Nevada Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

Two systems of law in one state

Most of Nevada's law came from England. How a deed works, how a will is proved, how a crime is tried — all of it rests on English common law, the body of rules English judges built up over centuries rather than a legislature writing them down. The first Territorial Legislature adopted the common law in its opening act of October 1861, and later compilations restated it: the common law of England, so far as it is not repugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States or of this state, is the rule of decision in all the courts¹. Nevada's courts read that as English law as it stood before American independence².

One large piece of Nevada law came from somewhere else. Under community property — a Spanish and Mexican idea Nevada borrowed from California — most of what a husband and wife acquire during a marriage belongs to both of them equally. The first state Legislature put it in place in 1865, in an act that also gave a married woman property of her own, and a fuller act of 1873 replaced it³⁴.

That second system changes what a researcher finds. A married woman in Nevada owned property in her own name and leaves her own records. From 1865 a widow took no dower — the life interest a widow held in her husband's land at common law — and a widower took no curtesy, the husband's matching right in his late wife's land⁵. Her claim was her half of the community property, and because that half was already hers a buyer needed nothing from her, so Nevada deeds carry no dower releases. Wills, estates, guardianships, and children's cases were heard by one court in each county — the territorial probate court first, and the district court once the Constitution of 1864 gave it charge of the estates of the dead and the persons and estates of minors. The first district judges took office on the first Monday of December 1864, and the probate judges gave way to them then⁶. So one clerk's office holds all of these files.

Nevada law begins in 1861

The law described here starts with the territorial acts of 1861. The Carson Valley settlements were older, and until Congress created Nevada Territory on 2 March 1861 they lay inside Utah Territory, in Carson County. A record made there before that date rests on Utah law, which this guide does not cover⁷.

The dates that changed the records

Each of these marks a change visible in the records:

• 1865 — community property arrives, dower and curtesy end, and a wife may record an inventory of her own property.
• 1867 — marriage licenses begin, and the county clerk takes the parental consent.
• 1873 — a married woman may sell her own property without asking her husband.
• 1880 — Black men become voters, and so become eligible jurors.
• 1881 — race no longer bars a witness.
• 1899 — a new guardianship act ends a girl's guardianship at 18.
• 1909 — the juvenile court takes cases of children under 18.
• 1937 — the rules for community property at a death are rewritten.
• 1943 — a marriage needs a ceremony.

For any given year, the rule in force is the statute where one had been passed by then, and the common law otherwise.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Age of majority by sex

Full legal age in Nevada was 21 for a man and 18 for a woman. An act of November 1861 set both, in one sentence: all males of the age of twenty-one years and all females of the age of eighteen years, under no legal disability, were capable of entering into any contract and were held to be of lawful age. Neither figure moved before 1950⁸.

That split shows up in guardianship files. From 1899 a girl's guardianship closed three years earlier than her brother's, so a guardian's final account for a girl points back to a birth about eighteen years before, and for a boy about twenty-one.

How marriage made a minor an adult before 1867

For the territorial years Nevada had a second route to full age. The marriage act of 1861 provided that any minor who had reached the marrying age set by that act was deemed in law to have attained majority upon entering into the bonds of matrimony⁹. A boy of 18 or a girl of 16 who married was an adult from the wedding day, able to contract, sell land, and act without a guardian. The Legislature rewrote that section in 1867 and left the proviso out, so from 1 June 1867 a married minor stayed a minor until 21 or 18¹⁰.

Guardianship is a separate question, and marriage ended it throughout the period. The territorial act provided that the marriage of a person under guardianship as a minor terminated the guardianship, and the act of 1899 let a guardianship close whenever the minor was sooner discharged according to law¹¹. A guardianship file that closes early, with no final account at 21 or 18, usually means the minor married, and a marriage record should exist within a few months of that closing date.

What a minor could and could not do

A child could own property at any age. Selling it was the difficulty. Full capacity to contract began at majority, and under the common law received into Nevada a deed signed by a minor was voidable — it stood until the young person canceled it, which he or she could do on reaching full age¹². So a minor's land was sold for them by a guardian, on the petition of the guardian and an order of the court, after notice to the next of kin¹³. A deed disposing of a child's land therefore has a court file behind it, and that file names the family.

Marriage

Who was old enough to marry

A man could marry at 18 and a woman at 16, under the marriage act of 1861, and neither age changed before 1950¹⁴.

The act protected the children of a young couple in terms: nothing in it was to be construed to make the issue of any marriage illegitimate if a party was not of lawful age¹⁵, and a marriage by parties who had reached 18 and 16 was good even if nobody ever asked a parent¹⁶. An ancestor's teenage marriage is a real marriage, and the children of it are legitimate heirs.

Parental consent

A man under 21 and a woman under 18 needed permission to marry. Who took that permission changed in 1867, when Nevada began issuing marriage licenses.

Under the act of 1861 the consent of the parent or guardian having custody of the minor was given, in person or in writing, to the person performing the ceremony, before the marriage took place. It was needed only where the minor had a parent or guardian living in the territory, and only where the minor had not been married before. Where consent was necessary, the marriage certificate had to state that it had been duly given¹⁷.

From 1 June 1867 the county clerk issued a license first, and the consent went to him. He took it from the parent or guardian in person, or on a written certificate signed by the parent and attested by two witnesses, one of whom appeared before the clerk and swore to the signature; the clerk then issued and signed the license. The exemption for a minor who had married before stayed. The one for a minor whose parents lived outside the state did not¹⁸.

The two age lines are different, and that is the useful part. A nineteen-year-old man was old enough to marry but still needed permission; a man of twenty-two needed nothing. Before 1867 a young person whose parents were back east needed nothing either. From 1867 the written consents and the sworn certificates were filed with the clerk who issued the license, and they name the parent or guardian who gave them.

Marriages the law forbade

A person with a husband or wife still living could not marry again, and neither could two people nearer of kin than second cousins, counted by the rules of the civil law, whether of the half or the whole blood¹⁹.

A promise was enough until 1943

Marriage in Nevada was a civil contract, and the consent of parties capable in law of contracting was all the law required. Until 1943 a Nevada couple were married if they agreed to be married and lived as husband and wife. The statute did direct that a license be obtained and that an authorized person perform the ceremony, but in 1896 the Supreme Court held those directions merely advisory: they regulated how a marriage was entered into without taking away the common-law right to marry by words of present agreement. A couple married in 1893 by written contract alone, with no officiant at all, were held lawfully married²⁰. An act effective 29 March 1943 required a ceremony from that day forward, and it protected every marriage already made by agreement alone²¹.

Where a couple began living together before March 1943 and no license appears in the county books, that does not mean they were unmarried, and it does not make their children illegitimate. What proved such a marriage was reputation, living together, and what the couple said about themselves.

Where there was a ceremony, the law asked little of it and much of the paperwork. No particular form was required, except that the parties declare in the presence of the officiant and the attending witnesses that they took each other as husband and wife, and at least two witnesses had to be present besides the person performing the ceremony²². The officiant then made a record and delivered a certificate to the county recorder — within three months under the act of 1861, and within thirty days from 1899²³. The certificate named both parties, their residences, at least two witnesses, and the time and place. Those recorded certificates, and from 1867 the county clerk's licenses and returns, are the Nevada marriage record.

Race and marriage

An act of 1861 made it a crime for a white person to marry or live with a Black person, a person of mixed Black and white ancestry, an Indian, or a Chinese person. It punished the couple, it punished the minister or judge who performed the ceremony, and it sent the fines to the school fund²⁴. By 1912 the ban had been rewritten into the crimes act in four sections²⁵. An amendment of 1919 allowed marriages between white people and Native Americans²⁶. The Legislature repealed the whole ban in 1959²⁷.

For records this usually means an absence. Because the officiant was punished as well as the couple, a county officer would not lawfully issue a license to a mixed-race couple before 1959²⁸, so most such couples have no Nevada marriage record at all. Before 1943 the couple's own agreement still made a marriage the law would recognize for other purposes, so look for the household in census, estate, and land records instead.

One rule cuts the other way and is worth knowing. The probate law provided that the children of every marriage the law treated as void, and of every marriage ended by divorce, were legitimate²⁹. Children of a marriage the state treated as void were still their parents' lawful heirs, and they appear as heirs in estate files.

Property Ownership

Which men could own land

Every adult man in Nevada could buy, hold, and sell land, whatever his race. He did it by deed — signed, acknowledged before an official who certified the signature, and recorded with the county recorder³⁰. The recorder's deed books are where any Nevada land search starts. A foreign-born man could own land on the same terms as a citizen, with one exception written into the statute and described below.

Women and land ownership

A single woman or a widow could buy, own, sell, and mortgage land exactly as a man could. The conveyancing act of 1861 asked only that the person signing the deed be of lawful age, and it said nothing about sex; a separate section took it for granted that an unmarried woman conveyed by her own deed³¹.

A married woman owned property too, from 1865, and here Nevada parts company with most states: her separate property was hers — whatever she owned before the marriage, and whatever came to her afterwards by gift, will, or inheritance. What changed in 1873 was her power to deal with it on her own.

So a deed of a married woman's own land between 1865 and 1873 carries two signatures; after 1873 hers alone is enough. She could always leave her separate estate by will without her husband's consent³⁴.

The wife's recorded inventory

Recording mattered because the law leaned the other way: everything a couple acquired during the marriage was presumed to belong to both, and whoever claimed a piece of it as separate had to prove it. The Constitution of 1864, as first adopted, directed that laws be passed providing for the registration of the wife's separate property, and the act of 1865 provided them — she made out and signed a full inventory of that property, had it acknowledged, and recorded it with the recorder of her county, with a further inventory for anything acquired later³⁵.

What the filing did for her changed with the two acts, and the difference decides what a missing inventory means:

• Under the act of 1865, filing was notice of her title, and the property listed was exempt from seizure for her husband's debts. Failing to list it waived that exemption, so his creditors could take it.
• Under the act of 1873, filing was still notice of her title, and failing to file became evidence, as between the wife and a good-faith purchaser from her husband, that the property was not hers at all³⁶.

The burden fell on whoever said a thing was separate rather than shared³⁷. Those registers are useful and little used. The county recorder kept them, and they list what a married woman owned before her marriage and what came to her afterwards by gift, will, or inheritance. They name the woman, date her ownership, and describe what she held.

When a wife signed her husband's deed

In most states this question is about dower. In Nevada there was no dower, and the question is about who managed the community property. The answer is short: the husband managed it and could sell it on his own signature, with the same power over it as over his own separate estate³⁸. An ordinary Nevada deed by a married man carries one signature.

The exception was the family home. A deed or mortgage of the homestead was good only if the wife signed and acknowledged it too — and after an amendment of 1897 that held whether or not the family had ever recorded a homestead claim³⁹. A family could record such a claim with the county recorder to shield the property from most creditors; the claim names both husband and wife and fixes them on one piece of ground on a stated date⁴⁰.

So a wife's name on a Nevada deed means one of three things: the land was hers, the land was the family home, or the deed dates from before 1873, when her own land took both signatures.

Two smaller records belong to married women as well. A wife who feared her husband was wasting her separate property could ask the district court to put a trustee in charge of it⁴¹, and a married woman could run a business in her own name as a sole trader under a court order that was then recorded⁴². Both files name a woman and say something about the state of her marriage.

Which children could own land

A child could own land at any age, by gift, inheritance, or will. Selling it was the problem: the conveyancing act let a deed be signed only by a person of lawful age, so a minor could not pass title by his own hand. The guardian did it instead, and only on an order of the court⁴³. So a deed disposing of a child's land has a guardianship file behind it, and the order authorizing the sale should name the child, the land, and the reason for selling.

Witnessing a deed

A witness of any age could serve, if the witness could observe what happened and describe it afterwards. A deed was made ready for recording either by the seller acknowledging it before an official, or by a subscribing witness — one who had signed the deed — swearing to what he saw⁴⁴. No age was set; capability was the test. In practice witnesses were adults, because a witness might be asked to prove the deed in court many years later.

Chinese residents and Native families

The Constitution of 1864 promised that foreigners who became settled residents of Nevada would hold, enjoy, and inherit property on the same footing as native-born citizens; the voters repealed that section in 1924⁴⁵. An act of 1879 extended the same right to aliens living outside the state as well, with one exception written into the statute: subjects of the Chinese empire⁴⁶. The exception stayed in the code until 1947⁴⁷. It reached only people living outside Nevada: the Supreme Court held that a subject of the Chinese empire who was a settled resident of the state could locate and buy state public land⁴⁸. Chinese families do appear in Nevada deed books, and many more appear as tenants and occupants.

Native families are missing from the deed books for a different reason. Land held in trust by the federal government — reservations, allotments, and the Nevada Indian colonies — was held under federal law, and an allotment could not be sold or encumbered while the trust lasted⁴⁹. None of it passed through the county recorder, so a family could hold land and leave no county deed at all.

Inheritance

Two halves of an estate

A Nevada estate comes in two halves, settled under different rules. The community property is what the couple built up during the marriage. The separate property is what the person owned before marrying, or received afterwards by gift, will, or inheritance. Sorting one from the other is the first step in reading any Nevada estate file.

Community property at a death

From 1865 to 1937 the rule turned on which spouse died, and the difference decides whether there is a file to find at all.

When a married woman died before 1937, her husband kept the property and no court was involved. Ordinarily there is no probate file for her, and a researcher can take a missing file for a missing death. The act of 1873 added one exception, and it is a useful one: where the husband had abandoned his wife and lived apart from her without cause, her half was hers to leave by will, and in default of a will it went to her descendants⁵¹. A probate file for a married woman before 1937 is therefore a signal that the marriage had broken down.

When a married man died, the widow took half and the children took the rest, so a Nevada estate file of this period often shows a widow holding half alongside the children. An act of 1937 replaced the whole arrangement with a single rule: each spouse owns half, and the dead spouse's half passes by will or to the survivor⁵².

Shares of separate property

These shares applied to separate property alone⁵³. They were set by the territorial probate act of 1861 and carried forward, in the same words, through the probate act of 1897 and into the twentieth century⁵⁴.

So a widow with one child took half, and a widow with four children took a third. Where a child had died leaving children, those grandchildren divided their parent's share between them. A gift a parent had already made to a child during life counted against that child's share — an advancement⁵⁵. Where no husband, wife, or kindred could be found, the estate went to the state for the support of the common schools⁵⁶.

The family allowance and the homestead set apart

Before the heirs took anything, the court provided for the household. The community property was liable for the husband's debts, the family allowance, and the costs of administration⁵⁷; and the probate law directed the court to set apart the homestead for the widow and minor children and to order a reasonable allowance for their support while the estate was being settled⁵⁸. The order setting property apart and the order making an allowance are separate documents in the estate file, and both of them name the widow and the children by name.

Children born outside marriage

A child born outside marriage was always the mother's heir, and inherited from her as if born within marriage⁵⁹.

Inheriting from the father took a document. The father had to acknowledge the child in writing, signed, with one credible witness signing the declaration as well⁶⁰. That written acknowledgment is the hinge of the whole question, and it is worth hunting for in the deed books and the estate file. Where such a child died without lawful issue and had never been acknowledged, the estate went to the mother, or on her death to her heirs⁶¹. Where paternity was disputed rather than admitted, it was settled in a district court proceeding brought for the support of the child, and that file names the man⁶².

Guardians for minors and the age of fourteen

A child inherited straight away, but somebody had to look after the property. The court appointed a guardian of the person, the estate, or both, for any minor who had none appointed by will, and took a bond from the guardian. The guardian filed an inventory — within three months under the territorial act, and within twenty days of qualifying under the act of 1899 — and accounted at the end of the first year and as often afterwards as the court directed⁶³. A father could name a guardian by his will, and on his death the mother could do the same⁶⁴.

At fourteen the choice became the child's. A minor of 14 or over could nominate his or her own guardian, and the judge appointed that person if he approved of the choice. The judge chose instead for a younger child, where he did not approve the nomination, or where the minor lived outside the state. A child for whom a guardian had been appointed before 14 could name a new one on reaching that age⁶⁵. A guardianship file in which the child does the choosing tells you the child had turned 14, which brackets a birth year.

The father was entitled to be guardian while he lived, and the mother after his death⁶⁶. When the guardianship ended, the guardian filed a final account and handed the property over, and that account dates the minor's coming of age within a few months. The closing age changed once:

• Under the territorial act of 1861, guardianship ran until the minor reached 21, of either sex, or married.
• Under the act of 1899, it ran until 21 for a young man and 18 for a young woman⁶⁷.

Making a will and choosing an executor

Every person over the age of 18, of sound mind, could leave property by will — land and goods alike, one age for both, from the wills act of December 1862 to 1950⁶⁸.

A will had to be in writing, signed by the person making it or by someone else in that person's presence and at their direction, and attested by at least two competent witnesses who signed their names in the presence of the person making the will⁶⁹. A witness could be any age if capable; what mattered was whether the witness stood to gain. A gift in the will to one of the witnesses failed unless two other competent witnesses had also signed⁷⁰ — so a legacy to a witness tells you the gift never took effect.

Two other kinds of will turn up in the Nevada record. A spoken will was good for an estate worth up to $1,000, if two people who were present when it was made proved it⁷¹ — so a small estate may be settled on the strength of deathbed words, taken down by the court from witnesses. And from 1895 a holographic will — one written entirely in the maker's own hand, dated and signed — was good with no witnesses at all⁷². A written Nevada will made before 1895 needs the two witnesses.

A person had to have reached the age of majority to serve, which meant 21 for an executor and 18 for an executrix. That rule sat in the territorial probate act of 1861 and was still there in the 1930s. Conviction of an infamous crime disqualified as well, as did a finding of drunkenness, improvidence, or want of understanding⁷³.

Where the person named in the will was too young, the court appointed someone else in the meantime, granting what the records call letters of administration with the will annexed — authority to carry out a will given to a person the will did not name. The young person was not shut out for good: on reaching full age he or she could be admitted as joint executor or executrix, unless another executor named in the will had already qualified⁷⁴. So the person who first settled an estate may not be the person the will chose, and a second set of letters years later can date a birth.

Women served as executrixes throughout the period, and a married woman could be appointed and serve in all respects as if she were single. One rule cut the other way and is worth knowing: if an unmarried woman was appointed executrix and then married, her marriage extinguished her authority⁷⁵. An estate file in which an executrix is suddenly replaced is therefore a marriage record in disguise, and a wedding should appear in the county books close to the date of the order.

Taxation

What was taxed

Four taxes reached individuals. The poll tax was a flat charge on a man himself rather than on anything he owned — a capitation, meaning a tax by the head. The road poll tax was a second charge of the same kind, spent on the highways. The general property tax fell on land and goods, at a uniform and equal rate on all property, and the county assessor's rolls name owners and describe what they held⁷⁶. Various license taxes fell on particular trades and amusements — billiard tables, bowling alleys, theaters, circuses, insurance agents, pawnbrokers, and the like — and were collected quarterly⁷⁷.

For genealogy the poll taxes are the prize, because they list men who owned nothing at all, county by county and year by year, which makes them the closest thing Nevada has to a census between the federal ones. The assessor entered them on the same roll as the property tax, marking a figure 1 in a separate column against the name of each man liable for the poll tax and each man liable for the road poll tax⁷⁸. So one document carries both the propertied and the propertyless.

Who counted as a poll

The ages changed once, at statehood, and the change is large enough to matter when a man disappears from a list.

A man appeared on the territorial poll list once he was over 21 and dropped off it at 50; from 1864 he stayed on it to 60. An amendment ratified in 1910 kept the ages and the amounts and sent the money to the public roads⁸¹. Where a man vanishes from a poll list but is plainly still alive elsewhere in the record, he has usually just aged out.

The poll tax outlasted 1950. It was still being levied in 1950, and the constitutional provision behind it was not repealed until the voters struck it out at the general election of 1966⁸².

The Constitution also let the Legislature make payment of the poll tax a condition of voting, though it left the choice to the Legislature's discretion⁸³. Where a county or a given year's law did require it, a poll-tax receipt doubles as a voting document.

The road poll tax

Separately, every able-bodied man in a road district owed a road tax of four dollars, collected by the road supervisor and spent on the highways of the district. No age was set. Two days' work on the roads discharged the whole four dollars⁸⁴. The road supervisor's receipts and settlements are a second, county-level list of the men living in a district, and they catch men who paid in labor instead of cash.

Courts

Jury service

Nevada tied the jury box to the ballot box. Every qualified elector of the county could serve, provided he had sufficient knowledge of English, had not been convicted of treason, felony, or other infamous crime, and was not made incapable by physical or mental infirmity⁸⁵. No property qualification applied — the regular panel and the talesmen, the bystanders a court could summon on the spot to fill out a short jury, were drawn on the same terms. From 1889 a man over 65 could claim exemption from jury duty⁸⁶.

So to work out who could sit on a jury in a given year, ask who could vote. The Constitution gave the vote to white male citizens of 21 and over⁸⁷. Two amendments widened that. The word "white" was struck out by an amendment ratified in 1880, which made Black men eligible to serve⁸⁸. And women became voters in 1914, which made them eligible too, with no separate jury act ever being passed⁸⁹.

The same test kept Chinese men out of the jury box after 1880. In 1881 the Supreme Court rejected a Chinese defendant's challenge to the panel that convicted him, holding that he was excluded because he was an alien who could not be naturalized rather than because of his race, and that the Fourteenth Amendment left a state free to confine jury service to its own electors⁹⁰. So a Chinese resident of Nevada could pay the poll tax and buy and sell land, and still never appear on a jury list.

Criminal responsibility

Nevada settled this by statute in its first year, and the line was fourteen. A person of 14 was treated as of sound mind and answerable for a crime like an adult, and so was a younger child who knew the distinction between good and evil. Below 14 the law presumed the child did not know it, and a prosecution had to show the contrary clearly⁹¹. A companion section punished as a principal anyone who counseled or encouraged a child under ten, or a person of unsound mind, to commit an offense⁹².

From 1909 the question of where the case went changed. The Juvenile Court Law gave the district court, sitting as a juvenile court, charge of any child under 18 who broke a law⁹³. Such a child was placed under the court's care instead of being prosecuted. The act also shut the file: evidence given in a juvenile case could not be used against the child anywhere else, and the child's name could not be published without the court's written order⁹⁴. After 1909 a person under 18 leaves a juvenile file with the district court, and those files are closed.

Witnesses

A witness of any age could testify, if the witness could take in what happened and describe it truthfully. That was the statutory test: all persons who, having organs of sense, could perceive, and perceiving could make known their perceptions to others, might be witnesses⁹⁵. A child under ten was examined by the judge first and testified if the judge was satisfied the child could receive just impressions of the facts and relate them truly — a rule that ran from 1861 to 1950⁹⁶.

One other exclusion catches researchers by surprise. Where the opposing party was the representative of a dead person, no party could testify to anything that happened before that death. The rule entered with the civil practice act of 1869 and ran through 1950⁹⁷. In a contested Nevada estate, the person with the most to say about the family was often the one person the court would not hear.

Who could testify

Two bodies of law kept people of color off the stand, one for criminal cases and one for civil, and they ended at different times. Take them in order, because a researcher looking for lost testimony needs to know which court and which year.

In criminal cases the crimes and punishments act of 1861 barred Black witnesses, Native witnesses, and Chinese witnesses from giving evidence for or against any white person. The act drew the lines by ancestry: one eighth or more Black ancestry brought a person within the ban, and so did one half or more Native ancestry⁹⁸. The first state Legislature narrowed it in March 1865. From that date only Native and Chinese witnesses were barred, and the amendment provided in terms that Black witnesses were no longer to be excluded, their credibility being left entirely with the jury⁹⁹.

In civil cases the practice act of 1861 barred Native witnesses and Black witnesses, again at one half or more ancestry, in any action to which a white person was a party. Convicted felons were barred alongside them¹⁰⁰. That bar ended in 1869, when a new civil practice act repealed the old one and made all persons competent except as the act itself specified — and its list of exceptions names no race at all¹⁰¹.

The criminal bar on Native and Chinese testimony outlasted the civil one by twelve years, and the Legislature ended it in 1881. It had lived in section 13 of the crimes act, and the compilation of 1873 still printed it there. The amendment of 1881 struck that language out, leaving the section to deal with husbands and wives instead, and a companion amendment made the rules of competency used in civil cases apply to criminal cases as well¹⁰². The test the two courts then shared was the one the civil practice act had adopted at the same session: any person who could perceive and make known what they perceived was competent, and a felony conviction went to credibility instead of competency¹⁰³.

So: before 1865 a Black witness could not be heard against a white party in either court; from 1865 he could be heard in a criminal case but not a civil one; from 1869 the civil courts were open to all; and Native and Chinese witnesses stayed barred in criminal cases with a white party until 1881. On the wrong side of those lines, the testimony that would answer a family question was never taken down at all.

Women testified throughout the period. The rule that reached them particularly was the marital one. Under the territorial statute, and again under the act of 1869, neither husband nor wife could be a witness for or against the other at all, except in a proceeding by one against the other. The amendments of 1881 turned it into a matter of consent in both courts: either could testify with the other's permission, and in a criminal case either could also be heard where one had done criminal violence to the other. Communications between them during the marriage stayed privileged either way¹⁰⁴.

Sources and Where to Verify

Constitutions

• Nevada. Constitution of the State of Nevada (1864), with amendments. Art. 1, § 16 (resident foreigners hold property as native-born citizens; repealed by vote of the people in 1924); art. 2, § 1 (voters; the word "white" struck 1880; women admitted 1914); art. 2, § 7 (poll tax); art. 4, § 31 (the wife's separate property, and its registration); art. 10, § 1 (uniform and equal rate of property taxation); art. 18 (suffrage not withheld by color). The published text prints the repeal and amendment history under each section. Nevada Legislature. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/const/nvconst.html (accessed 5 August 2026).
• United States. An Act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations (the General Allotment Act, or Dawes Act), approved 8 February 1887, ch. 119, § 5, 24 Stat. 388, 389. The trust patent under which allotted land was held by the United States, and the reason allotments do not appear in county deed books. National Archives. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/dawes-act (accessed 5 August 2026); text as amended at GovInfo, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-5297/pdf/COMPS-5297.pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).
• United States. An Act to organize the Territory of Nevada, approved 2 March 1861. Nevada Legislature. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Division/Research/Library/Documents/HistDocs/1861Act.pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).

Territorial and State Codes and Compilations

• Baily, David E., and John D. Hammond, eds. The General Statutes of the State of Nevada, in Force from 1861 to 1885, with Citations of the Decisions of the Supreme Court Relating Thereto. Carson City: J. C. Harlow, Superintendent of State Printing, 1885. Carries the civil witness sections as amended in 1881 (§§ 3398–3403), the crimes act witness sections as amended in 1881 (§§ 4376–4377), the reception of the common law (§§ 3021–3022), marriage as amended in 1867 (§ 472), jurors as amended in 1881 (§ 3788), alien land ownership (§ 2635), conveyances (§§ 2569, 2579), executors (§ 2709), wills (§ 3000), criminal capacity (§§ 4367–4369), and majority (§ 4943). The volume in which the racial bar on testimony has left the law, with the derivation of the amendment that removed it printed under the section. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/generalstatutes00hammgoog (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Bonnifield, M. S., and T. W. Healy, comps. The Compiled Laws, Embracing Statutes of 1861 to 1873, Inclusive. 2 vols. Carson City: Charles A. V. Putnam, State Printer, 1873. The compilation that closes the first period, useful for reading the 1865 and 1873 acts side by side, and the last compilation to print the bar on Indian and Chinese testimony as law (§ 2319, headed "Indian or Chinese not competent; half-blood; negro competent"). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/esrp680530316 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Cutting, Henry C., comp. The Compiled Laws of Nevada in Force from 1861 to 1900 (Inclusive), with Annotations from Volumes I to XXV of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Nevada. Carson City: Andrew Maute, Superintendent of State Printing, 1900. The essential volume for the nineteenth century: poll tax (§ 52), separate and community property (§§ 510–520), homestead (§§ 551–554), guardians as re-enacted in 1899 (§§ 559–565), alien land (§ 2725), family allowance and homestead set apart (§§ 2885–2889), executors (§§ 2813–2814), descent and distribution (§§ 3045–3054), wills (§§ 3071–3075), common law (§ 3095), marriage and licenses (§§ 482–488), witnesses in criminal cases (§§ 4667–4668), jurors (§ 3867), capacity to commit crime (§§ 4658–4659), interracial marriage (§§ 4851–4854), and majority (§ 5000). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/compiledlawsnev00courgoog (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Nevada. Nevada Compiled Laws, 1929: Containing All Statutes of a General Nature Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Nevada from 1861 to 1929, Inclusive, Together with Annotations from the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Nevada. San Francisco: Bender-Moss Co., 1930. 6 vols. The codification in force in the last decades covered here, kept up by supplements for 1931–1941 and 1943–1949 (the latter San Francisco: Bender-Moss, 1950). Not digitized among the volumes above; consult a print set. LCCN 30034267.
• How to check the years between 1912 and 1950. The Revised Laws of 1912 is the last compilation of this period available as digital images, and Nevada Compiled Laws (1929) is not online. For a rule in force after 1912, three sources can be reached from a desk: the derivation note printed after each section of the Nevada Revised Statutes, which lists the earlier acts in order; the Nevada Supreme Court Law Library's derivation guide, which explains how to read that note back through the 1929 and 1912 compilations; and the Women's Bureau summaries below, which state Nevada law as it stood on 1 January 1938 and 1 January 1948 with citations to the code then in force. The Statutes of Nevada themselves are online from 1945 forward.
• Nevada. Nevada Revised Statutes. Each section printed with the chain of earlier acts behind it, and the fastest way to trace a rule backwards. Nevada Legislature. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau. "Legislative Counsel's Preface." Nevada Revised Statutes. Explains how to read the derivation and citation chains printed after each section. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Division/Research/Library/Documents/HistDocs/Preface.pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Sweeney, James G., G. F. Talbot, and F. H. Norcross, comps. Revised Laws of Nevada, Containing State Statutes of a General Nature from 1861 Revised to 1912, and Pertinent Acts of Congress, with Annotations from Volumes 1 to 34, Nevada Reports. 2 vols. Carson City: Joe Farnsworth, Superintendent of State Printing, 1912. The most useful single volume for this period: voters (§ 250), poll tax (§ 256), majority (§ 431), Juvenile Court Law (§§ 728–756), children born outside marriage (§§ 765–766), conveyances (§§ 1017, 1027), homestead (§§ 2139–2154), husband and wife (§§ 2155–2189), sole traders (§§ 2190–2194), marriage (§§ 2338–2357), alien land (§ 3602), jurors (§§ 4929–4942), witnesses (§§ 5419–5424), common law (§ 5474), executors (§§ 5884–5885), descent and distribution (§§ 6116 ff.), wills (§§ 6202 ff.), and interracial marriage (§§ 6514–6517). Volume 1 runs to § 4827; the later sections are in volume 2. Digital images. Internet Archive. Vol. 1, https://archive.org/details/revisedlawsofnev01nevarich; vol. 2, https://archive.org/details/revisedlawsofnev02nevarich (accessed 5 August 2026).

Session Laws

• Nevada. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, Passed at the First Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly. San Francisco: Valentine & Co., 1861. Nearly every rule of the territorial period: ch. I (adopting the common law, at 1); ch. XIX (age of majority, at 40); ch. XXVIII (crimes and punishments, capacity at §§ 3–5, at 56); ch. XXXII (marriages and cohabitation of whites with Indians, Chinese, mulattoes and negroes, at 93); ch. XXXIII (marriage and divorce, at 94); ch. XLIX (roads and highways, at 141); ch. L (revenue, poll tax at § 58, at 165); ch. LV (settlement of the estates of deceased persons, executors at § 42, descent at § 314); ch. LIX (guardians, at 255); and the civil practice act (witnesses at §§ 342–343). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/esrp341449506 (accessed 5 August 2026) — a Library of Congress bundle of the 1861, 1862, 1864, 1864–65, 1866, 1867 and 1869 volumes; open the file for 1861.
• Nevada. Statutes of Nevada, by session. Carson City: Superintendent of State Printing. The other acts cited above: 1862, at 58 (wills, approved 19 December 1862); 1867, at 49 (sole traders) and at 88–89 (ch. LI, marriage act amended: the majority-by-marriage proviso dropped, marriage licenses introduced, and § 3 repealed); 1869, at 196 (civil practice act, approved 8 March 1869, witnesses at §§ 376–381); 1877, at 160 and 1879, at 49 (party witnesses against a dead person's representative); 1879, at 51 (alien land); 1881, at 23 (jurors), at 29–30 (witnesses in civil cases) and at 83–84 (witnesses in criminal cases — the civil rules of competency extended to criminal actions, and the bar on Indian and Chinese testimony struck out); 1889 (exemption from jury duty at 65); 1891, at 15 (marriage amended); 1895, ch. 111 (holographic wills); 1897, at 24 (homestead conveyance) and at 119 (probate act of 23 March 1897); 1899, at 47–48 (marriage licenses and certificates amended), at 70 (guardians) and at 113 (descent amended); 1907, at 450 and 1909, at 344 (poll tax amendment); 1909, at 229 (Juvenile Court Law); 1919, ch. 72, at 124 (marriages with Native Americans permitted); 1937, ch. 198 (community property at death); 1941, ch. 107 (probate) and at 389 (holographic wills); 1943, at 279 (solemnization required); 1947, at 270 (alien land amended); and 1959, ch. 193, at 216 (interracial marriage ban repealed). The Nevada Legislature's website carries the Statutes of Nevada from 1945 forward only; for the earlier volumes use the Internet Archive bundles listed above, or a print or microfilm set through a law library. Nevada Legislature. https://www.leg.state.nv.us/law1.html (accessed 5 August 2026); and see the Research Library's explanation of the series at https://www.leg.state.nv.us/Division/Research/Library/LegHistory/Tutorial/WhatAreStatsOfNV.html (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Nevada. Statutes of the State of Nevada, First Session of the Legislature, 1864–5. Carson City: John Church, State Printer, [1865]. The founding acts of the community property system: ch. LXXII (homestead, approved 6 March 1865), ch. LXXVII (rights of husband and wife, approved 7 March 1865, at 239), and ch. CXXXVI (amending the racial bar on testimony, approved 14 March 1865, at 403). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/esrp341449506 (accessed 5 August 2026) — open the file for 1864–65.
• Nevada. Statutes of the State of Nevada Passed at the Third Session of the Legislature. Carson City: Joseph E. Eckley, State Printer, 1867. Ch. LI, the marriage amendment of 5 March 1867, at 88–89, effective 1 June 1867. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/esrp341449506 (accessed 5 August 2026) — open the file for 1867.
• Nevada. Statutes of the State of Nevada Passed at the Sixth Session of the Legislature. Carson City: Charles A. V. Putnam, State Printer, 1873. Ch. LXV (juries, approved 5 March 1873, at 126) and ch. CXIX (rights of husband and wife, approved 10 March 1873, at 193). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/statutesstatene06nevagoog (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Utah. Laws of the Territory of Utah, 1853, 3rd session, at 19 (creating Carson County, 17 January 1854, and attaching it to Millard County for election, revenue, and judicial purposes); 1861, 10th session, at 19 (boundaries redefined). The statutes in force in the Carson Valley before Nevada Territory was organized. Outside the scope of this guide; read them for the law behind any record made in Carson County before March 1861.

Court Cases

• Burling v. Goodman. 1 Nev. 314 (1865). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6783586/burling-v-goodman/.
• Clark v. Clark. 17 Nev. 124, 28 P. 238 (1882). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6785490/clark-v-clark/.
• Fitzpatrick v. Fitzpatrick. 6 Nev. 63 (1870). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6784133/fitzpatrick-v-fitzpatrick/.
• Hamilton v. Kneeland. 1 Nev. 40 (1865). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6783502/hamilton-v-kneeland/.
• Lake v. Bender. 18 Nev. 361, 4 P. 711 (1884). https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6785619/lake-v-bender/.
• State ex rel. Fook Ling v. Preble. 18 Nev. 251, 2 P. 754 (1884). Cited as State v. Preble in the period annotations. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6785601/state-ex-rel-fook-ling-v-preble/.
• State v. Ah Chew. 16 Nev. 50 (1881). An opium prosecution in which the court upheld the exclusion of Chinese men from the jury box as an exclusion of aliens rather than of a race. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6785388/state-v-ah-chew/.
• State v. Zichfeld. 23 Nev. 304, 46 P. 802 (1896). The bigamy prosecution that settled the validity of a Nevada marriage made by present agreement without license or officiant. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6786126/state-v-zichfeld/.

Secondary and Reference Works

• Anderson, Rachel J. "Timeline of African-American Legal History in Nevada (1861–2011)." Nevada Lawyer, February 2012. Citations for the 1861 territorial acts, the 1912 codification, the 1919 amendment, the 1914 suffrage amendment, and the 1959 repeal. https://nvbar.org/wp-content/uploads/NevLawyer_2012_Timeline_Rev-1.pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Caselaw Access Project. Nevada Reports, vols. 1–108. Full case text by volume and page, used to read the opinions cited above. https://case.law (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Ellison, Marion. An Inventory and Index to the Records of Carson County, Utah and Nevada Territories, 1855–1861. Reno, Nev.: Grace Dangberg Foundation, 1984. The finding aid for the pre-1861 court, probate, and deed records, which are divided between the Utah State Archives and the Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records.
• Newberry Library. Atlas of Historical County Boundaries: Utah. Consolidated chronology, giving the acts that created, attached, revived, and dissolved Carson County. https://publications.newberry.org/ahcb/documents/UT_Consolidated_Chronology.htm (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Nevada Judiciary. Nevada Reports. Full text of the decisions cited above. https://nvcourts.gov/supreme/decisions (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Nevada Supreme Court Law Library. "Nevada Legislative History" and "Nevada Statutory Derivation." Research guides listing every Nevada compilation from Bonnifield & Healy (1873) to the Compiled Laws supplements of 1943–1949, and explaining how to read a derivation note back through them. https://nvsctlawlib.libguides.com/c.php?g=1058130&p=10950797 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records. Research guides to county, territorial, and state record series, including probate, guardianship, marriage, and land records, with the custody of each series. https://nsla.nv.gov/archives (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Rusco, Elmer R. "Good Time Coming?" Black Nevadans in the Nineteenth Century. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975. The standard account of the territorial bar on testimony and its removal.
• Shermack, Annette R. "Nevada Community Property Law." Louisiana Law Review 15, no. 3 (1955): 559–72. Part of a symposium on the community property states; traces the 1865 and 1873 acts to their California source. LSU Law Digital Commons. https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol15/iss3/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• University of Nevada, Reno. "Inventory of Women's Personal Property in Washoe County, NV." FromThePage. A county recorder's register of married women's separate property, 1865–1913, transcribed page by page, and a good illustration of what these inventories contain. The register opens in 1865, the year the recording law was passed. https://fromthepage.com/unr/wcr-inventory (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Buchanan, Sara Louise, comp. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: January 1, 1938, Final Report, Giving Summary for All States Combined. Women's Bureau Bulletin 157. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1941. State-by-state tables covering majority, married women's property, community property, wills, intestacy, guardianship, marriage, and jury service, with citations to the code then in force. 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-january-1-1938-final-report-giving-summary-states-combined-539548 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Buchanan, Sara Louise, comp. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America as of January 1, 1948: Summary for All States Combined. Women's Bureau Bulletin 157, rev. ed. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1951. The closest published statement of Nevada law to the end of the period covered here. No separate Nevada pamphlet was issued in this series before 1958, so the state's entries must be read out of these combined summaries. 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-january-1-1948-summary-states-combined-539632 (accessed 5 August 2026).
• "The Woman Juror." Women Lawyers' Journal 15, no. 2 (January 1927). A state-by-state account of how women became eligible for juries, listing Nevada among those where eligibility followed the grant of the vote in 1914. Women's Legal History, Stanford Law School. https://wlh.law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/the-woman-juror-15wlj151927.pdf (accessed 5 August 2026).

Citations

1. An Act adopting the Common Law, approved 30 October 1861, ch. I, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, Passed at the First Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly (San Francisco: Valentine & Co., 1861), at 1; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/esrp341449506 : accessed 5 August 2026), 1861 volume. Repealed and restated by David E. Baily and John D. Hammond, eds., The General Statutes of the State of Nevada, in Force from 1861 to 1885 (Carson City: J. C. Harlow, Superintendent of State Printing, 1885), §§ 3021–3022; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/generalstatutes00hammgoog : accessed 5 August 2026). Carried through Henry C. Cutting, comp., The Compiled Laws of Nevada in Force from 1861 to 1900 (Carson City: Andrew Maute, Superintendent of State Printing, 1900), § 3095; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/compiledlawsnev00courgoog : accessed 5 August 2026); and James G. Sweeney, G. F. Talbot, and F. H. Norcross, comps., Revised Laws of Nevada, 2 vols. (Carson City: Joe Farnsworth, Superintendent of State Printing, 1912), § 5474; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/revisedlawsofnev02nevarich : accessed 5 August 2026); now NRS 1.030 ↩
2. Hamilton v. Kneeland, 1 Nev. 40, 55 (1865); digital images, CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6783502/hamilton-v-kneeland/ : accessed 5 August 2026); Burling v. Goodman, 1 Nev. 314, 318 (1865); Clark v. Clark, 17 Nev. 124 (1882); all annotated at Revised Laws of 1912, § 5474 ↩
3. An Act defining the rights of Husband and Wife, approved 7 March 1865, ch. LXXVII, §§ 1–2, Statutes of the State of Nevada, First Session of the Legislature, 1864–5 (Carson City: John Church, State Printer, [1865]), at 239; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/esrp341449506 : accessed 5 August 2026), 1864–65 volume ↩
4. An Act defining the rights of Husband and Wife, approved 10 March 1873, ch. CXIX, §§ 1–2, Statutes of the State of Nevada Passed at the Sixth Session of the Legislature (Carson City: Charles A. V. Putnam, State Printer, 1873), at 193; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/statutesstatene06nevagoog : accessed 5 August 2026); carried through General Statutes of 1885, §§ 499 ff., Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 510 ff., and Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 2155 ff., now NRS ch. 123 ↩
5. Act of 1865, ch. LXXVII, § 10; Act of 1873, ch. CXIX, § 7; Revised Laws of 1912, § 2161, headed "No estate in dower or by courtesy" ↩
6. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 6, § 6 (district courts given original jurisdiction "in all cases relating to the estates of deceased persons, and the persons and estates of minors"); art. 17 (Schedule), § 13 proviso (probate judges to continue in office until the district judges were elected and qualified), § 19 (district judges first elected to qualify and enter on their duties the first Monday of December following the election), and § 23 (cases pending in the probate courts transferred to the district courts); constitutional text at Nevada Legislature (https://www.leg.state.nv.us/const/nvconst.html : accessed 5 August 2026), and as originally framed in Statutes of the State of Nevada Passed at the Sixth Session of the Legislature (Carson City: Charles A. V. Putnam, State Printer, 1873), at 3–36; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/statutesstatene06nevagoog : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
7. An act of the Utah territorial legislature of 17 January 1854 creating Carson County and attaching it to Millard County for election, revenue, and judicial purposes — Laws of the Territory of Utah, 1853, 3rd sess., at 19; the county was dissolved on the creation of Nevada Territory by the act of Congress of 2 March 1861. This guide covers Nevada law only; for the rules behind a Carson County record, read the Utah territorial session laws ↩
8. An Act fixing the Age of Majority, approved 21 November 1861, ch. XIX, § 1, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, at 40; carried unchanged through General Statutes of 1885, § 4943, Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 5000, and Revised Laws of 1912, § 431, now NRS 129.010, amended in 1971 to 18 for both sexes ↩
9. An Act relating to Marriage and Divorce, approved 28 November 1861, ch. XXXIII, § 2, second proviso, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, at 94: all minors who have attained the age provided in the act for the contracting of marriage "shall be deemed in law to have attained their majority upon entering into the bonds of matrimony" ↩
10. An Act to amend an Act entitled "An Act relating to Marriage and Divorce," approved 5 March 1867, ch. LI, § 1, Statutes of the State of Nevada, 1867, at 88, effective 1 June 1867. The amended § 2 carries two provisos only — parental consent and the saving of legitimacy — and the majority proviso does not reappear: see General Statutes of 1885, § 472, and Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 483 ↩
11. An Act to provide for the Appointment and prescribe the Duties of Guardians, approved 29 November 1861, ch. LIX, § 39, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, at 255; and An Act to provide for the appointment of guardians and to prescribe their duties, approved 11 March 1899, § 6, Statutes of Nevada, 1899, at 70, printed at Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 564, ending the guardianship at the stated age "unless sooner discharged according to law" ↩
12. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XIX, § 1 (capacity to contract on reaching full age); and the reception of the common law at note 1 ↩
13. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. LIX, §§ 21–29 (petition, notice to the next of kin, hearing, order, and bond before sale); Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 559 ff. ↩
14. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XXXIII, § 2; re-enacted in the same figures by the amendment of 1867, ch. LI, § 1; General Statutes of 1885, § 472; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 483; Revised Laws of 1912, § 2339, now NRS 122.020 ↩
15. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XXXIII, § 2, first proviso; carried as the second proviso of the section as amended in 1867 and after, Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 483; Revised Laws of 1912, § 2339, final proviso ↩
16. Fitzpatrick v. Fitzpatrick, 6 Nev. 63 (1870); digital images, CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6784133/fitzpatrick-v-fitzpatrick/ : accessed 5 August 2026); annotated at Revised Laws of 1912, § 2339 ↩
17. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XXXIII, § 5 (consent to the person solemnizing the marriage, where the minor has a parent or guardian living in the territory and has had no former husband or wife) and § 7 (the certificate to state that consent was duly given) ↩
18. Statutes of Nevada, 1867, ch. LI, § 3, at 89, amending § 5 of the act of 1861 to require a license from the county clerk and to take the consent before him; further amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1891, at 15, and 1899, at 48; General Statutes of 1885, § 473; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 485; Revised Laws of 1912, § 2340. Section 4 of the same 1867 act dropped the reference to consent from the marriage certificate ↩
19. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XXXIII, § 3, repealed as a separate section by Statutes of Nevada, 1867, at 89 and carried into § 2 as amended; the penalties for bigamy and incest at Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 6456–6458 ↩
20. State v. Zichfeld, 23 Nev. 304, 46 P. 802 (1896); digital images, CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6786126/state-v-zichfeld/ : accessed 5 August 2026); annotated at Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 484. The statute contains no clause of nullity, so its provisions on licenses and solemnization are directory only and do not destroy the common-law right to marry by words of present assent ↩
21. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XXXIII, § 1; amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1943, at 279, now NRS 122.010, headed "What constitutes marriage; no common-law marriages after March 29, 1943." Subsection 2 preserves every marriage contract in effect before 29 March 1943 to which the consent only of the parties was essential ↩
22. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XXXIII, § 6; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 486 ↩
23. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XXXIII, §§ 7–8 (particulars of the certificate; record and delivery to the recorder within three months), § 10 fining an officiant who failed to deliver it in time; as amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1867, at 89, and 1899, at 48, the period reduced to thirty days and the certificate delivered to the recorder of the county where the license issued, Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 487–488 ↩
24. An Act to prohibit Marriages and Cohabitation of Whites with Indians, Chinese, Mulattoes and Negroes, approved 28 November 1861, ch. XXXII, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, at 93 — § 1 (the parties), § 2 (the officiant), § 3 (cohabitation), § 4 (fines to the school fund); carried into Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 4851–4854 ↩
25. Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 6514–6517, being §§ 249–252 of the crimes act ↩
26. Statutes of Nevada, 1919, ch. 72, at 124 ↩
27. Statutes of Nevada, 1959, ch. 193, at 216, indexed as "Miscegenetic marriages, prohibitions repealed" and "Unlawful cohabitation provision repealed" ↩
28. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XXXII, § 2, punishing any person authorized to solemnize marriage who knowingly performed such a ceremony; carried into Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 4852, and Revised Laws of 1912, § 6515. No Nevada statute of the period directed the county clerk to refuse a license on racial grounds; the bar operated through the penalty on the officiant and on the parties ↩
29. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3046, being § 260 of the probate act of 1897; Revised Laws of 1912, § 6117 ↩
30. Revised Laws of 1912, § 1017; carried from the conveyancing act of 1861, ch. IX, § 1, through General Statutes of 1885, § 2569, and Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 2639, now NRS 111.105 ↩
31. An Act concerning Conveyances, approved 5 November 1861, ch. IX, §§ 1–2, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, at 11: a conveyance may be made by deed signed by the person from whom the interest is intended to pass, "being of lawful age"; and a husband and wife may by their joint deed convey the real estate of the wife "in like manner as she might do by her separate deed if she were unmarried." Carried to Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 2639–2640, and Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 1019–1020 ↩
32. Act of 1865, ch. LXXVII, § 6: the husband had the management and control of the wife’s separate property, and no sale, conveyance, or encumbrance of her real property was valid unless made by an instrument executed by husband and wife and acknowledged by her; her separate personal property could not be sold unless both joined ↩
33. Act of 1873, ch. CXIX, § 9; Revised Laws of 1912, § 2163, headed "Wife to control her separate property" ↩
34. An Act concerning wills, approved 19 December 1862, § 2, Statutes of Nevada, 1862, at 58, as amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1873, at 102; General Statutes of 1885, § 3001; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3072; Revised Laws of 1912, § 6203 ↩
35. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 4, § 31, directing that laws be passed providing for the registration of the wife’s separate property; Act of 1865, ch. LXXVII, §§ 3–5 ↩
36. Act of 1873, ch. CXIX, §§ 3–5; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 512–514; Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 2157–2159, now NRS 123.140–123.150 ↩
37. Lake v. Bender, 18 Nev. 361, 404, 411 (1884), 4 P. 711; digital images, CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6785619/lake-v-bender/ : accessed 5 August 2026); annotated at Revised Laws of 1912, § 2157 ↩
38. Act of 1865, ch. LXXVII, § 9; Act of 1873, ch. CXIX, § 6; Revised Laws of 1912, § 2160 ↩
39. An Act to exempt the Homestead, and other property, from forced sale in certain cases, approved 6 March 1865, ch. LXXII, § 2, Statutes of the State of Nevada, 1864–5, as amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1897, at 24; Revised Laws of 1912, § 2143, now NRS 115.040 ↩
40. Statutes of the State of Nevada, 1864–5, ch. LXXII, §§ 1, 3; Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 2139–2154 ↩
41. Act of 1865, ch. LXXVII, § 8; the trustee accounted for and paid over the income of her estate as the court directed ↩
42. An Act to authorize married women to transact business in their own names as sole traders, approved 6 February 1867, Statutes of Nevada, 1867, at 49; Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 2190–2194, the order and its recording at § 2191 ↩
43. For the disability: An Act concerning Conveyances, 1861, ch. IX, § 1, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, at 11 (the grantor must be of lawful age); Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 2639. For the guardian’s power to sell: Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. LIX, § 18 — where the income and profits of the estate are insufficient for the minor’s maintenance and support, "the guardian may sell the real estate, upon obtaining an order therefor, as provided by law"; carried to Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 576, and Revised Laws of 1912, § 6172 ↩
44. Revised Laws of 1912, § 1027; carried from the conveyancing act of 1861, ch. IX, § 10, through General Statutes of 1885, § 2579, and Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 2649, now NRS 111.115; the test of capability is the witness rule at note 85 ↩
45. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 1, § 16 (foreigners who are or become bona fide residents enjoy the same rights of possession, enjoyment, and inheritance of property as native-born citizens), repealed by vote of the people at the general election of 1924; the repeal is printed with the section text at Nevada Legislature (https://www.leg.state.nv.us/const/nvconst.html : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
46. An Act approved 27 February 1879, § 1, Statutes of Nevada, 1879, at 51; General Statutes of 1885, § 2635; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 2725; Revised Laws of 1912, § 3602, headed "Persons who may hold and own property — Chinese excepted" ↩
47. Statutes of Nevada, 1947, at 270, now NRS 111.055 ↩
48. State ex rel. Fook Ling v. Preble, 18 Nev. 251, 252–253 (1884), 2 P. 754; digital images, CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6785601/state-ex-rel-fook-ling-v-preble/ : accessed 5 August 2026); cited as State v. Preble in the annotation at Revised Laws of 1912, § 245 ↩
49. An Act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, approved 8 February 1887, ch. 119, § 5, 24 Stat. 388, 389 — the United States to hold each allotment in trust for twenty-five years, and any conveyance of the land or contract touching it made during that period declared null and void; text at National Archives (https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/dawes-act : accessed 5 August 2026). For the custody of Nevada records of the reservations and colonies see the Nevada State Library, Archives and Public Records guides listed in the sources above ↩
50. Act of 1865, ch. LXXVII, § 11; Act of 1873, ch. CXIX, §§ 10–11; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 519–520; Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 2164–2165 ↩
51. Act of 1873, ch. CXIX, § 10. The act of 1865 carries no such exception ↩
52. Statutes of Nevada, 1937, ch. 198, § 1, now NRS 123.250 and NRS 134.010 ↩
53. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3054, being § 268 of the probate act of 1897: the provisions as to the inheritance of husband and wife from each other apply only to the separate property of the intestate ↩
54. An Act to regulate the Settlement of the Estates of Deceased Persons, approved 29 November 1861, ch. LV, § 314, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, at 238; re-enacted in the same words as § 259 of the probate act of 23 March 1897, Statutes of Nevada, 1897, at 119, printed at Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3045, as amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1899, at 113, and at Revised Laws of 1912, § 6116; restated by the probate act of 1941, Statutes of Nevada, 1941, ch. 107, § 297, now NRS 134.030–134.050 ↩
55. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 3049–3050, being §§ 263–264 of the probate act of 1897 ↩
56. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3045, sixth subdivision; now NRS 134.120 ↩
57. Act of 1865, ch. LXXVII, § 11, proviso; Act of 1873, ch. CXIX, § 11 ↩
58. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 2885–2889, the homestead and family-allowance sections of the probate act of 1897; Revised Laws of 1912, § 2165, headed in part "Homestead set apart" ↩
59. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3046, being § 260 of the probate act of 1897 ↩
60. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3046: the father acknowledges himself to be the father by signing a written declaration to that effect in the presence of one credible witness, who signs the declaration also ↩
61. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3047, being § 261 of the probate act of 1897 ↩
62. Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 765–766; the mother was a competent and compellable witness, and no complaint could be withdrawn or settled by agreement between the mother and the putative father — the man alleged to be the father ↩
63. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. LIX, §§ 1 (appointment), 8 (bond), 20 (inventory within three months), 36 (account at the end of a year and as often as required); and the guardianship act of 11 March 1899, Statutes of Nevada, 1899, at 70, §§ 1–2, 7, printed at Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 559–560, 565, the bond conditioned to return and file the inventory and appraisement within twenty days after qualifying ↩
64. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. LIX, § 11; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 560, proviso (a person nominated guardian by will appointed on the probate of the will, without petition or notice) ↩
65. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. LIX, §§ 2–4; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 561–562, being §§ 3–4 of the guardianship act of 1899: the judge nominates and appoints where the minor’s choice is not approved, where the minor resides out of the state, or where the minor is not fourteen ↩
66. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. LIX, § 5; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 563, being § 5 of the guardianship act of 1899 ↩
67. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. LIX, § 7 (to twenty-one years, or marriage, for either sex); Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 564, being § 6 of the guardianship act of 1899 (to twenty-one if a male, eighteen if a female, unless sooner discharged) ↩
68. An Act concerning wills, approved 19 December 1862, § 1, Statutes of Nevada, 1862, at 58; General Statutes of 1885, § 3000, "Every person over the age of eighteen years, of sound mind, may, by his last will, dispose of all his or her estate, real and personal"; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3071; Revised Laws of 1912, § 6202, now NRS 133.020 ↩
69. Wills act of 1862, § 3; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3073; Revised Laws of 1912, § 6204. The section also required the will to be sealed, a requirement the annotators called novel and treated as satisfied without mention of a seal in the instrument ↩
70. Wills act of 1862, § 4; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3074; Revised Laws of 1912, § 6205 ↩
71. Wills act of 1862, § 5; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3075; Revised Laws of 1912, § 6206, headed "Nuncupative wills — Limited to estates of $1,000 — Witnesses — Proof" ↩
72. Statutes of Nevada, 1895, ch. 111, § 1, as amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1941, at 389; now NRS 133.090 ↩
73. An Act to regulate the Settlement of the Estates of Deceased Persons, approved 29 November 1861, ch. LV, § 42, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, under the marginal heading "When executor named is a minor": no person is competent to serve as executor who at the time the will is proved is under the age of majority, has been convicted of an infamous crime, or is adjudged incompetent by reason of drunkenness, improvidence, or want of understanding. Carried in the same words through General Statutes of 1885, § 2709, the probate act of 1897, § 28, Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 2813, and Revised Laws of 1912, § 5884; and see Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 2814 (objections in writing by any person interested in the will) ↩
74. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 2817, being § 32 of the probate act of 1897: where a person under twenty-one is named executor, or under eighteen executrix, letters of administration with the will annexed are granted during the minority, unless another executor or executrix qualifies, "until the minor shall arrive at legal age, when such may be admitted as joint executor or executrix"; carried from Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. LV, § 46, which set twenty-one alone and made no separate provision for an executrix, and forward to Revised Laws of 1912, § 5888, headed "Letters testamentary to minors, when may issue — Joint executors" ↩
75. Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 2815, being § 30 of the probate act of 1897, headed "Authority Revoked": the marriage of an unmarried woman appointed executrix extinguishes her authority, and a married woman nominated as executrix may be appointed and serve in all respects as if she were unmarried. Carried in the same words from Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. LV, § 44, and forward to Revised Laws of 1912, § 5886, headed "Marriage of unmarried woman extinguishes authority — Married woman named as executrix may act" ↩
76. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 10, § 1; An Act to provide for Assessing and Collecting County and Territorial Revenue, approved 29 November 1861, ch. L, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861 ↩
77. An Act to provide for Assessing and Collecting County and Territorial Revenue, approved 29 November 1861, ch. L, §§ 73–80, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, licensing billiard tables and bowling alleys, theaters and other exhibitions, caravans and circuses, insurance companies and their agents, pawnbrokers, and intelligence offices, the license to be procured before the business began and renewed quarterly ↩
78. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. L, the assessor’s duties, eighth and ninth subdivisions (a separate column for each person liable to a road poll tax, and another for each person liable to a poll tax) ↩
79. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. L, § 58, at 165 ↩
80. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 2, § 7; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 52, applying half the proceeds to the state and half to the county, and permitting the legislature to make payment a condition of the right of voting; Revised Laws of 1912, § 256 ↩
81. The amendment ratified at the general election of 1910, proposed 29 March 1907 (Statutes of Nevada, 1907, at 450) and agreed to 16 March 1909 (Statutes of Nevada, 1909, at 344); the section as amended levies an annual poll tax of not less than two nor more than four dollars on each male resident between twenty-one and sixty, uncivilized American Indians excepted, to be spent on the public roads; Revised Laws of 1912, § 256 ↩
82. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 2, § 7, repealed by vote of the people at the general election of 1966; the repealer was proposed by the 1963 Legislature (Statutes of Nevada, 1963, at 1421) and agreed to by the 1965 Legislature (Statutes of Nevada, 1965, at 1495). The repeal is printed with the section text at Nevada Legislature (https://www.leg.state.nv.us/const/nvconst.html : accessed 5 August 2026) ↩
83. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 2, § 7, printed at Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 52: half the proceeds to the state and half to the county, "and the legislature may, in its discretion, make such payment a condition to the right of voting"; Revised Laws of 1912, § 256 ↩
84. An Act concerning Roads and Highways, approved 29 November 1861, ch. XLIX, § 6, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, at 141: a road tax of four dollars on all able-bodied men in each district, with a proviso that two days’ work performed or caused to be performed "shall be full satisfaction for said four dollars" ↩
85. An Act concerning juries, approved 5 March 1873, ch. LXV, § 1, Statutes of the State of Nevada, 1873, at 126, as amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1881, at 23; General Statutes of 1885, § 3788; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3867; Revised Laws of 1912, § 4929, now NRS 6.010. No section of the chapter sets a property qualification for either the regular panel or the talesmen ↩
86. An Act to exempt from jury duty persons over sixty-five years of age, approved 30 January 1889; Revised Laws of 1912, § 4941, and see § 4932 ↩
87. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 2, § 1; Revised Laws of 1912, § 250 ↩
88. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 2, § 1, amended by striking the word "white" — proposed 15 January 1877 (Statutes of Nevada, 1877, at 213), agreed to 27 January 1879 (Statutes of Nevada, 1879, at 149), and ratified at the general election of 1880; art. 18, § 1, followed the same schedule; Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 250, 411 ↩
89. Nev. Const. of 1864, art. 2, § 1, as amended — Statutes of Nevada, 1911, Res. no. 20, at 457, and Statutes of Nevada, 1913, Res. no. 1, at 581, approved and ratified at the general election of 1914. On the absence of any separate jury act, see "The Woman Juror," Women Lawyers’ Journal 15, no. 2 (January 1927) ↩
90. State v. Ah Chew, 16 Nev. 50, 57–59 (1881); digital images, CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6785388/state-v-ah-chew/ : accessed 5 August 2026), quoting the jury statute at 1 Comp. L. 1051 and following Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U.S. 303 (1880), and Virginia v. Rives, 100 U.S. 313 (1880). The case is an appeal from a conviction under the opium act of 1877 and decides four points; the jury challenge is the third ↩
91. An Act concerning Crimes and Punishments, approved 26 November 1861, ch. XXVIII, §§ 3–4, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, at 56–57, under the heading "Persons capable of committing crimes"; General Statutes of 1885, §§ 4367–4368; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 4658–4659 ↩
92. Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861, ch. XXVIII, § 5; General Statutes of 1885, § 4369 ↩
93. An Act relating to children who are now or who may hereafter become dependent, neglected or delinquent, approved 24 March 1909, Statutes of Nevada, 1909, at 229, § 1; Revised Laws of 1912, §§ 728–756, the court’s jurisdiction at § 729 ↩
94. Revised Laws of 1912, § 728, headed "Terms defined," being § 1 of the Juvenile Court Law of 24 March 1909: a deposition or any evidence given in a juvenile cause is not lawful or proper evidence against the child in any other court or proceeding, except in a later case against the same child under the act, and the child's name may not be published in any newspaper without a written order of the court ↩
95. General Statutes of 1885, § 3398, being § 376 of the civil practice act as amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1881, at 29: all persons who, having organs of sense, can perceive, and perceiving can make known their perceptions to others, may be witnesses, facts that would have excluded a witness at common law going to credibility instead; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 3471–3472; Revised Laws of 1912, § 5419, being § 477 of the civil practice act ↩
96. Civil practice act of 1861, § 342, second subdivision, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861; Revised Laws of 1912, § 5423, second subdivision, being § 481 of the civil practice act ↩
97. Civil practice act of 1869, § 379, Statutes of the State of Nevada, 1869, at 196 (An Act to regulate proceedings in civil cases in the courts of justice of this State, and to repeal all other Acts in relation thereto, approved 8 March 1869); amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1877, at 160, 1879, at 49, and 1881, at 30; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3474, still a separate section; folded into the exclusion list as the third subdivision of § 481 of the civil practice act of 1911, Revised Laws of 1912, § 5423 ↩
98. An Act concerning Crimes and Punishments, approved 26 November 1861, ch. XXVIII, § 13, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861 ↩
99. An Act amendatory of an Act concerning Crimes and Punishments, approved 14 March 1865, ch. CXXXVI, § 1, Statutes of the State of Nevada, 1864–5, at 403, amending § 13 of the act of 1861 ↩
100. Civil practice act of 1861, § 342, third and fourth subdivisions, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861 ↩
101. Civil practice act of 1869, §§ 376–381, Statutes of the State of Nevada, 1869, at 196; the only persons the chapter excludes are those of unsound mind, children under ten who appear incapable, parties against the representative of a deceased person, and convicted felons, the last of these removed in 1881 ↩
102. An Act concerning Crimes and Punishments, 1861, ch. XXVIII, § 13, as amended 14 March 1865, Statutes of the State of Nevada, 1864–5, ch. CXXXVI, at 403, and printed as still in force at M. S. Bonnifield and T. W. Healy, comps., The Compiled Laws, Embracing Statutes of 1861 to 1873, Inclusive (Carson City: Charles A. V. Putnam, State Printer, 1873), § 2319, headed "Indian or Chinese not competent; half-blood; negro competent"; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/esrp680530316 : accessed 5 August 2026). Amended again by Statutes of Nevada, 1881, at 84, after which the section carries the husband-and-wife rule alone: General Statutes of 1885, § 4377, and Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 4668, both printing the derivation "as amended, Stats. 1865, 403; 1881, 84." Section 12 of the same act was amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1881, at 83, so that the rules for determining the competency of witnesses in civil actions apply also to criminal actions and proceedings — General Statutes of 1885, § 4376; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 4667 ↩
103. General Statutes of 1885, § 3398, being § 376 of the civil practice act as amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1881, at 29, and made applicable to criminal actions by the amendment of the same session at 83; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), §§ 3471–3472 and § 4667; Revised Laws of 1912, § 5419 ↩
104. Civil practice act of 1861, § 343, Laws of the Territory of Nevada, 1861; civil practice act of 1869, § 381; as amended by Statutes of Nevada, 1881, at 30, in the form printed at General Statutes of 1885, § 3403 — neither spouse examined for or against the other without consent, communications made during the marriage privileged either way, and the exception inapplicable to a proceeding by one against the other; Cutting’s Compiled Laws (1900), § 3476; Revised Laws of 1912, § 5424, being § 482 of the civil practice act. For criminal cases the same consent rule was written into the crimes act by the amendment of 1881, with a further exception where one spouse had done criminal violence to the other: General Statutes of 1885, § 4377 ↩

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