North Dakota Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

Where the law came from

North Dakota inherited English common law, and it inherited it through the United States rather than directly. No European power ever governed the region long enough to leave a working legal system behind. France claimed the Missouri drainage and sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Great Britain claimed the Red River country in the northeast, including the settlement at Pembina, until the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 fixed the boundary at the 49th parallel and put that corner under American law for the first time¹.

What followed was forty years of government on paper. The area passed through Missouri Territory, then sat unorganized after Missouri became a state in 1821, then was assigned in turn to Michigan Territory in 1834, to Wisconsin Territory, to Iowa Territory, and to Minnesota Territory from 1849. In 1854 the land west of the Missouri and White Earth rivers went to Nebraska Territory. When Minnesota became a state in 1858 and drew its western line at the Red River, the eastern part of present North Dakota was left with no territorial government at all². None of these distant capitals extended courts or record-keeping this far north, so for genealogical purposes there is no body of pre-territorial North Dakota law to search.

Real law begins on 2 March 1861, when Congress organized Dakota Territory³. The first legislative assembly met at Yankton on 17 March 1862 and passed a civil code, a criminal code, and acts on schools, elections, and taxation⁴. Those first codes did not satisfy the bench and bar, and in 1866 the territory replaced them with the codes David Dudley Field had drafted for New York, which Field's commission had completed the year before⁵. That is the practical starting date for most of the rules in this guide.

The whole set — Civil, Political, Probate, Penal, and the two procedure codes — was revised and re-enacted as the Revised Codes of the Territory of Dakota in 1877, and that revision is the volume cited throughout this guide because it is the first one printed in full and digitized. North Dakota became a state on 2 November 1889 and carried the codes forward through the Revised Codes of 1895, 1899, and 1905, the Compiled Laws of 1913, its 1925 Supplement, and the Revised Code of 1943. Where a rule stated here dates from 1866 rather than 1877, the 1877 volume prints it unchanged; where a rule changed between 1877 and 1950, the change is given in the section that governs it.

A written code

North Dakota's law is written law, and this shapes how research is done. The Civil Code says where law comes from in two short sections: the evidence of the common law (judge-made law, handed down through court decisions rather than written by a legislature) is found in the decisions of the tribunals, and in this territory the codes govern in every case where they declare the law⁶. So for almost every question a genealogist asks, the answer is a numbered section of a code. Where a section runs out, the common law fills the gap.

Four rules North Dakota took from English law were settled by statute before the first county was organized, and each is set out below in the section it governs. Coverture — the common-law rule that merged a wife's legal identity into her husband's — gave way to separate ownership for each spouse. Dower, a widow's right to the use of a share of her husband's land for the rest of her life, and curtesy, a widower's matching right in his late wife's land, were abolished outright. Primogeniture, under which the eldest son took all the land, gave way to an equal share for every child.

Separate property between husband and wife

Each spouse owned their own property. Apart from the duty of support, neither husband nor wife had any interest in the property of the other, and neither could be shut out of the other's dwelling⁷. That was the rule from the territorial period onward.

The county court

The territorial probate court became the county court at statehood. The Constitution of 1889 established a county court in every county and gave it exclusive original jurisdiction in probate and testamentary matters, the appointment of administrators and guardians, the settlement of their accounts, and the sale of land by them⁸. Wills, estates, guardianships, and marriage licenses are therefore county court records; deeds are with the register of deeds.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Twenty-one for men and eighteen for women

Minors were males under 21 and females under 18; all other persons were adults⁹. The split ran through 1950. It stood unchanged in the Compiled Laws of 1913¹⁰, and it was still the rule when the law was surveyed as of 1 January 1948¹¹.

This is a useful age fact in North Dakota research. A woman reached full legal capacity three years before her brother did: at 18 she could sell land, make a will, sue in her own name, and qualify as an executrix. Age was reckoned from the first minute of the day of birth to the same minute of the corresponding day completing the period of minority¹².

What a minor could and could not do

A minor could own property at any age. The limits fell on dealing with it:

• A minor could not give a delegation of power, and under 18 could not make a contract relating to real property, or to personal property not in their immediate possession or control¹³.
• Other contracts a minor could make and later undo — a contract made under 18 could be disaffirmed before majority or within one year after, and one made over 18 only on restoring what was received¹⁴.
• A minor could sue, but a guardian had to be appointed to conduct the action¹⁵.

Marriage

Who was old enough

The marrying ages moved twice, and the year a couple married decides which rule applied.

The dividing line in 1890 is the day the marriage act took force, 1 July, and not the day it was approved, so a marriage in the first half of that year is governed by the territorial ages. The first row reaches back past 1877 to the codes the territory adopted in 1866 and re-enacted in the revision of 1877.

The territorial code set 18 and 15¹⁶. The marriage act of 1890 lowered them to 16 and 13¹⁷, and an act of 1897 put them back to 18 and 15, where they stayed¹⁸.

Parental consent

In Dakota Territory age alone governed. A male of 18 and a female of 15 were capable of marrying on their own consent, and the person performing the ceremony had only to satisfy himself that they were old enough¹⁹. A territorial marriage record therefore carries no parental consent paper.

From 1890 the consent attached to the license. No license could issue where the male was under 21 or the female under 18 without the consent of the parent or guardian, if there was any²⁰ — figures that track the majority ages exactly. That requirement was carried through every later code²¹. By the 1940s the consent could be given in person, or by a certificate signed by the parent and attested by two witnesses, one of whom had to appear and swear he saw it signed²². That certificate goes into the license file, and it names a parent.

Marriage by consent and the end of it

In Dakota Territory a couple married by consent followed by a mutual assumption of marital rights, duties, or obligations, with no officiant needed²³. Consent could be shown in any form and proved like any other fact. A couple wanting proof made a joint written declaration of marriage giving their names, ages, residences, and the fact and date of the marriage, signed before an official and recorded in the same way as a deed²⁴.

Statehood ended it. The act of 1890 provided that the marriage relation may be entered into, maintained, annulled, or dissolved only as provided by law²⁵, in force from 1 July 1890; marriage in North Dakota has required a license and solemnization since that date²⁶.

The line is clean, and it matters. A couple who began living together as husband and wife in the Territory before 1 July 1890 were married, and their children legitimate, with no license anywhere in the record. A couple who began living together afterwards needed a license and a ceremony to be married. One caution before concluding that a later couple were unmarried: the law presumed that a man and woman deporting themselves as husband and wife had entered into a lawful contract of marriage, so a missing license is a gap in the record rather than proof there was no wedding²⁷.

Licenses and officiants and the return

In the Territory a marriage could be solemnized — performed as a ceremony before an official — by any of the following:

• A justice of the supreme court, a judge of the probate court, or a justice of the peace.
• A mayor.
• A minister or priest of any denomination.
• In the case of Indians, the peacemakers, their agents, or the superintendent of Indian affairs.

The parties declared before the officiant and at least one witness that they took each other as husband and wife, and the officiant kept a book of the marriages he performed and gave a certificate on request. A marriage that was otherwise lawful stayed lawful even where these steps were skipped²⁸.

From 1890 a marriage required a license from the county judge. Judges of courts of record, justices of the peace, and ordained ministers and priests could solemnize, and marriages celebrated in the society of Friends or Quakers according to the form used in their meetings were valid²⁹. The officiant completed the certificate on the license and returned it to the county judge within thirty days, and two witnesses signed it alongside him³⁰. The county judge recorded the certificate immediately after the license³¹.

From 1925 the county judge also sent the license and certificate to the State Registrar, who recorded them and returned them to be indexed, so a marriage of that period exists in two places at once³². The returned license and its recorded certificate are the core marriage record after 1890, held by the county judge, and they carry the ages of both parties along with the officiant and two witnesses who were often kin or neighbors.

Void and voidable marriages

Two words do the work here. A void marriage was no marriage at all from the day it was celebrated, and anyone could treat it as nothing. A voidable marriage stood as a real marriage, with legitimate children, until a court was asked to undo it — and if nobody asked, it stood for good.

The forbidden degrees of kindred — the relatives too close to marry — were drawn slightly differently in the two periods. In the Territory, marriages between parents and children, ancestors and descendants of every degree, brothers and sisters of the half as well as the whole blood, uncles and nieces, aunts and nephews, and cousins of the half as well as the whole blood were incestuous and void, whether the relationship was legitimate or illegitimate³³. The act of 1890 named grandparents and grandchildren of every degree in place of ancestors and descendants, and added a criminal penalty on the parties and on any official who knowingly issued a license or performed the ceremony³⁴. The 1890 act still barred cousins of the half as well as the whole blood without qualification; the words "of the first degree" were added when the section was carried into the state codes, and they are in place by the Revised Codes of 1899³⁵. Where a marriage of second cousins before 1899 matters to a problem, read the decisions on the section rather than relying on either reading alone.

A marriage of a stepfather with a stepdaughter, or of a stepmother with a stepson, was illegal and void. A marriage was voidable where a party was physically incapable of the marriage state, or where consent was obtained by force or fraud³⁶.

A second marriage during the life of a former husband or wife was void from the beginning, unless the earlier marriage had been annulled or dissolved, or the former spouse had been absent and unheard of for five years or was reputed and believed dead. In those cases the second marriage stood until a court declared it void³⁷. A marriage valid where it was contracted was valid in North Dakota³⁸.

By the 1940s the parties had to produce a serological test for syphilis made within the thirty days before the application was filed³⁹, so a license file from that decade holds a health certificate as well.

Indian custom marriage

Indians contracting marriage according to the Indian custom, and cohabiting as husband and wife, were lawfully married⁴⁰. The territorial code said so, and the act of 1890 re-enacted it in the same breath that abolished consensual marriage for everyone else, so this rule ran unbroken through 1950.

The consequence is easy to miss. A custom marriage on a North Dakota reservation was a valid marriage in state law, and it generally produced no license and no county record at all. Prove it from federal agency and church records rather than from the county judge's books.

The bar on marriage between white and Black people

An act of 1909 made it unlawful for a white person to marry a Black person, declared every such marriage null and void, and set a penalty on the parties of up to ten years' imprisonment or a $2,000 fine⁴¹. The act reached anyone with one-eighth or more Black ancestry⁴². A county judge who knowingly issued the license, and an officiant who knowingly performed the ceremony, each faced up to two years or $2,000⁴³, and an unmarried white and Black couple faced up to twelve months or $500 for occupying the same room, and the same for living together⁴⁴.

Marriages already made stayed good. Where such a marriage had been contracted before the act took effect and the parties had lived together as husband and wife up to that date, it was valid to all intents and purposes⁴⁵. The prohibition, the definition, and both penalty sections were repealed in 1955⁴⁶.

Property Ownership

Who could own land

Any person, whether citizen or alien, could take, hold, and dispose of property, real or personal, in North Dakota⁴⁷. That one sentence, carried from the territorial code into the twentieth century, answers most of the ownership questions a genealogist brings: ownership rested on nothing but being a person. Aliens took by inheritance as fully as citizens, and an heir inherited whether or not his relations were aliens⁴⁸.

North Dakota filled with Norwegian and German-Russian settlers, and a man could buy land, hold it, and pass it to his children while his naturalization was still pending. Treat a land purchase as evidence of residence and means, and look to the naturalization records themselves for citizenship. Jury service was the act that required completed citizenship, and voting required only a declaration of intention, so those two records bracket a naturalization in a way a deed never will.

Most first-generation title came from the United States rather than from a neighbor, under the federal homestead, pre-emption, and timber culture laws. The homestead law granted land for residence and cultivation, pre-emption let a settler already on the land buy it at a set price, and timber culture granted more of it for planting trees. So the earliest paper for a farm is a federal land entry file rather than a county deed.

Women and land

A single or widowed woman bought, sold, and mortgaged land exactly as a man did, and so did a married woman. The code abolished coverture at the outset: neither spouse had any interest in the property of the other, either could contract with the other or with anyone else respecting property as if unmarried⁴⁹, and a wife could convey her separate property without her husband's consent⁵⁰. Her earnings were not liable for his debts, and her separate property answered for her own⁵¹.

The Constitution of 1889 wrote it in: the real and personal property of any woman in the state, acquired before marriage or to which she afterwards became rightfully entitled, was her separate property and not liable for her husband's debts⁵². An act of 1899 restated the rule as plain equality — as to property, contracts, and torts a wife had the same capacity, rights, and liabilities after marriage as before, and sued and was sued in her own name — and that language stood in the Compiled Laws of 1913 and was still the law as stated in 1948⁵³.

One territorial formality is worth knowing, because it dates a deed and identifies a wife. A married woman's own conveyance had no validity until she acknowledged it before an official who had first made her acquainted with the contents of the document on an examination out of her husband's hearing, and who then certified that she signed freely and did not wish to retract. The code printed a separate certificate form for the purpose, reciting all of that⁵⁴. The requirement did not survive the first state codification, and by 1895 a married woman acknowledged a deed in the same way as anyone else.

So the deed does tell you something, and what it tells you turns on the date. Before statehood, a woman's deed carrying that separate-examination certificate is the deed of a married woman, and the certificate is evidence of the marriage. From 1895 on, a woman selling land in her own name may be single, widowed, or married alike, and her marital status has to come from the marriage and census records instead.

When a spouse had to sign the other's deed

North Dakota protected the family through the homestead, and the homestead rule is the tool to use here. A husband could sell or mortgage any other land on his own signature.

A sale or mortgage of the homestead was valid only where the husband and wife both joined in and signed the same document⁵⁵. In the Territory the homestead could not exceed one acre inside a town plat, or 160 acres outside one⁵⁶. A state homestead act of 1891 enlarged the town homestead to two acres and capped the whole homestead at $5,000 in value, and restated the signature rule as a requirement that the instrument be executed and acknowledged by both husband and wife; both provisions carried unchanged into the Compiled Laws of 1913⁵⁷. By 1948 the value cap on a town homestead stood at $8,000 and a rural homestead of 160 acres carried no limit on value, while the signature rule was unchanged — the homestead of a married person could be conveyed or mortgaged only with the signature of both husband and wife, each acknowledged, meaning confirmed before an official authorized to take it, such as a notary⁵⁸.

Two other signatures were required for the same reason. Household goods, effects, and furniture of a married person could not be sold or mortgaged unless both spouses signed⁵⁹. And where one spouse was insane, the other had to be authorized by the county court before conveying or mortgaging the homestead⁶⁰, which leaves a county court file explaining an otherwise irregular deed.

For research the point is this. A deed of the family farm signed by the husband alone was void, so buyers insisted on both signatures. When a wife's name appears on a North Dakota deed, read it as evidence that the parcel was the home place. A man selling other land signed alone whether or not he had a wife, so look to marriage and census records for that.

Children and land

A child could own land at any age, taking it by inheritance, gift, or purchase. Conveying it went through the county court: where the income of a minor's estate was not enough for their maintenance and education, the guardian could sell the real estate on an order of the court⁶¹. A child's land sale therefore leaves a guardianship file with the county court — petition, order, bond, and a deed signed by somebody other than the owner.

Deeds and their witnesses

A transfer of land, other than a tenancy at will — an occupation the owner could end whenever he chose — or a lease of a year or less, had to be in writing and signed at the foot by the person giving up the land⁶². To be recorded, the deed had to be acknowledged by the grantor — the seller himself appearing to confirm it — or else proved by a subscribing witness, meaning one of the people who had signed the deed as a witness swore to having seen it signed⁶³.

A deed witness qualified on competency rather than age, since the codes set no minimum. In practice witnesses were adults, because a witness might have to appear years later to prove the deed, and most North Dakota deeds were acknowledged before a notary instead, so the witness line is often empty.

Indians and Indian land

In Dakota Territory, Indians resident in the territory had the same rights and duties as other persons, with two exceptions: they could not vote or hold office, and they could not sell, lease, or mortgage Indian lands except in the cases provided by special laws⁶⁴. So an Indian resident could buy and own land like anyone else; the restriction reached Indian land, not the person.

Statehood opened the first exception. From 1895 the code let an Indian vote and hold office on the terms the Constitution set, and the Constitution made an elector of a civilized person of Indian descent who had severed his tribal relations two years before the election⁶⁵. The land rule carried forward unchanged. The state had also disclaimed all right and title to land held by any Indian or Indian tribe, which stayed under the jurisdiction and control of Congress⁶⁶.

So reservation land does not move through the county deed books. Transactions in trust land were federal, and the papers sit in agency and allotment files rather than with the register of deeds.

Inheritance

One system for land and goods

When a person died without a will — died intestate — one set of rules divided everything. The property of the deceased, both land and goods, passed to the heirs, subject to the control of the probate court and to the possession of any administrator appointed to settle the estate⁶⁷. Land and personal property were divided by the same shares, among the same people, at the same time.

The surviving spouse's share

The fractions turn on the number of children, and they held from the territorial code into the 1940s.

So a widow with one child took a half, and a widow with two took a third. Getting this right can make or break a family reconstruction built from a decree of distribution — the county court's closing order naming who takes what.

Where no spouse survived

The table above answers the case a genealogist meets most often, and stops short of the one that empties an estate sideways. The unmarried son, the daughter who died before she married, the bachelor uncle — each of these passed by a further ladder, and every rung of it names relatives.

Both tables set out the same territorial section⁶⁸, and the scheme survived into the Revised Code of 1943, which recast the cases where no child survived as a fixed sum plus half the excess — all of the first $15,000 and half the remainder where a parent survived, and all of the first $25,000 and half the remainder where none did⁶⁹.

Two of the rows in the second table repay attention. The third explains a decree that hands everything to an aged mother and nothing to the children of a brother who died first, which looks like an error and is the statute working as written. And the fourth is the reason a distant cousin can appear in a North Dakota decree of distribution with no other trace in the county: where the search reached the next of kin, the court had to find them, and the file will hold the proof of how they were related.

Three rules that change the arithmetic

Advancements come first. Property a parent gave a child during the parent's lifetime was charged against that child's share, where the deed said so or the parent charged it or the child acknowledged it in writing. A child given more than a full share kept the excess and took nothing further; a child given less made up the difference out of the estate⁷⁰. A child who looks shorted in a decree of distribution has often been given land already, and the written charge is a findable document.

Half blood next. Relatives of the half blood — sharing one parent rather than two — inherited equally with those of the whole blood in the same degree, except that where the property had come to the deceased from one of his ancestors, everyone not of that ancestor's blood was shut out⁷¹. A half-sibling excluded from one parcel and included in another is following this rule.

Third, property could travel back. Where a child who had inherited from a parent then died under age and unmarried, everything that had come from that parent went in equal shares to the other children of the same parent⁷². This is the usual explanation for an estate that passes to a set of siblings while both parents are still alive. Where every other child of that parent had also died, the property went on to their children instead⁷³, so it can surface a generation further down than expected.

Free disposition and what the survivor kept

Dower and curtesy were abolished — the territorial code said it in four words, and said it again among the effects of marriage⁷⁴. The rule carried through the Compiled Laws of 1913 and on to the modern code⁷⁵.

What stood in their place was free disposition. Each spouse could give away or sell property during life and leave it to anyone by will at death, subject only to the survivor's homestead right and the exempt property⁷⁶. A husband could leave his widow out of his will and the will stood as written. What she kept was the homestead and the exemptions, described next.

What the widow received

Three protections stood outside the will and beyond the reach of creditors:

• The homestead. In the Territory the survivor could continue to possess and occupy the whole homestead until it was otherwise disposed of by law, and where both parents were dead the children could occupy it until the youngest came of age; by the 1940s the survivor's right ran until he or she remarried. Throughout, the homestead was free from liability for the debts of the deceased⁷⁷.
• Exempt property, set apart absolutely to the survivor, being the general exemptions together with other property selected up to $1,500 in value; where there were minor children the property set apart was divided between the survivor and the children⁷⁸.
• A family allowance out of the estate for the maintenance of the family during settlement, payable ahead of every other charge except funeral and administration expenses⁷⁹.

Each is a separate filing in the county court, and each ordinarily names the widow and the children. Small estates were wound up quickly. Where the whole personal estate came to $1,500 or less, the court had to assign all of it — after funeral expenses, the expenses of the last illness, and the costs of administration — to the widow and minor children, or to the children where no widow survived, and the administration stopped there. Between $1,500 and $3,000 the court could dispense with the regular proceedings and order distribution six months after letters issued⁸⁰. So a small estate may leave a single decree and nothing else.

Minors and guardians and the age of fourteen

The county court appointed guardians of the person or estate, or both, for minors who had no guardian appointed by will or deed, on the petition of a relative or other person, after notice to the relatives living in the county and to anyone having care of the child. Two situations brought a child within the court's reach: living in the county, or living outside the state while owning property in the county⁸¹.

That second one is easily missed. A child who never set foot in North Dakota could have a guardianship file here because a relative left them land, and the file sits in the county where the land lay rather than where the family lived.

At 14 the choice passed to the child. A minor under 14 had a guardian nominated and appointed by the judge; a minor above 14 could nominate their own, who was appointed if the judge approved⁸², and a minor for whom a guardian had been appointed before 14 could nominate their own on reaching that age⁸³. The age was the same for boys and girls, which makes it a clean bracket: a guardianship in which the child chooses tells you the child had turned 14. All three rules stood unchanged in the Compiled Laws of 1913⁸⁴.

The parents came first in line. The father while he lived, and after his death the mother while she remained unmarried, was entitled to the guardianship, provided each was competent to handle their own business and not otherwise unsuitable⁸⁵. Those last words carry real weight in the records: a widow lost her claim to the guardianship when she remarried. A new guardian appointed over children whose mother is alive is often dated by her second marriage, and the two records read together give an approximate wedding date.

A parent could also appoint a guardian by will or by deed to take effect at death — for a legitimate child the father with the mother's written consent, or either parent alone if the other was dead or incapable of consenting, and for a child born outside marriage the mother⁸⁶.

Guardianship ended at majority, so at 18 for a girl and 21 for a boy. A parent's appointment was superseded by the child's marriage or majority, and a court's appointment ended on majority, with guardianship of the person ending on the child's marriage⁸⁷. After majority the young person could settle accounts with the guardian and give a release, but the guardian was not entitled to a discharge until one year after the minor came of age⁸⁸.

That final settlement in the county court is the most valuable guardianship document in North Dakota research. It fixes the date the minor came of age, and so brackets a birth year — subtracting 18 for a woman and 21 for a man — and it often gives a woman's married surname.

Children born outside marriage

Every illegitimate child was in all cases an heir of the mother, and inherited her estate as if born in lawful wedlock⁸⁹. Nothing had to be done to make that so.

Two routes made the child legitimate outright, and both worked without a court. A child born before wedlock became legitimate on the later marriage of its parents⁹⁰. And a father who publicly acknowledged the child as his own, received it into his family with his wife's consent if he was married, and otherwise treated it as legitimate, thereby adopted it — and the child was legitimate for every purpose from the date of its birth⁹¹. That second route leaves no paper of its own, which is why a child can appear in a family, in a will, and in a decree of distribution with nothing on file to explain the connection.

Short of legitimation, the child was the father's heir where he acknowledged himself in writing to be the father, signed in the presence of a competent witness. Such a child inherited from the father but not from the father's relatives, unless the parents afterwards married and he then acknowledged or adopted the child, in which case that child and the legitimate children were brothers and sisters for every purpose of inheritance. Children of marriages that were void in law, or ended by divorce, were legitimate⁹². Where a child not acknowledged or adopted by the father died without a will and without descendants, the estate went to the mother or her heirs⁹³.

The father's written acknowledgment is a findable document and worth hunting, because it is often the only paper that names him.

Wills and executors and witnesses

Every person over 18 years of age, of sound mind, could leave all their property, land and goods alike, by will⁹⁴. One age, both sexes. A married woman could leave her separate property by will without her husband's consent, and that rule stood unchanged through the Compiled Laws of 1913⁹⁵.

A witnessed will had to meet four requirements:

• It was signed at the foot by the testator — the person making the will — or by someone else in his presence and at his direction.
• He made or admitted that signature in front of the witnesses.
• He told them the document was his will.
• Two witnesses signed at his request and in his presence.

A will written out entirely in the testator's own hand, dated and signed by him, needed no witnesses at all⁹⁶.

A spoken will was good only in narrow circumstances, and every one of them had to hold:

• The estate came to $1,000 or less.
• Two witnesses were present when it was spoken.
• The testator had asked one of them at the time to bear witness.
• He was on active military service in the field, or on shipboard at sea and in fear of death, or expected to die at once from an injury received that same day.

Such a will is rare in the records for that reason⁹⁷.

The codes set no minimum age for a witness to a will, so the test was competency to testify. What mattered was that the witness gained nothing. Any gift of land or goods made by the will to one of the people who signed it as a witness was void, unless two other qualified witnesses had also signed⁹⁸ — the gift failed, and the witness stayed qualified to prove the will. Where such a witness would have inherited had there been no will at all, they took up to the value of the failed gift⁹⁹.

No person could serve as executor who was under the age of majority when the will was proved in court, and the same test applied to an administrator, the person the court appointed to settle an estate left without a will¹⁰⁰. Because majority was 18 for women, an eighteen-year-old daughter could qualify as executrix while her brother of the same age could not.

Who had the right to administer an intestate estate is often misread, so it is worth stating plainly. The surviving husband or wife stood first in the order of preference from the territorial code onward, ahead of the children, the parents, the brothers, the sisters, the grandchildren, the next of kin, and the creditors¹⁰¹. A widow was entitled to letters on her husband's estate. What the territorial code added was a tie-breaker: among several people claiming and equally entitled — several children, for instance — males were preferred to females, and relatives of the whole blood to those of the half blood¹⁰². So a son taking letters ahead of his sister reflects the statute; a son taking them ahead of his mother does not, and something else in the file explains it. An act of 1897 rewrote the section and dropped the preference for males altogether, leaving only the order of relationship¹⁰³.

Two rules did keep married women out. A married woman could not be appointed administratrix at all, and an unmarried woman appointed administratrix lost her authority if she married. Both survived the 1897 rewrite and stood in the Compiled Laws of 1913¹⁰⁴. So a widow who remarried during the administration lost it, and the record will name her new husband.

A will could name a woman more freely. An unmarried woman appointed executrix lost her authority on marrying, but a woman who was already married when the will named her could be appointed and serve in every respect as though she were single¹⁰⁵. A new administrator appearing right after a wedding usually has that first rule behind it.

One more quirk explains a change of personnel in an estate file. Where a minor was named executor and there was another executor, the other administered alone until the minor came of age, and the minor was then admitted to act jointly. Where there was no other, the court issued letters of administration with the will annexed — its authority given to somebody outside the will to settle the estate under the will's terms. Those letters could be revoked when the minor reached majority¹⁰⁶.

Taxation

What was taxed

Three kinds of tax fell on individuals before 1950. The general property tax on real and personal property ran throughout. The road poll tax — a poll tax being a flat charge on a person's head rather than on what they owned — fell on men within an age range, and it is the one that behaves like a census substitute. In the twentieth century the state added two more. The income tax of 1919 ran on two schedules, taxing income from rents, interest, and dividends more heavily than income from wages and personally run businesses; each began at half of one percent on the first $1,000 and climbed to 10 percent on the largest incomes. The revision of 1923 replaced both with a single schedule, from 1 percent on net income above exemptions to 6 percent above $10,000, and taxed corporations at a flat 3 percent¹⁰⁷. A retail sales tax at 2 percent followed in 1935¹⁰⁸.

The general property tax and who listed

All property, real and personal, together with money, credits, and investments in bonds and stocks, was subject to taxation unless the statute exempted it¹⁰⁹. The tax reached property, so a person owning nothing appears on no property list at all.

The duty to list is the part that carries family information, and it changed once in a way that matters. Under the territorial code every inhabitant of full age and sound mind listed the property he owned or controlled — and full age here means the majority ages above, 21 for a man and 18 for a woman. The statute then said who listed for everyone else¹¹⁰:

• A minor's property, by his guardian.
• A minor's, where there was no guardian, by his father if living, then by his mother if living, then by whoever had the property in charge.
• A married woman's, by her husband — but by herself if he was unable to do it or refused.
• Property held in trust, by the trustee.
• A dead person's personal property, by the executor, administrator, or heirs.

Read against a family before 1897, that list of substitutions is a set of statements about who was alive and who was in charge. A minor listed by his mother says the father was dead. A married woman listing in her own name says her husband could not or would not do it.

A revenue act of 1897 rewrote the listing section and dropped the married-woman clause entirely, so from that year a wife listed her own property as a matter of course and her name on the roll says nothing about her husband. The same revision shortened the rule for children to the property of a minor being listed by his guardian or by the person having it in charge, without the father-then-mother sequence. Both changes stood in the Compiled Laws of 1913¹¹¹. The assessment list itself gave each person's lands by township, range, and section, and town lots by number and block¹¹², so it doubles as a yearly statement of what a family held and where.

The road poll tax

Every male person between the ages of 21 and 50 was subject to a poll tax of one dollar and fifty cents, payable in money or by one day's labor each year on the public highway within his road district, at the time and place directed by the road supervisor¹¹³. The county commissioners could levy an additional road tax, also workable off in labor¹¹⁴.

This tax is unusually stable, which makes it unusually useful. The territorial rule carried through the Revised Codes of 1899 and 1905 into the Compiled Laws of 1913 without a change of substance¹¹⁵, and it was still on the books in the same terms — a dollar and a half or one day's work on every male person between 21 and 50 — when the 1925 Supplement printed the levy section as amended in 1915¹¹⁶. The Supplement carries no amendment at all to the road labor sections themselves. Highway funding was reorganized around the state highway system and motor fuel taxes after 1927, and the poll tax sections do not survive into the modern code¹¹⁷.

The road supervisor obtained the names and made out a list of all the male persons between 21 and 50 living in his district, completed each year by 1 March, and enrolled any man who moved in after that date¹¹⁸. That list is in effect an annual roll of the adult men of a township, it reaches men who owned nothing at all, and a name added mid-year dates an arrival.

Why a man leaves the list

Age is the first explanation: he turned 50. Exemption is the second, and there were two of them. Every volunteer fireman in good standing in an organized fire department was exempt, and the secretary of each company filed a report of members in good standing every April¹¹⁹. From 1915 every member of the North Dakota National Guard was exempt as well, and ten years' service with an honorable discharge made the exemption permanent¹²⁰. So a man in his twenties who drops off a poll list has often joined a fire company or enlisted, and each of those bodies kept a membership record that names him.

Courts

Jury service

Jurors had to be 21, and the qualification ran through the franchise: all male citizens residing in the county, having the qualifications of electors, of sound mind and discretion, over 21, not holding certain offices, not disabled by bodily infirmity, and not convicted of an offense punishable in the penitentiary¹²¹. Judges, clerks, sheriffs, coroners, practicing attorneys, and jailers were excluded outright; men over 60, ministers, county officers, physicians, postmasters, and mail carriers could not be compelled to serve¹²². The qualification stood in the same terms in the Compiled Laws of 1913, with a longer list of people who could not be compelled¹²³.

Residence, citizenship, age, and character were the whole test. A juror qualified whether or not he owned land, and talesmen — bystanders summoned on the spot to complete a short panel — were held to the same qualifications as the regular panel¹²⁴.

Two features shaped who actually sat. The names were selected from the last annual tax list¹²⁵, so a man missing from the tax rolls was missing from the jury box. And jury service required citizenship while voting did not. The Constitution made an elector of a man of foreign birth who had declared his intention to become a citizen between one and six years before the election¹²⁶, so a settler could vote on his first papers alone but sat on a jury only once naturalized. A man's name on a jury list is therefore evidence that his naturalization was complete, and it dates that completion.

Women on juries

Jury service was limited to men until 1921, when the legislature struck the word "male" from the qualification and made all citizens with the qualifications of electors, of sound mind and discretion, eligible to serve¹²⁷. The Supreme Court upheld the change in 1934 against an argument that no legislature could enlarge the historic jury¹²⁸. Women could be excused on written application to the clerk at least five days before the term was called¹²⁹, and many were, so a jury list from the 1920s and 1930s carries fewer women than eligibility alone would suggest.

Criminal responsibility

The Penal Code named the classes incapable of committing crime. Children under 7 were incapable altogether, and children of 7 but under 14 were incapable in the absence of proof that at the time of the act they knew its wrongfulness¹³⁰. From 14 a child carried full responsibility and was tried as an adult. The section carried into the Compiled Laws of 1913 unchanged except that the proof required for a child of 7 to 14 was tightened to clear proof¹³¹.

From 1911 a statute moved the younger cases elsewhere. The Juvenile Court Act made dependent, neglected, and delinquent children under 18 wards of the state for the purposes of that act, subject to the care, guardianship, and control of the court¹³². A delinquent child was one who, while under 18, violated any law of the state, or was incorrigible, or knowingly associated with thieves or vicious or immoral persons, or absented itself from home without just cause, or was growing up in idleness or crime, among a much longer list¹³³. Original jurisdiction lay in the district courts, whose findings were entered in a book called the juvenile record, and so far as possible the court sat in chambers — in the judge's own room rather than in open court¹³⁴.

So from 1911 a child under 18 leaves an entry in the district court's juvenile record rather than a criminal case file, and the hearing that produced it was held in chambers so far as the court could manage.

Witnesses

A witness of any age could testify, the test being whether the child understood the duty of an oath and could relate what happened. The codes set no minimum age and disqualified nobody on that ground. What they did say was that a person offered as a witness could give evidence whatever their interest in the case, whether or not they were a party to it, and whether or not they were the husband or wife of a party¹³⁵.

Two exceptions remained, and both matter when reading an estate contest. Neither spouse could be examined for or against the other without consent, nor as to communications made during the marriage, except in an action between them or for a crime committed by one against the other. And in an action by or against executors, administrators, heirs, or next of kin — the nearest blood relatives who inherit where there is no will — neither party could testify to a transaction with or a statement by the deceased unless called by the opposite party¹³⁶. The person who knew the most about the dead was often the one person barred from saying it. Both the rule and its two exceptions stood in the Compiled Laws of 1913, which added that where a party's testimony had been taken and he then died, the other side became competent to answer it¹³⁷.

Race and tribal status and competency

Competency turned on understanding and interest. A person of any race could testify on the same terms as anyone else, and could sit on a jury on meeting the same qualifications of residence, citizenship, age, and character that applied to everyone.

One restriction operated indirectly. Jurors had to be electors, and the Constitution made an elector of a person of Indian descent who had severed his tribal relations two years before the election¹³⁸. Indians who kept those relations were therefore outside the jury box, though they remained competent witnesses. That disability rested on tribal status rather than descent, and it is the same clause that governed Indian landholding above.

Sources and Where to Verify

Constitutions

North Dakota Constitution of 1889. §§ 110–111 (county courts and their probate jurisdiction); § 121 (electors, including declarant aliens and Indians who have severed tribal relations); § 213 (a married woman's separate property); and the compact article disclaiming Indian lands. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/sites/default/files/resource/historical-constitution-documents/1889-constitution.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

North Dakota Constitution, as printed in the front matter of each successive code (1895, 1899, 1905, 1913, 1925). The quickest way to see when a section was amended. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/research-and-archives/historical-constitution-and-century-code (accessed 11 August 2026).

Territorial and State Codes

The Revised Codes of the Territory of Dakota, A.D. 1877. Yankton: Bowen & Kingsbury, Public Printers, 1877. The foundational volume, posted in separate files by code. Civil Code §§ 5–6 (common law), §§ 10–11 (minority and majority), §§ 15–26 (minors and Indian rights), §§ 34–51 (marriage), §§ 78–83 (husband and wife), §§ 86–93 (parent and child), § 116 (legitimation by acknowledgment), §§ 135–138 (guardianship), § 170 (who may own property), §§ 622–623 (deeds), §§ 660–664 (acknowledgments), §§ 683–718 (wills), §§ 777–795 (succession, advancements, and the half blood); Political Code ch. 19 (jurors), ch. 25 and ch. 29 (road poll tax and the supervisor's list), ch. 28 (revenue, and who must list property), ch. 38 (homestead); Probate Code §§ 45–61 (executors and administrators), §§ 128–135 (homestead and allowances), §§ 333–352 (guardian and minor); Penal Code § 16 (capacity to commit crime); Code of Civil Procedure § 446 (witnesses). Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. Index to the set, https://ndlegis.gov/library-and-research/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877; Civil Code, https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf; Political Code, https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/political-code.pdf; Probate Code, https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/probate-code.pdf; Penal Code, https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/penal-code.pdf; Code of Civil Procedure, https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/code-of-civil-procedure.pdf (all accessed 11 August 2026). Footnotes below give the PDF page for the provisions most often wanted, since the printed section numbers do not correspond to the page images.

The Revised Codes of the State of North Dakota, 1895. Bismarck: Tribune Company, 1895. The first state codification, printed with marginal notes giving the territorial section or session law behind each section. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/library-and-research/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1895 (accessed 11 August 2026).

The Revised Codes of the State of North Dakota, 1899. Bismarck: Tribune Company, 1899. § 2721 (the marriage ages restored in 1897), § 2722 (the forbidden degrees, with the cousin bar limited to the first degree). Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/library-and-research/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1899 (accessed 11 August 2026).

The Revised Codes of the State of North Dakota, 1905. Bismarck: Tribune Company, 1905. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/library-and-research/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1905 (accessed 11 August 2026).

The Compiled Laws of the State of North Dakota, 1913. Rochester, N.Y.: Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, 1914. 2 vols. Annotated, and printing a full citation chain in brackets after every section, which makes it the best volume for tracing a rule in either direction. Civil Code §§ 4335–4336 (minority and majority), § 4358 (marriage age and parental consent), § 4411 (a wife's capacity), § 4349 (Indian rights), § 5266 (who may own property), §§ 5605–5608 (homestead), § 5641 (a married woman's will), § 5744 (dower and curtesy), § 5759 (alienage no bar to inheriting); Political Code § 814 (jurors), § 1842 (firemen), § 1961 (road poll tax), § 2094 (who lists property for taxes); Probate Code §§ 8657, 8661 (administrators and executors), §§ 8874–8878 (guardianship and the age of fourteen); Penal Code § 9207 (capacity to commit crime); Code of Civil Procedure § 7871 (witnesses); Code of Criminal Procedure §§ 11402–11405 (Juvenile Court Act). Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/library-and-research/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1913 (accessed 11 August 2026).

Supplement to the 1913 Compiled Laws of North Dakota, 1913–1925. Rochester, N.Y.: Lawyers' Co-operative Publishing Co., 1926. The volume that shows what had and had not changed by the middle of the period. § 2150 (the road poll tax levy as amended in 1915), § 2422a2 (National Guard exemption), and Political Code article 13, which carries annotations but no amendment to the road labor sections. The income tax chapter is at §§ 2346a1–2346a50, each section printed with its 1919 and 1923 derivation. Its Table of Session Laws, 1915–1925, posted separately, maps every act of those sessions to the sections it produced. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/library-and-research/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1925 (accessed 11 August 2026).

North Dakota Revised Code of 1943. Fargo: Knight Printing Co., 1944. 7 vols. The code in force at the close of the period covered here; not digitized on the legislature's site, and cited here from the Women's Bureau digest and from the repeal notes printed in the current code.

North Dakota Century Code. The current code, useful here for two things: the repeal notes still printed under the headings of repealed sections, and the modern wording of rules that survived. Ch. 1-01 (common law), ch. 14-03 (marriage), ch. 14-07 (husband and wife), ch. 14-10 (minors), ch. 30.1-04 (intestate succession), ch. 47-18 (homestead); title 24 (highways) carries no poll tax chapter. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/general-information/north-dakota-century-code/index.html (accessed 11 August 2026).

Session Laws

The Legislative Branch has digitized the session laws of the state legislature by year, and every act cited in this guide except the repeal of 1955 has been read in that series rather than through a later compiler's derivation note. The index to the series is at North Dakota Legislative Branch, https://ndlegis.gov/research-and-archives/session-laws (accessed 11 August 2026). Individual volumes follow.

Laws Passed at the First Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Grand Forks, N.D., 1890. Ch. 91, "An act relating to marriage and providing licenses," pp. 276–79 — the act that set the ages at 16 and 13, required a license, required parental consent under 21 and 18, ended marriage by consent, and re-enacted the recognition of Indian custom marriage. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1889/sl1889.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Second Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Grand Forks, N.D., 1891. Ch. 67, the homestead act, which set the town homestead at two acres and the value cap at $5,000 and restated the requirement that both husband and wife execute and acknowledge a conveyance. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1891/sl1891.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Fifth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Grand Forks, N.D., 1897. Ch. 4, "An act to amend section 2721 of the revised codes, relating to age of consent to marriage," p. 3, restoring 18 and 15; ch. 111, "An act to amend the probate code," beginning at p. 181, whose § 18 rewrote the order of preference for letters of administration and dropped the preference for males; ch. 126, the revenue act, whose § 7 rewrote the rule on who lists property. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1897/sl1897.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Sixth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Grand Forks, N.D.: Herald, State Printers and Binders, 1899. Ch. 100, the act restating a wife's capacity as to property, contracts, and torts. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1899/sl1899.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Eleventh Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Bismarck, N.D.: Tribune, State Printers and Binders, 1909. Ch. 164, "An Act to Prevent Miscegenation" (approved 13 March 1909), §§ 1–7. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1909/sl1909.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Twelfth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Bismarck, N.D., 1911. Ch. 177, the Juvenile Court Act, pp. 266–76. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1911/sl1911.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Fourteenth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Bismarck, N.D., 1915. Ch. 111, amending the levy section that carried the road poll tax; ch. 187, § 9, exempting members of the National Guard from poll tax. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1915/sl1915.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Sixteenth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Grand Forks, N.D., 1919. Ch. 224, the income tax act; § 2 carries the two rate schedules. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1919/sl1919.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Seventeenth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Grand Forks, N.D.: The Normanden Publishing Co., 1921. Ch. 81, amending and re-enacting § 814 of the 1913 compilation to admit women to jury service. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1921/sl1921.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Eighteenth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Bismarck, N.D., 1923. Ch. 312, the income tax revision; § 12 (individuals) and § 26 (corporations). Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1923/sl1923.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Laws Passed at the Twenty-fourth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota. Bismarck, N.D., 1935. Ch. 276, the retail sales tax act. Digital images. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1935/sl1935.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

"A Brief History of Codification of North Dakota Law." Traces each codification to the act that authorized it. North Dakota Legislative Branch. https://ndlegis.gov/library-and-research/a-brief-history-codification-nd-law (accessed 11 August 2026).

Court Cases

Arnegaard v. Arnegaard. 7 N.D. 475, 75 N.W. 797 (1898). CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6847509/arnegaard-v-arnegaard/.

F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Gray. 77 N.D. 757, 46 N.W.2d 295 (1951). Sets out the 1935 sales tax act and its re-enactments. CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1845279/f-w-woolworth-co-v-gray/.

Johnson v. Johnson. 104 N.W.2d 8 (N.D. 1960). Quotes the presumption that a couple deporting themselves as husband and wife are lawfully married. Justia. https://law.justia.com/cases/north-dakota/supreme-court/1960/7842-2.html.

Schumacher v. Great Northern Railway Co. 23 N.D. 231, 136 N.W. 85 (1912). CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6849187/schumacher-v-great-northern-railway-co/.

State v. Norton. 64 N.D. 675, 255 N.W. 787 (1934). Upholds the 1921 act admitting women to juries. CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3933094/state-v-norton/.

Woodward v. Blake. 38 N.D. 38, 164 N.W. 156 (1917). CourtListener. https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6850261/woodward-v-blake/.

Secondary and Reference Works

Fisch, William B. "The Dakota Civil Code: More Notes for an Uncelebrated Centennial." North Dakota Law Review 45, no. 1 (1968), art. 1. Establishes that Field's commission completed the code in 1865 and that Dakota Territory first adopted it in 1866, replacing the codes passed at Yankton in 1862. https://commons.und.edu/ndlr/vol45/iss1/1/ (accessed 11 August 2026).

Long, John H., ed. Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, Consolidated Chronology of State and County Boundaries. Newberry Library. The successive territorial jurisdictions over present North Dakota, with the act creating each. https://publications.newberry.org/ahcb/documents/DT_Consolidated_Chronology.htm (accessed 11 August 2026).

North Dakota Court System. "Juvenile Court." The 1911 establishment and the court's place within the district courts. https://www.ndcourts.gov/other-courts/juvenile-court (accessed 11 August 2026).

North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner. "Individual Income Tax History" and "Sales and Use Tax History." https://www.tax.nd.gov/individual-income-tax-history (accessed 11 August 2026).

North Dakota Studies. "Territory and State Boundaries." State Historical Society of North Dakota. The Louisiana Purchase drainage boundary, the Treaty of 1818, and the gap in government after Minnesota statehood. https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unit-iii-waves-development-1861-1920/changing-landscapes/topic-1-territory-and-state-boundaries/section-3-changing-state (accessed 11 August 2026).

State Historical Society of North Dakota, State Archives. Research guidance on what survives and where, including county courthouse holdings — court records, deeds, estates, guardianships, naturalizations, tax records, and vital records. https://www.history.nd.gov/archives/countyrecords.html; genealogical research sources, https://www.history.nd.gov/archives/genresearchsources.html; and which counties' early marriage records survive on film, https://www.history.nd.gov/archives/faq.html (accessed 11 August 2026).

State Historical Society of North Dakota, State Archives. Agency history of the Department of Transportation, describing the road supervisors and overseers who kept the poll and road labor lists, and the reorganizations of 1927, 1931, and 1933. https://www.history.nd.gov/archives/stateagencies/transportation.html (accessed 11 August 2026).

State Historical Society of North Dakota, State Archives. Agency history of the State Department of Health, Division of Vital Records, giving the session laws behind the registration of marriages from 1925. https://www.history.nd.gov/archives/stateagencies/vitalrecords.html (accessed 11 August 2026).

State Historical Society of North Dakota. "Territorial Documents." North Dakota History Primary Sources. The first territorial assembly at Yankton in 1862 and what it enacted. https://www.history.nd.gov/textbook/unit3_2_territorialdocs.html (accessed 11 August 2026).

United States Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: Report for North Dakota. Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, no. 157-33 (Revised). Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949. Law stated as of 1 January 1948, with a citation to the Revised Code of 1943 under every rule. The best single cross-check on the late part of this period. Digital images. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-33-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Citations

1. John H. Long, ed., Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, Consolidated Chronology of State and County Boundaries, Newberry Library (https://publications.newberry.org/ahcb/documents/DT_Consolidated_Chronology.htm: accessed 11 August 2026); and "Territory and State Boundaries," North Dakota Studies, State Historical Society of North Dakota (https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unit-iii-waves-development-1861-1920/changing-landscapes/topic-1-territory-and-state-boundaries/section-3-changing-state: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
2. Long, Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, Consolidated Chronology, entries for Minnesota Territory (1849), Nebraska Territory (U.S. Stat., vol. 10, ch. 59 [1854]), and Dakota Territory (1861); and see "Territory and State Boundaries," North Dakota Studies, State Historical Society of North Dakota, on the exclusion of the area west of the Red River when Minnesota became a state (https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unit-iii-waves-development-1861-1920/changing-landscapes/topic-1-territory-and-state-boundaries/section-3-changing-state : accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
3. Organic act of 2 March 1861, 12 Stat. 239; the codes enacted under it recite it as the first expression of the sovereign will, Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 3, subd. 1; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=1: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
4. State Historical Society of North Dakota, "Territorial Documents," North Dakota History Primary Sources (https://www.history.nd.gov/textbook/unit3_2_territorialdocs.html: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
5. William B. Fisch, "The Dakota Civil Code: More Notes for an Uncelebrated Centennial," North Dakota Law Review 45, no. 1 (1968), art. 1 (https://commons.und.edu/ndlr/vol45/iss1/1/: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
6. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 5–6; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=1: accessed 11 August 2026); carried through Revised Codes of 1895, §§ 3195–3196, and Compiled Laws of 1913, §§ 7248–7249, to Revised Code of 1943, §§ 1-0103, 1-0106, now N.D.C.C. §§ 1-01-05, 1-01-06 ↩
7. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 78 ↩
8. N.D. Const. of 1889, §§ 110–111; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/sites/default/files/resource/historical-constitution-documents/1889-constitution.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026); the schedule transferred the records of each probate court to the county court of the same county ↩
9. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 10–11; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=2: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
10. Compiled Laws of 1913, §§ 4335–4336, carrying the sections from Revised Codes of 1895, § 2698, and Revised Codes of 1905, §§ 4010–4011 ↩
11. United States Women's Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America: Report for North Dakota, Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, no. 157-33 (Revised) (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1949), 3, citing Revised Code of 1943, §§ 14-1001, 14-1002; digital images, FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-33-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
12. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 10; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4335 ↩
13. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 15 ↩
14. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 16–17; and see §§ 18–19, under which a minor could not disaffirm a contract for necessaries or one otherwise required by law ↩
15. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 25; Revised Codes of 1895, § 2711 ↩
16. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 36; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=6: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
17. Laws Passed at the First Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Grand Forks, N.D., 1890), ch. 91, § 2, p. 276; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1889/sl1889.pdf#page=272: accessed 11 August 2026); codified as Revised Codes of 1895, § 2721 ↩
18. Laws Passed at the Fifth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Grand Forks, N.D., 1897), ch. 4, § 1, p. 3; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1897/sl1897.pdf#page=81: accessed 11 August 2026); carried through Revised Codes of 1899, § 2721, and Revised Codes of 1905, § 4033, to Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4358, and Revised Code of 1943, § 14-0302 ↩
19. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 36, 47; the celebrant had to satisfy himself that the parties were of sufficient age, and no parental consent is required anywhere in the marriage title ↩
20. Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 2, p. 276; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1889/sl1889.pdf#page=272: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
21. Revised Codes of 1895, § 2721; Revised Codes of 1899, § 2721; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4358 ↩
22. Revised Code of 1943, § 14-0317, as digested in Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: North Dakota, 10 ↩
23. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 34–35 ↩
24. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 46 ↩
25. Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 1, p. 276; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1889/sl1889.pdf#page=272: accessed 11 August 2026); Revised Codes of 1895, § 2720; carried to Revised Code of 1943, § 14-0301, now N.D.C.C. § 14-03-01 ↩
26. Woodward v. Blake, 38 N.D. 38, 164 N.W. 156 (1917), CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6850261/woodward-v-blake/: accessed 11 August 2026); Schumacher v. Great Northern Railway Co., 23 N.D. 231, 236, 136 N.W. 85 (1912), CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6849187/schumacher-v-great-northern-railway-co/: accessed 11 August 2026); both cited for this point in Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: North Dakota, 10 ↩
27. Johnson v. Johnson, 104 N.W.2d 8 (N.D. 1960), quoting the disputable presumption at Revised Code of 1943, § 31-1103, subd. 30, that a man and woman deporting themselves as husband and wife have entered into a lawful contract of marriage; now N.D.C.C. § 31-11-03; Justia (https://law.justia.com/cases/north-dakota/supreme-court/1960/7842-2.html: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
28. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 45–46, 48–49; § 45 provides that non-compliance does not invalidate any lawful marriage; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=7: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
29. Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 7, pp. 277–78; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1889/sl1889.pdf#page=273: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
30. Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 10; Revised Codes of 1895, § 2724; as amended, Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4361 ↩
31. Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 10; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4364 ↩
32. State Historical Society of North Dakota, State Archives, agency history of the State Department of Health, Division of Vital Records (https://www.history.nd.gov/archives/stateagencies/vitalrecords.html: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
33. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 38; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=6: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
34. Laws of 1890, ch. 91, §§ 3–4, p. 276; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1889/sl1889.pdf#page=272: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
35. Compare Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 3 ("cousins of the one-half as well as the whole blood") with Revised Codes of 1899, § 2722 ("cousins of the first degree of the half as well as the whole blood"); the qualified wording is carried to Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4359 ↩
36. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 39; Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 5 ↩
37. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 40; Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 6; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4360 ↩
38. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 44; Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 14; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4366 ↩
39. Revised Code of 1943, §§ 14-0312 through 14-0315, as digested in Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: North Dakota, 10 ↩
40. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 42; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=7: accessed 11 August 2026); re-enacted by Laws of 1890, ch. 91, § 13, and carried through Revised Codes of 1895, § 2728, Revised Codes of 1905, § 4040, and Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4365 ↩
41. Laws Passed at the Eleventh Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Bismarck, N.D.: Tribune, State Printers and Binders, 1909), ch. 164, § 1, "An Act to Prevent Miscegenation," approved 13 March 1909; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1909/sl1909.pdf#page=223: accessed 11 August 2026); Compiled Laws of 1913, Penal Code, § 9582 ↩
42. Laws of 1909, ch. 164, § 2; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 9583 ↩
43. Laws of 1909, ch. 164, §§ 3–4; Compiled Laws of 1913, §§ 9584–9585 ↩
44. Laws of 1909, ch. 164, §§ 6–7; Compiled Laws of 1913, §§ 9586–9587 ↩
45. Laws of 1909, ch. 164, § 5 ↩
46. Laws of 1955, ch. 126, §§ 1–4, repealing Revised Code of 1943, §§ 14-0304, 14-0305, 14-0326, and 14-0327; the repeal notes are still printed under the section headings in N.D.C.C. ch. 14-03, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t14c03.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
47. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 170; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=26: accessed 11 August 2026); carried through Revised Codes of 1895, § 3277, and Revised Codes of 1905, § 4713, to Compiled Laws of 1913, § 5266 ↩
48. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 794; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=124: accessed 11 August 2026); carried through Revised Codes of 1899, § 3758, and Revised Codes of 1905, § 5203, to Compiled Laws of 1913, § 5759 ↩
49. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 78–79 ↩
50. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 82 ↩
51. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 83, subds. 2, 4 ↩
52. N.D. Const. of 1889, § 213; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/sites/default/files/resource/historical-constitution-documents/1889-constitution.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
53. Laws Passed at the Sixth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Grand Forks, N.D.: Herald, State Printers and Binders, 1899), ch. 100; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1899/sl1899.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026); codified at Revised Codes of 1899, § 2767, Revised Codes of 1905, § 4079, and Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4411; the same rule at Revised Code of 1943, §§ 14-0705, 14-0706, as digested in Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: North Dakota, 7 ↩
54. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 660–661, with the prescribed certificate of acknowledgment by a married woman at § 664, subd. 3; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=106: accessed 11 August 2026); the requirement is absent from the Revised Codes of 1895 and later codes ↩
55. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 38, § 3, which requires the joint instrument where the owner is married and both husband and wife are residents of the territory; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/political-code.pdf#page=183: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
56. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 38, § 8 ↩
57. Laws Passed at the Second Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Grand Forks, N.D., 1891), ch. 67, §§ 1, 4; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1891/sl1891.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026); codified at Revised Codes of 1895, §§ 3605, 3608, and carried to Compiled Laws of 1913, §§ 5605, 5608 ↩
58. Revised Code of 1943, §§ 47-1801, 47-1805, as digested in Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: North Dakota, 4 ↩
59. Revised Code of 1943, § 35-0404 ↩
60. Revised Code of 1943, § 47-1822 ↩
61. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 352; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/probate-code.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
62. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 622 ↩
63. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 623 ↩
64. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 26; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=3: accessed 11 August 2026); carried through Revised Codes of 1895, § 2712, and Revised Codes of 1905, § 4024, to Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4349 ↩
65. Revised Codes of 1895, § 2712, replacing the flat bar of the territorial section with a cross-reference to the state Constitution; N.D. Const. of 1889, § 121, subd. 3; carried through Revised Codes of 1899, § 2712, and Revised Codes of 1905, § 4024, to Compiled Laws of 1913, § 4349 ↩
66. N.D. Const. of 1889, compact article, cl. 2; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/sites/default/files/resource/historical-constitution-documents/1889-constitution.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
67. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 777; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=121: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
68. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 778, subds. 1–6 and 9; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=121: accessed 11 August 2026); carried through Revised Codes of 1899, § 3741, and Revised Codes of 1905, § 5186, to Compiled Laws of 1913, § 5742 ↩
69. Revised Code of 1943, § 56-0104, as digested in Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: North Dakota, 8–9 ↩
70. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 788–792 ↩
71. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 787 ↩
72. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 778, subd. 7 ↩
73. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 778, subd. 8 ↩
74. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 779, and § 83, subd. 5; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=122: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
75. Compiled Laws of 1913, § 5744; Revised Code of 1943, §§ 14-0709, 56-0102, now N.D.C.C. § 14-07-09 ↩
76. Arnegaard v. Arnegaard, 7 N.D. 475, 485, 75 N.W. 797 (1898), CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/6847509/arnegaard-v-arnegaard/: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
77. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 128, and Political Code, ch. 38, §§ 16–17; Revised Code of 1943, §§ 30-1601, 30-1602, the survivor's right running until remarriage, as digested in Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: North Dakota, 9 ↩
78. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, §§ 128–129, 134; Revised Code of 1943, § 30-1606 ↩
79. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, §§ 132–133; Revised Code of 1943, § 30-1610 ↩
80. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 135; Revised Code of 1943, §§ 30-1701, 30-1705 ↩
81. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 333; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/probate-code.pdf#page=59: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
82. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, §§ 334–335 ↩
83. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 336 ↩
84. Compiled Laws of 1913, §§ 8875–8877, each carrying the territorial section in its bracketed derivation ↩
85. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 337; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 8878 ↩
86. Revised Code of 1943, § 30-1001, as digested in Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: North Dakota, 12 ↩
87. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 135–136 ↩
88. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, §§ 137–138 ↩
89. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 780 ↩
90. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 87 ↩
91. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 116 ↩
92. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 780 ↩
93. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 781; Revised Code of 1943, § 56-0106 ↩
94. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 683; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=111: accessed 11 August 2026); Revised Code of 1943, §§ 56-0201, 56-0204 ↩
95. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 684; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 5641 ↩
96. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 691; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/civil-code.pdf#page=112: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
97. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 688 ↩
98. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 717 ↩
99. Revised Codes of 1877, Civil Code, § 718 ↩
100. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 46, and § 60 as to administrators; Compiled Laws of 1913, §§ 8657, 8661, both retaining majority as the test ↩
101. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 56; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/probate-code.pdf#page=11: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
102. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 57 ↩
103. Laws of 1897, ch. 111, § 18, amending Revised Codes of 1895, § 6315; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1897/sl1897.pdf#page=267: accessed 11 August 2026); the consolidated section carries no preference for males and is codified at Revised Codes of 1899, § 6315, and Compiled Laws of 1913, § 8657 ↩
104. Laws of 1897, ch. 111, § 18; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 8657 ↩
105. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 48; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 8661 ↩
106. Revised Codes of 1877, Probate Code, § 50 ↩
107. Laws Passed at the Sixteenth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Grand Forks, N.D., 1919), ch. 224, § 2, setting out the unearned-income and earned-income schedules separately; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1919/sl1919.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026). The 1923 rates are Laws Passed at the Eighteenth Session (Bismarck, N.D., 1923), ch. 312, § 12 (individuals) and § 26 (corporations); digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1923/sl1923.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026); codified at Supplement to the Compiled Laws, 1913–1925, §§ 2346a11, 2346a25 ↩
108. Laws Passed at the Twenty-fourth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Bismarck, N.D., 1935), ch. 276, § 2, imposing two percent on the gross receipts from all retail sales of tangible personal property from 1 May 1935; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1935/sl1935.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026). The act ran two years and was re-enacted by each following assembly — Laws of 1937, ch. 249; 1939, ch. 234; 1941, ch. 283; 1943, ch. 264; 1945, ch. 308; 1947, ch. 344; and 1949, ch. 341 — the enactment history being recited in F. W. Woolworth Co. v. Gray, 77 N.D. 757, 46 N.W.2d 295, 297–99 (1951), CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1845279/f-w-woolworth-co-v-gray/: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
109. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 28, §§ 1–3; the exemptions are at § 2 ↩
110. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 28, § 15 ↩
111. Laws of 1897, ch. 126, § 7; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1897/sl1897.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026); codified at Revised Codes of 1899, § 1182, Revised Codes of 1905, § 1487, and Compiled Laws of 1913, § 2094, none of which contains a clause for listing a married woman's property ↩
112. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 28, § 5 ↩
113. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 29, § 66; and see ch. 25, § 33, setting the levy; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/political-code.pdf#page=123: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
114. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 25, § 33; and ch. 29, § 68 ↩
115. Compiled Laws of 1913, § 1961, carrying Revised Codes of 1899, § 1098, and Revised Codes of 1905, § 1388; the penalty and notice sections follow at §§ 1962–1963 ↩
116. Supplement to the Compiled Laws, 1913–1925, § 2150, as amended by Laws Passed at the Fourteenth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Bismarck, N.D., 1915), ch. 111, § 1; the Supplement's article 13 on highway labor and road tax carries annotations to Compiled Laws of 1913, §§ 2010, 2017–2025, but no amendment; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1925/political-code.pdf#page=396: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
117. State Historical Society of North Dakota, State Archives, agency history of the Department of Transportation, on the reorganizations of 1927 (S.L. 1927, ch. 159), 1931 (S.L. 1931, ch. 153), and 1933 (https://www.history.nd.gov/archives/stateagencies/transportation.html: accessed 11 August 2026); N.D.C.C. title 24, which contains no poll tax chapter, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t24.html: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
118. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 29, § 65 ↩
119. Compiled Laws of 1913, § 1842, carrying Revised Codes of 1905, § 1294, and Laws of 1903, ch. 138 ↩
120. Laws of 1915, ch. 187, § 9; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1915/sl1915.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026); codified at Supplement to the Compiled Laws, 1913–1925, § 2422a2 ↩
121. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 19, § 1; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/political-code.pdf#page=35: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
122. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 19, § 1, proviso ↩
123. Compiled Laws of 1913, § 814, which extends the list of persons who cannot be compelled to serve to county auditors, county treasurers, county superintendents of schools, teachers, and court clerks ↩
124. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 19, §§ 12–13 ↩
125. Revised Codes of 1877, Political Code, ch. 19, § 2 ↩
126. N.D. Const. of 1889, § 121, subd. 2; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/sites/default/files/resource/historical-constitution-documents/1889-constitution.pdf: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
127. Laws Passed at the Seventeenth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Grand Forks, N.D.: The Normanden Publishing Co., 1921), ch. 81, § 1, amending and re-enacting § 814 of the Compiled Laws of 1913 so as to read "All citizens residing in any of the counties of this state having the qualifications of electors"; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1921/sl1921.pdf#page=158: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
128. State v. Norton, 64 N.D. 675, 679, 255 N.W. 787, 793 (1934), CourtListener (https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/3933094/state-v-norton/: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
129. Revised Code of 1943, ch. 27-09, as digested in Women's Bureau, Legal Status of Women: North Dakota, 14 ↩
130. Revised Codes of 1877, Penal Code, § 16, subds. 1–2; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/penal-code.pdf#page=3: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
131. Compiled Laws of 1913, § 9207, subds. 1–2, carrying Revised Codes of 1895, § 6814, and Revised Codes of 1905, § 8544 ↩
132. Laws Passed at the Twelfth Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota (Bismarck, N.D., 1911), ch. 177, § 1, p. 266; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/sessionlaws/1911/sl1911.pdf#page=297: accessed 11 August 2026); Compiled Laws of 1913, § 11402 ↩
133. Laws of 1911, ch. 177, § 2; Compiled Laws of 1913, § 11403 ↩
134. Laws of 1911, ch. 177, §§ 3–4; Compiled Laws of 1913, §§ 11404–11405 ↩
135. Revised Codes of 1877, Code of Civil Procedure, § 446; digital images, North Dakota Legislative Branch (https://ndlegis.gov/assembly/revised-codes-and-compiled-laws/1877/code-of-civil-procedure.pdf#page=83: accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
136. Revised Codes of 1877, Code of Civil Procedure, § 446, subds. 1–2 ↩
137. Compiled Laws of 1913, § 7871, subds. 1–2 ↩
138. N.D. Const. of 1889, § 121, subd. 3 ↩

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.