraska Legislature (https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=25-1650 : accessed 28 July 2026). The cumulative supplement records no Nebraska change to jury service for 1938–1942, so the act of 1939, c. 18, did not open the panel to women ↩
106. R.S. 1943, §§ 25-1601, 25-1601.01, 25-1601.02, as digested in the Women’s Bureau report for Nebraska (1964). The two decimal sections are insertions later than the 1929 compilation, and the courthouse-accommodation condition they carry is not in the 1946 digest of the 1943 act, so the date that condition entered the law is not settled here — read §§ 25-1601.01 and 25-1601.02 with their source notes in a printing of the 1943 code ↩
107. History Nebraska, "Women Serve on a Frontier County, Nebraska, Jury for the First Time in 1966" (https://history.nebraska.gov/women-serve-on-a-frontier-county-nebraska-jury-for-the-first-time-in-1966/ : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩