Oklahoma Historical Law Guide

Contents

Legal Ages at a Glance

General Principles

A civil code written down at the start

Oklahoma had its law written down in a statute book before it was a state. In 1890 the first territorial legislature adopted a complete civil code. It copied that code from Dakota Territory, which had copied it from a model code written by David Dudley Field for New York. California used the same model. So Oklahoma has a written statute for almost everything. Behind those statutes stands English law. Most of the land came to the United States from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803¹, and the panhandle was added later, but no French or Spanish rule survived in practice. English common law is what the courts actually used. It reached Oklahoma by two routes: from Arkansas in the east, and through the Field code by way of Dakota in the west. A reception statute keeps that common law in force when the statutes do not answer a question. It also lets the courts set the common law aside when it does not fit Oklahoma conditions².

That history shapes this whole guide. Married women held their own property from the beginning. A surviving spouse took a share of the estate outright and owned it. And every age in the code was set by statute, not left to the common law. Oklahoma ran on separate property: each spouse owned what was theirs, and marriage moved nothing from one to the other. There is one exception, the ten years from 1939 to 1949, when a community property system ran alongside the usual rule. That period is explained under Property Ownership.

Three bodies of law before statehood

Before statehood in 1907, three different sets of laws governed different parts of what is now Oklahoma. Which one applied to your ancestor depends on where the family lived and in what year.

Indian Territory — the eastern half, from the 1830s to statehood in 1907 — was home to the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole Nations. Each nation moved there in the 1830s. Each governed itself under its own written constitution, its own statutes, and its own courts. From the 1830s to 1890, tribal law is the law that governed a tribal family. You can read it in the printed constitutions and laws of each nation, listed in the source list below. Federal courts sitting in Arkansas and Texas handled only crimes and lawsuits that involved people who were not tribal citizens.

Congress then replaced that law in stages. In 1890 it applied the general laws of Arkansas to the territory, as printed in Mansfield's Digest of 1884. Those laws applied only so far as they fit local conditions and did not conflict with an act of Congress³. This did not push tribal law aside all at once. The same act left the courts of the Indian nations in sole control of every civil and criminal case in which tribal members were the only parties⁴. So Arkansas law covered dealings between a tribal citizen and a non-citizen. A marriage, a deed, or an estate that involved only tribal citizens stayed under tribal law until 1898. The courts then decided section by section which parts of the Arkansas law applied⁵. Chapter 49, on who inherits an estate, was put in force by name⁶.

Arkansas law was a traditional common-law system. It gave a widow dower: the right to use a third of her late husband's land for the rest of her life, while the land itself passed to his heirs. It gave a widower curtesy, the matching right to use his late wife's land for life. It also put a married woman's property under her husband's control. An act of 7 June 1897, effective on 1 January 1898, applied those laws to everyone in the territory, whatever their race⁷. In 1898 the Curtis Act closed the tribal courts and stopped the federal courts from enforcing tribal law⁸.

Old Greer County — the southwestern corner, now Greer, Jackson, Harmon, and part of Beckham County — is the third body of law, and it is the one researchers miss. Texas claimed this land and made it a county in 1886. Texas governed it until 16 March 1896, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the land had never belonged to Texas at all⁹. For those ten years, families there married, bought land, and settled estates under Texas law. On 4 May 1896 Congress made the same ground a county of Oklahoma Territory, the western half from 1890 to 1907. The act protected the Texas years. Every contract, lien, sale, mortgage, and court judgment made before 16 March 1896 kept the same force it would have had if the county really had been part of Texas¹⁰. So the Texas-era records are still good, and the Oklahoma courts treated the Texas county officers as lawful officers¹¹. For anything before 16 March 1896 in those counties, use the Texas rules, not the ones in this guide.

Oklahoma Territory — the western half, opened to settlement in 1889 and organized from 1890 to 1907 — first ran on the Organic Act of 1890. That act put certain general laws of Nebraska in force for a short time¹². The territory then ran on its own code.

At statehood in 1907, the Schedule to the new Constitution carried the laws of Oklahoma Territory across the whole new state. A right that a person had already gained under Arkansas law in Indian Territory still held good afterward. One example is a widower's curtesy in his late wife's land, if she had died before statehood¹³.

Legal Age of Adulthood

Majority at 21 for a man and 18 for a woman

Full legal age in Oklahoma was 21 for a man and 18 for a woman. The territorial code said it plainly. Minors were males under 21 and females under 18, counted from the first minute of the day they were born. Everyone else was an adult¹⁴. Both ages held through 1950. A single age of 18 replaced them in 1972¹⁵.

This is an important age difference in Oklahoma records. A woman of 18 could sign a deed, close out her guardianship, and take her inheritance into her own hands. Her brother had to wait until 21 to do the same. If a guardianship over a brother and sister ends three years apart, the ages are usually the reason, not anything about the family.

A minor's legal capacity

A minor could own land at any age¹⁶. What the law limited was the power to sell it or make deals about it:

• The age for contracts was 18, for both sexes. Under 18, a minor could not make a contract about land, or about goods the minor did not already hold, unless a statute allowed it¹⁷.
• A minor could disaffirm (cancel) any other contract, either before reaching full age or within one year after. The minor's heirs could do the same if the minor died within that year. A contract made under 18 could be canceled outright. A contract made at 18 or older could be canceled only if the minor gave back what he or she had received¹⁸.
• Marriage removed the limit on property. A person of any age who had legally married could own, sell, and make contracts about land gained after the marriage¹⁹.
• A person under 21 could ask the district court to remove the legal limits of being a minor. The court agreed if it was satisfied the minor could manage his own affairs and would benefit. The order is a court record, and anyone holding one bought and sold land as freely as an adult²⁰.

Majority in Indian Territory, before 1907

In Indian Territory, the eastern half before 1907, the Arkansas rule set the very same ages. Males of 21 and females of 18 were of full age for every purpose, and were minors until then²¹. The father, while he lived, was the natural guardian of the children and their property, and the mother took that role after him. If the property came from someone else, the parent had to post a bond and file accounts like any other guardian²².

Marriage

Who was old enough to marry

Statutes set the marriage ages in Oklahoma. The ages differed by sex, and they rose sharply at statehood in 1907.

In Oklahoma Territory, the western half from 1890 to 1907, the ages were low. Any unmarried male of 18 or older and any unmarried female of 15 or older could agree to marry and go through with it, so long as nothing else disqualified them²³. So a territorial marriage of a sixteen-year-old boy or a fifteen-year-old girl was normal, and it needed nobody's permission.

The first state Legislature raised the ages in 1908. An unmarried man of 21 and an unmarried woman of 18 could marry on their own. A man between 18 and 21, and a woman between 15 and 18, could marry with the permission of a parent or guardian. The parent could give that permission in person or in writing, and a written permission had to be signed before an officer authorized to take deed acknowledgments. A male under 18 and a female under 15 could not marry at all. The only way around this was a court order. A judge could grant one to settle a lawsuit over seduction or a child born outside marriage, so long as the marriage would not be incestuous²⁴.

Those ages carried into the Revised Laws of 1910 and stayed unchanged until 1947²⁵. The parent's permission is filed with the license application in the court clerk's records. So an underage marriage usually names a parent, and after 1908 a written permission also carries a notary's certificate.

Marriage without a ceremony

Oklahoma recognized common-law marriage, and the rule comes from the territorial code. A marriage needed the couple's agreement, followed either by a ceremony or by both of them taking on the rights and duties of marriage²⁶. That second path is the common-law marriage. Two things had to happen. The couple had to agree to become husband and wife right then, and they had to live as married from that point on. When they did, the law treated them as married²⁷. The statutes that called for a license and a return were instructions to the officials, not requirements for a valid marriage²⁸.

This matters directly for research: a valid Oklahoma marriage may leave no license and no return at all. If a couple shows up as married in the census and in deeds but never in the court clerk's marriage books, a common-law marriage is the usual explanation. The proof lies in the records that show them living as a married couple.

If Oklahoma residents married in another state and then came home to live, Oklahoma law judged that marriage whenever it went against Oklahoma public policy²⁹.

Marriages that were void or could be annulled

A marriage between close relatives was incestuous and void. The territorial rule covered parents and children, and ancestors and descendants at any distance. It also covered brothers and sisters, uncles and nieces, aunts and nephews, and cousins. It applied whether they were half or full blood relatives, and whether or not the parents had been married. A stepfather with a stepdaughter, or a stepmother with a stepson, was void under the next section³⁰. The 1908 act restated the list and named first cousins and second cousins³¹, and the Revised Laws of 1910 kept it³². A court could annul a marriage if someone proved that a party was too young or not mentally capable³³.

Marriage between people of different races

The same 1908 marriage act banned marriage between a person of African descent, as the Constitution defined that term, and a person not of African descent³⁴. Breaking that rule was a felony. The punishment was a fine of up to $500 and one to five years in the penitentiary³⁵. A minister or other person authorized to perform marriages who knowingly performed one faced the same penalty³⁶. A county judge or clerk who knowingly issued a license against the act, or hid the record of one, committed a misdemeanor³⁷. The Constitution supplied the definitions. Its race terms covered all people of African descent, and it counted everyone else as white³⁸. The ban was still in force in 1948³⁹.

Two results shaped the records, and they pull in opposite directions. The marriage was void from the start. It gave neither person any personal or property right, so the surviving spouse was not an heir and any deed he signed was worthless. A couple who married in a neighboring state and came home to live gained nothing from it⁴⁰. The children, though, were legitimate. The law declared the children of all void marriages legitimate, so the children of a void interracial marriage inherited from both parents as heirs⁴¹. If an estate skips a surviving husband and goes straight to the children, this rule is often the reason.

The ban fell on 10 July 1967. The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that both sections broke the Fourteenth Amendment and overturned its own earlier decisions upholding them, following Loving v. Virginia a month before⁴². The Legislature deleted the two sections from the statutes in 1969⁴³.

Marriage in Indian Territory, before 1907

The Arkansas ages governed the eastern half before 1907. A male of 17 and a female of 14 could marry, and a marriage below those ages was void⁴⁴. Marriage was incestuous and completely void between parents, children, and grandchildren at any distance, between brothers and sisters of half or full blood, between uncles and nieces, between aunts and nephews, and between first cousins. The rule covered relationships outside marriage too⁴⁵. In the words the Arkansas statute used at the time, marriage between a white person and a person of African descent was illegal and void⁴⁶. A court could annul a marriage if a party was too young or not mentally capable, or if someone got consent by force or fraud⁴⁷.

Each of the Five Tribes also passed its own marriage laws for its own citizens, and the tribal governments kept those records. One federal rule matters more than any other for research here. In 1890 Congress declared valid every marriage already made under the laws or customs of any Indian nation in the territory⁴⁸. So a marriage made by tribal custom before that date is a lawful marriage. You can prove it with evidence that the couple presented themselves as married and were known as married, with no license or ceremony at all⁴⁹. Read the tribal marriage laws themselves in the printed constitutions and laws of each nation.

Property Ownership

Which men could own land

The right to buy, hold, and sell land belonged to every man of full age, of any race, who was a citizen or a genuine resident non-citizen. A man of 21 bought, sold, and mortgaged land in his own name. His deed carried his signature alone unless the land was the family homestead.

The Constitution limited a non-citizen's rights. A non-citizen who was not a settled, genuine resident of the state could get land only by will or inheritance. He had to sell it within five years, or it escheated (passed) to the state. The rule expressly did not apply to Indians born in the United States⁵⁰. Non-citizens could still inherit. They took an inheritance as fully as citizens did, and nobody lost an inheritance because a relative was a non-citizen⁵¹.

Women and land ownership

A married woman in Oklahoma held her own property separately and handled it in her own name. Neither spouse gained any interest in the other's separate property. A wife's separate property, including her earnings, was out of reach of her husband's creditors, and each spouse answered only for their own acts⁵². Either spouse could make contracts about property with the other, or with anyone else, exactly as if single⁵³. So a married woman bought, sold, and mortgaged land in her own name, and her deed took effect on her signature alone.

A single or widowed woman — a feme sole, "woman alone" — held and sold land on the same terms.

Community property from 1939 to 1949

For ten years inside this period, Oklahoma ran a community property system alongside its usual rule. Community property means property a husband and wife own together in equal halves because it came to them during the marriage. It does not matter which of them earned or bought it.

The act of 1939 worked by choice. It applied to a couple only after they filed a written election. Both had to sign it in front of an officer, in two copies, and file it with the county clerk where they lived and with the Secretary of State. From the date that election took effect, whatever either of them gained was community property, and each owned an undivided half. Whatever either owned before, or received later as a gift, by will, or by inheritance, stayed separate⁵⁴.

The act of 1945 replaced it, starting 26 July of that year. This one applied to every married couple in the state, with no election to file. A wife managed, controlled, and could sell any community property held in her name, including her earnings and the income from her separate property. Her husband managed the rest. When one spouse died, the survivor handled all of the community property⁵⁵. The Legislature repealed the whole system in 1949, and Oklahoma went back to separate property⁵⁶.

An election filed under the 1939 act names both spouses, carries its own date, and sits in the county clerk's records and with the Secretary of State. Under the 1945 act the halves existed with no filing at all. So a deed or estate paper from 1945 to 1949 may state that land is community property even though nothing earlier in the record does.

When a wife had to sign her husband's deed

In the western half from 1890, and across the state from 1907, each spouse owned their land outright and could sell or mortgage it alone. The territorial code abolished dower and curtesy in a single line⁵⁷, they stayed abolished⁵⁸, and the inheritance statute repeated the point⁵⁹. Either spouse could sell or mortgage his or her own land on that spouse's signature alone, unless the land was the homestead⁶⁰. So the ordinary Oklahoma deed of a man's own land carries his signature alone.

The homestead is the exception. A deed, mortgage, or contract on a homestead was valid only if it was in writing and signed by both husband and wife, with both alive and not divorced or legally separated⁶¹. The Constitution set the same requirement and allowed a homestead to be mortgaged only if the spouse joined in⁶². A homestead deed signed by one spouse alone was void from the start⁶³. If one spouse had abandoned the other for a year, or had left the state, the remaining spouse could sell alone⁶⁴.

So both names on an Oklahoma deed usually mean the land was the family home place. One name on a deed for the family residence is a signal worth chasing. It means one of three things: the land was not the homestead, the marriage had broken down, or the deed was bad.

The homestead itself was 160 acres outside a town, or one acre inside a town, lived in as a residence and capped in value. Federal law and the Indian treaties expressly did not take this benefit away from any Indian or other allottee⁶⁵.

Which children could own land

A child could own land at any age, and could get it by inheritance, gift, allotment, or purchase just as an adult did⁶⁶. Selling it was the problem. A minor could make a contract about land only after reaching full age⁶⁷. So a sale of a minor's land went through the county court on a guardian's application, and the guardian signed the deed. Own at any age; sell freely at 21 for a man, 18 for a woman.

Witnessing a deed

An Oklahoma deed was made ready for recording by the grantor's acknowledgment — the person making the deed confirming it in front of a notary or other authorized officer. That acknowledgment is what let the deed be recorded and made it hold up against later buyers. Between the two parties themselves, a deed with no acknowledgment and no recording was still good⁶⁸. The acknowledgment was the only formality needed. A deed, mortgage, contract, lease, bond, or other land document was good on the grantor's signature and acknowledgment. A subscribing witness (a witness who signs the document) added nothing either way⁶⁹. The county clerk kept the land records.

Dower and a wife's signature in Indian Territory, before 1907

In Indian Territory before 1907 the Arkansas rules governed. A married woman there lived under coverture — the common-law rule that merged a wife's legal identity into her husband's, so that he managed her land and collected its rents as long as the marriage lasted. She gave up her own claims through a privy examination, a private interview with an official, held apart from her husband, in which she certified that she signed of her own free will.

Dower is the reason a wife's signature matters on an Indian Territory deed. A widow had a right to a third of every piece of land her husband had owned outright at any time during the marriage, unless she had already given up that claim in legal form⁷⁰. She kept the claim even on land he had sold while he was alive⁷¹. So a buyer needed her to sign the deed and release it.

On an Indian Territory deed, before 1907, a wife's signature is normal. On an Oklahoma Territory deed, from 1890 to 1907, a husband's signature alone carried the whole title, unless the land was the homestead.

Allotted and restricted land

Tribal land in Indian Territory, the eastern half before 1907, was held in common until Congress divided it into individual allotments. The Curtis Act of 1898 pushed that process forward and abolished the tribal courts⁷². The Dawes Commission's rolls became the official list of who could claim an allotment.

Allotted land came with limits on selling it, and after 1906 those limits were tied to degree of Indian blood⁷³. The Act of 1908 reset the system:

Two parts of the same act moved whole classes of records. The act placed minor allottees and their property under the Oklahoma probate courts⁷⁵. So a minor Indian allottee's affairs produce a county court guardianship file, and those files are numerous and detailed. The act also required the court settling an estate to approve any sale by a full-blood heir of inherited land⁷⁶. That approval appears right on the probate record.

The Stigler Act of 1947 carried the system forward. It required an heir to be of one-half or more Indian blood to keep land in restricted status, and it required court approval when a qualifying heir sold⁷⁷.

If the restrictions on one person's land were lifted, the application and the order lifting them went to the federal agency that administered the Five Tribes. Those files survive as their own series, and they name the allottee, the land, and the family.

Allotted land outside the Five Tribes

The allotment rules above are the rules for the Five Tribes. The other nations on the old western reservations were allotted under their own acts, and the Osage rules are the ones a researcher meets most often. In 1906 Congress divided the Osage lands and funds among the members listed on the roll of 1 January 1906. Each member chose three tracts of 160 acres and named one of them a homestead. The nation kept the minerals underneath in common, and each member held a share of the mineral income called a headright⁷⁸. Osage allotted land could not be sold freely. An adult could have that limit lifted only by a certificate of competency, which the Secretary of the Interior granted at his own discretion⁷⁹. In 1912 Congress placed the property of dead Osage allottees, orphan minors, and other allottees judged unable to manage their affairs under the probate authority of the Oklahoma county courts. A copy of every paper also went to the superintendent of the Osage Agency⁸⁰. So an Osage minor from this period produces a county court guardianship file with a federal agency copy alongside it, and both survive.

Enslaved people and freedmen in the tribal nations

The Five Tribes held enslaved people of African descent before 1866. The Reconstruction treaties of 1866 ended slavery in each nation, but they treated the freed people differently. The Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole treaties gave them citizenship rights in the nation. The Choctaw and Chickasaw treaty instead offered either adoption into the nation, or removal and settlement somewhere else⁸¹.

That difference is why the Dawes Commission enrolled freedmen separately, and why freedmen allotments were handled differently from the allotments of Indians by blood. The Act of 1908, for example, removed all sale restrictions from freedmen allottees. Freedmen rolls and citizenship application files are the core records for African American research in eastern Oklahoma.

Inheritance

One statute for land and goods

When an owner died intestate (without a will), Oklahoma divided the whole estate — land and personal property together — under a single inheritance statute. The surviving spouse took a share outright, as an owner, and not just a right to use it for life⁸².

How an estate was divided without a will

The shares depend on how many children survived. They stayed the same from the territorial code of 1890 through 1950⁸³:

Two other parts of the same section are worth learning, because both leave a mark on the family.

A second or later spouse took only a child's part — an equal share with each living child — out of property the deceased had not gained during the marriage to that spouse⁸⁵. So an estate division that gives the widow a child's part instead of a third is evidence of a remarriage. It is often the first hint that the children came from an earlier wife.

If the couple had gained the property by their joint work during the marriage and had no children, the whole estate went to the survivor. When that survivor died, whatever was left was split in half, half to the husband's heirs and half to the wife's⁸⁶. If an estate file gives a childless widow everything, and her own estate is then split between two sets of collateral kin — relatives outside the direct line of parents and children — that is this rule at work.

Between 1939 and 1949 a surviving spouse already owned half of the community property outright. So only the deceased's half passed under the table above⁸⁷.

Restricted allotted land passed under the same statute for the order of heirs. But federal law decided which of those heirs could hold the land in restricted status, and which of them needed a judge's approval to sell.

What a surviving spouse took on top of the share

On top of that share, a surviving spouse kept the whole homestead until it was disposed of some other way. The survivor also took right away, free of the deceased's debts, the family's clothing, a year's food and fuel, and the household and kitchen furniture⁸⁸.

Neither spouse could use a will to take more from the other than the statute allowed. If a will left the survivor less than the statutory share, the survivor could reject the will and take the statutory share instead⁸⁹. That choice is a filed paper in the probate case, and it names the survivor.

Inheritance in Indian Territory, before 1907

Chapter 49 of Mansfield's Digest governed the eastern half before 1907, and it worked differently. The land and personal property of a person who died without a will passed together to the relatives, male and female, after his debts and the widow's dower were paid. It went first to the children or their descendants in equal parts. If there were none, it went to the father, then the mother. If neither survived, it went to brothers and sisters or their descendants, and then outward to grandparents, uncles, and aunts⁹⁰. If there were no relatives at all, the whole estate went to the surviving husband or wife⁹¹.

The widow took her share as dower. She took one-third of the personal property outright, in her own right⁹². If her husband left no children, she took half of the land he was seized of — that is, owned and held at his death — and half of the personal property, outright⁹³. In the rest of the land she had only the right to use it for life. At her death that land passed under her husband's will, or under the law for estates with no will⁹⁴. If the whole estate was worth less than $300, she owned it outright⁹⁵.

A child born outside marriage inherited from the mother as if legitimate⁹⁶. If the parents married later and the father acknowledged the child, the child became legitimate⁹⁷. The children of void marriages, and of marriages ended by divorce, were legitimate⁹⁸. A non-citizen ancestor somewhere in the line did not block an inheritance⁹⁹.

Allotted land is the exception to all of this, and the rules differ by tribe. Chapter 49 replaced the tribal inheritance laws. The Original Creek Agreement of 1901 brought back Creek tribal inheritance for Creek allotments. The Enabling Act of 1906 then put Oklahoma law back in place¹⁰⁰. Work out which nation, which land, and which year before you apply any rule.

Minors and guardians

A minor inherited right away. A guardian then managed the inheritance under the court's supervision, posted a bond, and filed accounts. That court was the probate court in the western half from 1890 to 1907, the federal court in the eastern half before 1907, and the county court from statehood in 1907. A reorganization in 1968 moved probate and guardianship work to the district court, which is where the older files sit today.

At 14 a minor could name his or her own guardian, if the court approved. Below 14, the probate judge chose and appointed the guardian. The territorial code set it out that way from the start¹⁰¹, and the rule carried forward unchanged¹⁰². Indian Territory used the same age before 1907. Its probate court appointed guardians for minors under fourteen and let those over fourteen choose for themselves, subject to court approval¹⁰³. So a guardianship record in which the child does the choosing is evidence the child had turned 14, which narrows a birth year.

Being a parent gave no control over a child's property. Nobody had power as guardian of a minor's property until the court appointed them¹⁰⁴. So a guardian was appointed in three situations: when a minor had property to manage, when the minor had no parent able to act, and, after 1908, for every minor allottee of the Five Tribes, whom Congress had placed under the probate courts¹⁰⁵. A parent could also name a testamentary guardian (one named in a will) by will or by deed. The father did so with the mother's written consent. Either parent could act alone if the other was dead or unable, and the mother acted alone for a child born outside marriage¹⁰⁶.

Guardianship ended at full age: 21 for a young man, 18 for a young woman. The final account and the guardian's discharge are among the most valuable documents in Oklahoma genealogy. They date the minor's coming of age, which gives a close birth year, and they often give a young woman's married surname.

Children born outside marriage

A child born outside marriage inherited from the mother. The child inherited from the father too, but only if the father was connected to the child in one of four ways¹⁰⁷:

• He stated in writing, signed in front of a qualified witness, that he was the father.
• The parents married after the birth, and the father then acknowledged or adopted the child.
• He publicly acknowledged the child as his own and took the child into his family.
• A court ruled that he was the father.

The children of a marriage later found void, and of a marriage ended by divorce, counted as born within a marriage.

If the father had done none of those things and the child died with no lawful children, the estate went to the mother, or to her heirs if she had died¹⁰⁸.

A court case settled paternity. It ordered the man found to be the father to support the child and to post security for that support¹⁰⁹. The file names the father.

Wills and executors

The age to make a will was 18, for both sexes. That is three years below a man's full age, so a will made by a single man in his teens is normal. The territorial code set it: every person over 18 and of sound mind could give away his whole estate, land and goods, by will¹¹⁰, and the age never moved before 1950¹¹¹. A married woman could give away her whole separate estate by will without her husband's consent, and she could change or cancel that will as if she were single¹¹².

An attested will (one signed in front of witnesses) was signed by the testator — the person making the will — and then by two witnesses, each signing at the testator's request and in his presence¹¹³. A holographic will — one written, dated, and signed entirely in the testator's own hand — was valid with no witnesses at all¹¹⁴, and these are common in the Oklahoma record. A nuncupative (spoken) will was good for an estate worth no more than $1,000, and two witnesses who were present had to prove it. It was allowed in only two situations: the testator was in military service in the field or at sea and in danger of death, or he expected to die from an injury he had received that same day¹¹⁵.

In Indian Territory before 1907, the Arkansas rule split the ages by the kind of property. A person of 21 could devise (give by will) the whole estate, land and goods¹¹⁶. A person over 18 could give away only goods and belongings¹¹⁷. Two attesting witnesses were required, each signing at the end of the will at the testator's request¹¹⁸. So a will made by a nineteen-year-old in Indian Territory is good for the goods and void for the land.

A witness to a will could be any age, as long as the witness was legally qualified. If a will gave something to one of its own signing witnesses, the gift held only if two other qualified witnesses had also signed¹¹⁹. A witness who lost a gift this way, and who would have inherited if there had been no will, took that inheritance share instead, up to the value of the lost gift¹²⁰. A witness who was qualified when the will was signed stayed good even if he became unqualified later¹²¹.

The age to serve as executor, executrix, or administrator was full age — 21 for a man and 18 for a woman. Anyone under that age could not serve¹²². If the person entitled to serve was a minor, the letters — the court's written authority to act — went to the minor's guardian or to another person entitled, as the court chose¹²³. So the letters name whoever actually settled the estate.

Wills of restricted Indians

One federal rule creates a record type found nowhere else. If a full-blood Indian of the Five Tribes made a will giving away restricted land, that will held up against the testator's parent, spouse, or children only if a judge had taken the acknowledgment and approved it. Before 1908 that judge was a judge of the United States court for Indian Territory, or a United States commissioner. From 1908 it was a judge of an Oklahoma county court¹²⁴. The approval was written on the will and filed with it, and the rule applied only to gifts of restricted land¹²⁵.

Taxation

What was taxed

The tax that reached almost everyone through 1950 was the ad valorem property tax — a tax on the assessed value of land and goods. The county assessed and collected it. The state stopped taxing property in 1933, when voters amended the Constitution to bar state-level property tax. That left the ad valorem tax to the counties and school districts¹²⁶.

Two taxes on income and spending followed. The first state Legislature passed an income tax in 1908, but it reached only the well-off. The assessor asked each person whether his total income from salaries, fees, trade, profession, and untaxed property was over $3,500, and taxed only the amount above that¹²⁷. A second act in 1915 made every person in the state pay a yearly tax on all net income from every source, and it repealed the 1908 tax¹²⁸. A corporate income tax followed in 1931, and a general sales tax in 1933¹²⁹.

The road work tax

The tax most likely to name an ancestor who owned nothing is the road tax. Oklahoma Territory had one from its earliest code in 1890. The rule covered every male between 21 and 45 who had lived thirty days in the Territory, was fit for work on the highways, and was not supported by the township or county. Each of these men owed four eight-hour days of work on the roads of his district every year. He could send a substitute instead, or pay $1 a day to the road overseer, who gave a receipt for the money and spent it on the roads¹³⁰. A man who skipped or refused the work committed a misdemeanor, and a justice of the peace fined him $5 for each refusal. A man who showed up and would not do a fair day's work faced the same penalty¹³¹.

Two records come out of this. The overseer of each district notified every man who owed the work, which means he kept a list of the men in his district between those ages¹³². The overseer also reported the unpaid amounts, and those went onto the county tax roll. So a man who owned no property still appears there by name¹³³. A first appearance points to a twenty-first birthday, and a disappearance to a forty-fifth.

Besides the labor, county commissioners could charge a road tax of up to five mills — five tenths of a cent for every dollar of assessed value — on taxable property, and a man could work that off too at $1 a day¹³⁴. Later acts kept the four days and the dollar and tightened collection. They sent unpaid accounts through the township trustee to the county treasurer, and the statute calls the amount owed the man's poll tax¹³⁵.

By 1915 the state had switched to paying for roads out of taxes. The highway act of that year funded them with mill levies on taxable property and with motor vehicle registration¹³⁶.

Town and city poll taxes

Towns and cities could charge a true poll tax, and this is the second place to look for an ancestor who owned no property. A city council could pass an ordinance charging a poll tax of up to $1 on all able-bodied males between 21 and 50. If it did, the city clerk made and certified a list of the men who owed it, then gave that list to the county clerk to go on the tax roll¹³⁷. A town board of trustees had the same power, at the same amount and the same ages¹³⁸.

That certified list is the closest thing Oklahoma has to a census substitute for adult men in a town, and it brackets the same two birthdays at 21 and 50. To find out whether a particular town or city charged one, check its ordinances and its clerk's records.

The poll tax the Constitution allowed

The Constitution also allowed a statewide poll tax — a flat tax on a person rather than on property, also called a capitation tax. It let the Legislature charge one on all voters in the state under sixty years of age, up to $2 a head each year, and punish anyone who did not pay¹³⁹. Since voters were men over 21¹⁴⁰, any such tax would have covered ages 21 to 60. The authorization stayed in the Constitution but was never used, and the voters repealed it in 1986¹⁴¹. The road and town taxes above are the ones that actually reach ordinary men.

Taxation in the tribal nations

Allotted land held under federal restriction was exempt from taxation. The tribal governments raised money instead through permit taxes on non-citizens doing business in Indian Territory before 1907. Congress ended the tribal taxes in 1906¹⁴². The practical effect is that a restricted allottee may be missing from the county tax rolls entirely while owning a great deal of land.

Courts

Jury service

Jury service belonged to men. The Constitution said a grand jury was made up of twelve men, and a jury in a lower court of six men. From statehood in 1907 to 1949, the jury statute said the same thing in its own words: only male citizens could serve as grand or trial jurors¹⁴³. The act of 1949 rewrote the whole chapter and set a different test. A juror had to be a citizen of the United States, living in the state, with the qualifications of a voter. Under the Constitution of 1907, a voter was a male citizen of the United States, a male citizen of the state, or a male person of Indian descent born in the United States. In every case he had to be over 21 and meet the residence requirements¹⁴⁴. So for the last year of this period, the working test was a man of 21 who could vote¹⁴⁵.

Women became eligible in two steps. The Legislature opened jury service to them in 1951 and let a woman be excused because of her family responsibilities¹⁴⁶. The voters then amended the jury sections of the Constitution at the primary election of 1 July 1952, replacing "men" with "persons"¹⁴⁷. A woman on an Oklahoma jury list before 1951 is unusual and worth checking.

Black men were legally eligible for jury service from statehood in 1907, but in practice they were kept off. The Supreme Court overturned an Oklahoma conviction on that ground. It ruled that keeping Black citizens off the jury as a matter of practice denied the defendant the equal protection of the laws¹⁴⁸. Because the 1949 test tied jury service to voting, the rules that kept Black men from registering mattered here too. In 1910 Oklahoma amended its suffrage article to require a reading test, but exempted anyone entitled to vote on 1 January 1866 and his descendants. The Supreme Court struck that amendment down in 1915¹⁴⁹.

The jury act was rewritten in 1949. It repealed the old qualification sections and drew jury panels by a new method¹⁵⁰.

Criminal responsibility

The code set the ages directly:

• Under 7 — a child could not commit a crime.
• 7 to 14 — the law assumed the child could not, unless the State proved that the child knew the act was wrong at the time.
• 14 and over — fully responsible for a crime¹⁵¹.

From 1909 a juvenile court sat inside each county court and handled dependent, neglected, and delinquent children. A delinquent child meant a male under 16 or a female under 18¹⁵², and a juvenile ruling was neither a crime nor a conviction. That difference between the sexes lasted into the 1970s, when the federal courts struck it down¹⁵³.

This line moves the records. After 1909, a boy under 16 or a girl under 18 has a juvenile file in the county court instead of a criminal case file, and Oklahoma juvenile files are confidential.

Before the juvenile court existed, the territory handled the same children through the reform school. From 1895 a district court could commit a person under sixteen who could be imprisoned under any territorial law, or who was charged with a jail or prison offense and whose parent or guardian agreed. A probate court could commit a person under sixteen who was incorrigible. That meant a child who regularly ignored a parent's or guardian's orders, wandered or spent time in immoral places, and refused work suited to his age or refused to attend school¹⁵⁴. So a commitment of this kind before 1909 is a probate or district court paper, not a juvenile court one.

Witnesses

A witness of any age could testify, as long as the witness understood what an oath meant and could describe the facts. The evidence statute listed as unqualified those children under ten who seemed unable to form accurate impressions of the facts they were asked about, or to describe them truthfully. That wording entered Oklahoma law with the territorial code¹⁵⁵ and stood until 1978¹⁵⁶. It was a test of understanding, not a flat ban. The courts held that no exact age shuts a child out, and that the question turns on how much understanding the child appears to have¹⁵⁷. The trial judge decided it witness by witness, and children did testify. The section was repealed when Oklahoma adopted its Evidence Code, under which every person is qualified to testify¹⁵⁸.

Juries and witnesses in Indian Territory, before 1907

Before statehood in 1907 the eastern half ran on the Arkansas rules. On each of these three points the figure differs from the Oklahoma one.

A grand juror had to be a voter and a citizen of the county where he was called to serve, and he had to be sober and of good behavior¹⁵⁹. Nobody over sixty could be forced to serve on either jury. Neither could physicians, practicing attorneys, ministers, officers of a court, ferry-keepers, overseers of roads, or constables¹⁶⁰. A verdict still stood if a juror turned out to lack one of these qualifications, as long as nobody objected before he was sworn in¹⁶¹.

A child under twelve could not be found guilty of any crime or misdemeanor. That is one flat minimum age, rather than the two age bands Oklahoma used¹⁶². An adult who advised or encouraged a child under twelve to commit an offense was punished for that offense himself, as though he had committed it directly¹⁶³.

A child under ten could not testify, and a child over ten could not testify either if he did not understand what an oath meant¹⁶⁴. A husband and wife could not testify for or against each other, or about anything one said to the other during the marriage. The one exception let either testify for the other about business done as the other's agent¹⁶⁵.

Women and people of color as witnesses

A woman was a qualified witness throughout the period, in both territories and in the state. Marriage, not sex, was the limit that mattered. In a civil case a husband and wife could not testify for or against each other. There were three exceptions: a deal in which one had acted as the other's agent, a case arising from injuries to the wife, and a case in which they were joint parties with a shared interest. Neither could testify about anything the other had said during the marriage¹⁶⁶. In a criminal case neither could testify against the other, except when one was prosecuted for a crime against the other, and each could always testify for the other¹⁶⁷.

People of color were qualified witnesses throughout the period in the western half from 1890 and across the state from 1907. In the eastern half, the act of 7 June 1897 applied the general laws to everyone in the territory regardless of race, starting 1 January 1898¹⁶⁸. Before that, tribal courts heard cases among tribal citizens under tribal law, and the tribal codes carry their own rules on testimony.

Sources and Where to Verify

Constitutions

• The Constitution of the State of Oklahoma. Oklahoma City, Okla.: Warden Printing Co., 1907. The constitution as first adopted — art. 2, §§ 18–19 (grand and trial juries of "men"); art. 3, § 1 (electors, male citizens over 21); art. 10, § 18 (poll tax on electors under 60, not exceeding $2); art. 12, §§ 1–2 (homestead, and conveyance requiring the spouse); art. 22, § 1 (alien land ownership); art. 23, § 11 (definitions of "colored" and "white race"). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/constitutionofst00okla (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Oklahoma Constitution, article by article. Oklahoma State Senate. https://oksenate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/AllOKConstitutionArticles.pdf (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Oklahoma Constitution, with the State Question and Referendum Petition history printed under each section. The source for the amendment of art. 10, § 9 in 1933 and of art. 2, §§ 18 and 19 in 1952. Oklahoma State Senate. Article X, https://oksenate.gov/sites/default/files/2022-05/oc10.pdf; all articles, https://oksenate.gov/sites/default/files/2019-12/AllOKConstitutionArticles.pdf (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Oklahoma Constitution, as amended, with the State Question history printed under each section — including State Question 354 (1952), replacing "men" with "persons" in the jury sections, and State Question 590 (1986), repealing the poll tax section. Oklahoma State Courts Network. https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/index.asp?ftdb=STOKCN&level=1 (accessed 28 July 2026).

Codes and Compilations

• Bunn, Clinton Orrin, ed. Compiled Statutes of Oklahoma, 1921, Annotated. 2 vols. Contains §§ 7488–7500 (marriage, including the prohibition on interracial marriage) and § 11303 (issue of marriages null in law are legitimate). Digital images. Google Books. Vol. 1, https://books.google.com/books?id=wEkwAQAAMAAJ; vol. 2, https://books.google.com/books?id=KUswAQAAMAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Cherokee Nation. Compiled Laws of the Cherokee Nation. Compiled by John L. Adair. Tahlequah, Indian Territory: National Advocate Print, 1881. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/compiledlawsche00adaigoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Cherokee Nation. Constitution and Laws of the Cherokee Nation. St. Louis: R. & T. A. Ennis, Printers, 1875. Published by authority of the National Council, on the revision ordered 19 November 1874. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/constitutionand00natigoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Chickasaw Nation. Constitution, Laws, and Treaties of the Chickasaws. Tishomingo City: Printed by E. J. Foster, 1860. Digital images. Library of Congress, Native American Constitutions and Legal Materials. https://www.loc.gov/item/28014198/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Chickasaw Nation. Constitution, and Laws of the Chickasaw Nation, Together with the Treaties of 1832, 1833, 1834, 1837, 1852, 1855 and 1866. Compiled by Davis A. Homer. Parsons, Kan.: The Foley Railway Printing Company, 1899. Digital images. Library of Congress, Native American Constitutions and Legal Materials. https://www.loc.gov/item/09003147/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Choctaw Nation. Constitution and Laws of the Choctaw Nation, Together with the Treaties of 1855, 1865 and 1866. Compiled by Joseph P. Folsom. New York City: W. P. Lyon & Son, 1869. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/constitutionandl00chociala (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Choctaw Nation. Constitution and Laws of the Choctaw Nation, Together with the Treaties of 1837, 1855, 1865 and 1866. Dallas, Tex.: J. F. Worley, 1894. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/constitutionand00watkgoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Creek Nation. Constitution and Laws of the Muskogee Nation. Saint Louis: Levison & Blythe Stationery Co., Printers, 1880. Published by authority of the National Council. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/constitutionand00coungoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Creek Nation. Constitution and Laws of the Muskogee Nation. Compiled and codified by A. P. McKellop under the act of 15 October 1892. Muskogee, Indian Territory: F. C. Hubbard, Printer, 1893. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/constitutionand02statgoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Eagin, Frank O., and Charles W. Van Eaton, eds. Oklahoma Statutes, 1931, Compiled and Annotated. Oklahoma City: Harlow Publishing Co., 1931–32. The compilation in force through the 1930s, cited in the notes as Oklahoma Statutes of 1931. Read it in the subscription databases listed in the Georgetown guide below, or in print at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries.
• General Statutes of Oklahoma, 1908. The first state compilation, and one place to read the 1907–08 act prohibiting interracial marriage. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=-UEwAQAAMAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Harris, Samuel H., and Jean P. Day, comps. Revised Laws of Oklahoma, 1910. Edited by Clinton Orrin Bunn. St. Paul, Minn.: Pioneer Co., 1912. 2 vols. The pivot volume for this guide: nearly every modern Oklahoma section prints its 1910 origin in the history line at the end of the section, which is what lets a rule be traced backward to the territorial codes and forward through 1921, 1931, and 1941. Contains § 883 (minor's contracts as to property), § 885 (disaffirmance), § 932 (minority), § 1140 (who may convey), § 1141 (no subscribing witness), § 1144 (homestead joinder), § 1145 (abandonment), § 1152 (separate property), § 1154 (recording), § 2094 (capacity to commit crime), § 3357 (curtesy and dower abolished), §§ 3883–3897 (marriage), § 4642 (common law), § 6234 (executor incompetency), § 6248 (letters where a minor is entitled), §§ 6523, 6529 (appointment and nomination of guardians), § 8338 (age to make a will), § 8339 (married woman's will), § 8341 (election against a will), § 8343 (nuncupative wills), § 8347 (holographic wills), § 8348 (attested wills), §§ 8377–8379 (gifts to witnesses), § 8418 (descent and distribution), § 8419 (dower and curtesy), §§ 8420–8421 (children born outside marriage), and § 8434 (aliens may take by succession). Digital images. Google Books. Vol. 1, https://books.google.com/books?id=vHtKAAAAYAAJ; vol. 2, https://books.google.com/books?id=U4xKAAAAYAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026). Both volumes are in full view, page by page, on HathiTrust, and those copies are the ones to open to read a section against the printed page: vol. 1, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101044483103; vol. 2, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101044483095 (accessed 11 August 2026). Adding &seq= and the image number to either link opens a specific page; the notes below use that form where a section has been checked against the page.
• Mansfield, William Walker, comp. A Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas. Little Rock, Ark.: Mitchell & Bettis, 1884. The volume Congress applied in Indian Territory, and the source for every rule that governed the eastern half before statehood. Contains ch. 1, § 3 (estate under $300 vests in the widow), §§ 1498, 1500 (criminal capacity under twelve), § 2522 and ch. 49 (descent and distribution), §§ 2524–2528 (children born outside marriage; aliens; no kindred), § 2571 and ch. 53 (dower), §§ 2591–2593 (the widow's shares), § 2602 (dower in land sold in the husband's lifetime), § 2859 (competency of witnesses, including children under ten and spouses), § 3464 (majority), § 3465 (natural guardian), § 3466 (guardian chosen at fourteen), §§ 3967, 3970, 3971 (qualifications and exemptions of jurors), §§ 4590–4594 (marriage), and §§ 6490–6492 (wills). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/mansfieldsdigest; searchable transcript at https://archive.org/download/mansfieldsdigest/Mansfield%20Digest%201884_djvu.txt (accessed 28 July 2026).
• McCartney, W. A., John H. Beatty, and J. Malcolm Johnston, comps. The Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893. Guthrie, Okla.: State Capital Printing Co., 1893. The territorial compilation, and the source for every Oklahoma Territory rule in this guide. Contains § 335 (witness competency, children under ten), ch. 14 (city and town poll taxes, general sections 576 and the town powers), ch. 25, § 2 (capacity to commit crimes), ch. 26, § 2 (nomination of a guardian at 14), ch. 49, §§ 1–6 (marriage, lawful age, and prohibited degrees), ch. 51, § 1 (minority defined), ch. 72, art. 1, §§ 19–25 (road work, notice, penalty, road tax, and collection), and ch. 86 (wills, succession, and the abolition of dower and curtesy). Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112105486825 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Oklahoma Statutes, 1941. The code in force through the last decade covered here, cited in the notes as Okla. Stat. tit. —, § — (1941); title 32 of this edition carries the community property law of 1939 at §§ 51–65 and the act of 1945 at §§ 66–68. Published by authority of the State of Oklahoma: its compilation, codification, and publication were provided for by Laws 1941, p. 458, §§ 101–113, and the code was adopted by Laws 1941, p. 459, § 8. Legal codes are cited by title and section rather than by imprint, which is the form used in the notes here. Read in print at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, or in the subscription archives listed in the Georgetown guide below.
• Seminole Nation. The Seminole imprints are the scarcest of the five. The Law Library of Congress collection Native American Constitutions and Legal Materials holds the printed compilations of the other four nations; its Seminole items are the twentieth-century constitution and corporate charter of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, a different body and no guide to territorial law. Hargrett's Bibliography, below, is the census of what the Nation printed and where copies survive, and is the place to start for Seminole law. https://www.loc.gov/collections/native-american-constitutions-and-legal-materials/ (accessed 5 August 2026).
• Oklahoma Statutes (current). Each section printed with its full history line, giving the originating act and every amendment. Section numbers in the Revised Laws of 1910 used throughout this guide were traced from those history lines. Oklahoma State Courts Network. https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/Index.asp?ftdb=STOKST&level=1; complete titles as PDFs, Oklahoma Legislature, https://www.oklegislature.gov/OK_Statutes/ (accessed 28 July 2026).

Session Laws and Federal Acts

Oklahoma session laws are digitized volume by volume rather than as a continuous run. The years listed below are on the Internet Archive, Google Books, or HathiTrust. The volumes for 1931, 1945, 1947, 1949, 1951, and 1969 are read in print at the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, or in the subscription archives named under Secondary and Reference Works; the Oklahoma State Courts Network carries session laws from 1998 forward. Acts of this period are cited by page rather than by chapter, so a page reference is the complete form.

• Oklahoma Session Laws, 1933, Fourteenth Legislature. The general sales tax. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3692829 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Oklahoma Session Laws, 1939, Seventeenth Legislature. Ch. 62, art. 2, at p. 356, the Community Property Act. Digital images. HathiTrust. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3692832 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Session Laws of 1899, Passed at the Fifth Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma. Guthrie, Okla.: State Capital Printing Company, 1899. Ch. 29 (road work, substitutes, and the commutation of $1 a day). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/sessionlawspass01oklagoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Session Laws of 1901, Passed at the Sixth Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma. Guthrie, Okla.: State Capital Printing Co., 1901. Ch. 27, § 4 (delinquent road work reported and collected as the poll tax). Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/sessionlawspass00oklagoog (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Session Laws of 1907–1908, Passed at the First Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oklahoma. Guthrie: Oklahoma Printing Co., 1908. Ch. 55 (S. B. No. 65), the uniform marriage act, which set the state marriage ages (§ 3), the prohibited degrees (§ 2), and the prohibition on interracial marriage and its penalties (§§ 12–15); and ch. 81, art. 10, the first state income tax. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=nTQyAAAAIAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Session Laws of 1915, Passed at the Regular Session of the Fifth Legislature of the State of Oklahoma. Oklahoma City: State Printing & Pub. Co., 1915. Ch. 164, the income tax act taxing entire net income; ch. 173, creating the Department of Highways. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=6n5CAQAAMAAJ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Territory of Oklahoma. Session Laws of 1895, Passed at the Third Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma. Published 8 May 1895; the title page names no printer. Ch. 28, the reform school act. Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=CU8yAAAAIAAJ (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Territory of Oklahoma. Session Laws of 1905, Passed at the Eighth Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma. Guthrie, Okla.: Press of the State Capital Company, 1905. Ch. 14 (homeless and neglected children) and ch. 23 (juvenile offenders). Digital images. Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=sdBGAQAAMAAJ (accessed 29 July 2026).
• Other acts cited, linked to their text in the Statutes at Large on GovInfo: Organic Act of 2 May 1890, ch. 182, 26 Stat. 81 (§§ 29–31 adopting Mansfield's Digest; § 38 validating tribal-custom marriages), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-26/pdf/STATUTE-26-Pg81.pdf, and § 30, 26 Stat. 94, reserving to the tribal courts exclusive jurisdiction where members of the nation were the only parties; Act of 7 June 1897, ch. 3, 30 Stat. 62, 83, effective 1 January 1898, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-30/pdf/STATUTE-30-Pg62.pdf; Curtis Act of 28 June 1898, ch. 517, 30 Stat. 495, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-30/pdf/STATUTE-30-Pg495.pdf; Act of 1 March 1901, ch. 676, 31 Stat. 861 (Original Creek Agreement); Act of 26 April 1906, ch. 1876, 34 Stat. 137 (§ 23, wills of full-blood Indians), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-34/pdf/STATUTE-34-Pg137.pdf; Act of 16 June 1906, ch. 3335, 34 Stat. 267 (Enabling Act), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-34/pdf/STATUTE-34-Pg267.pdf; Act of 27 May 1908, ch. 199, 35 Stat. 312, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-35/pdf/STATUTE-35-Pg312.pdf, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-31/pdf/STATUTE-31-Pg861.pdf; Act of 4 May 1896, ch. 155, 29 Stat. 113 (establishing Greer County, Oklahoma, and saving the Texas-era instruments and judgments), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-29/pdf/STATUTE-29-Pg113.pdf; Osage Allotment Act of 28 June 1906, ch. 3572, 34 Stat. 539, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-34/pdf/STATUTE-34-Pg539.pdf; Act of 18 April 1912, ch. 83, § 3, 37 Stat. 86 (Osage probate in the county courts), https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-37/pdf/STATUTE-37-Pg86.pdf; Stigler Act of 4 August 1947, ch. 458, 61 Stat. 731, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-61/pdf/STATUTE-61-Pg731.pdf; Treaty between the United States and the French Republic (the Louisiana Purchase), 30 April 1803, 8 Stat. 200; Session Laws of Oklahoma, 1939, ch. 62, art. 2 (the Community Property Act), with Laws 1945, p. 118 (the Community Property Act of 1945), § 16 at p. 121 repealing the act of 1939 and Laws 1949, p. 229, § 1 (repealing the whole scheme); Session Laws of 1909, Senate Bill 88 (juvenile court); Session Laws of 1949, pp. 279–283, and 1951, p. 111 (juries); Session Laws of 1969 (repeal of the interracial marriage sections); Session Laws of 1943, p. 33 (competency of spouses); Session Laws of 1972, ch. 221 (age of majority and minors' contracts); Session Laws of 1978, ch. 285 (Evidence Code); and the Reconstruction treaties of 1866 — Seminole, 21 March 1866, 14 Stat. 755, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-14/pdf/STATUTE-14-Pg755.pdf; Choctaw and Chickasaw, 28 April 1866, 14 Stat. 769, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-14/pdf/STATUTE-14-Pg769.pdf; Creek, 14 June 1866, 14 Stat. 785, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-14/pdf/STATUTE-14-Pg785.pdf; Cherokee, 19 July 1866, 14 Stat. 799, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-14/pdf/STATUTE-14-Pg799.pdf (accessed 11 August 2026).

Court Cases

• Alberty v. United States. 162 U.S. 499 (1896).
• Blundell v. Wallace. 267 U.S. 373 (1925).
• Board of County Commissioners of Greer County v. Clarke & Courts. 1902 OK 68, 12 Okla. 197, 70 P. 206 (1902).
• Carney v. Chapman. 247 U.S. 102 (1918).
• Commissioner v. Harmon. 323 U.S. 44 (1944).
• Craig v. Boren. 429 U.S. 190 (1976).
• Daves v. State. 77 Okla. Crim. 343, 141 P.2d 1018 (1943).
• Dick v. Reaves. 1967 OK 158, 434 P.2d 295 (Okla. 1967).
• Eggers v. Olson. 104 Okla. 297, 231 P. 483 (1924).
• Gidney v. Chappel. 241 U.S. 99 (1916).
• Guinn v. United States. 238 U.S. 347 (1915).
• Harmon v. Oklahoma Tax Commission. 189 Okla. 475, 118 P.2d 205 (1941).
• Hollins v. Oklahoma. 295 U.S. 394 (1935).
• In re Atkins' Estate. 151 Okla. 294, 3 P.2d 682 (1931).
• In re Love's Estate. 42 Okla. 478 (1914).
• Jefferson v. Fink. 247 U.S. 288 (1918).
• Jones v. Lorenzen. 1965 OK 185, 441 P.2d 986 (Okla. 1965).
• Jones v. Shaw. 1965 OK 67, 441 P.2d 990 (Okla. 1965).
• Kane v. Commissioner. 11 T.C. 74 (1948).
• Lamb v. Brown. 456 F.2d 18 (10th Cir. 1972).
• Long v. Darks. 87 P.2d 972 (Okla. 1939).
• Loving v. Virginia. 388 U.S. 1 (1967).
• Lucas v. United States. 163 U.S. 612 (1896).
• Marlin v. Lewallen. 276 U.S. 58 (1928).
• Maxfield v. Maxfield. 258 P.2d 915 (Okla. 1953).
• Montgomery v. Wise. 179 Okla. 247, 62 P.2d 647 (1935).
• Perryman v. Woodward. 238 U.S. 148 (1915).
• Radcliff v. Anderson. 509 F.2d 1093 (10th Cir. 1975).
• Reaves v. Reaves. 15 Okla. 240 (1905).
• Ross v. Bryant. 90 Okla. 300 (1923).
• Standard Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Acton. 178 Okla. 400, 63 P.2d 15 (1936).
• United States v. Texas. 162 U.S. 1 (1896).
• Washington v. Miller. 235 U.S. 422 (1914).

Secondary and Reference Works

• Debo, Angie. And Still the Waters Run: The Betrayal of the Five Civilized Tribes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940. The standard account of allotment, restriction, and the guardianships that grew out of them.
• FamilySearch Research Wiki. "Oklahoma Taxation." Further reading on what an Oklahoma tax roll contains and where the surviving rolls are held. The road-labor and poll tax rules in this guide are taken from the statutes themselves, cited in the notes. https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Oklahoma_Taxation (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Finck, James W. "A History of Oklahoma Taxation." Historically Speaking. Further reading, giving a narrative of the income tax acts of 1908 and 1915; the acts themselves are cited in the notes from the session volumes. https://historicallyspeaking.blog/2022/12/09/a-history-of-oklahoma-taxation/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Greer County. For anything in Greer, Jackson, Harmon, or southwestern Beckham County before 16 March 1896, the governing law is Texas law; see the Texas guide in this series, and the Oklahoma Historical Society entry "Old Greer County," https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=OL002 (accessed 11 August 2026).
• Georgetown Law Library. "Oklahoma Resources." Which historical statutes and session laws are available where, including the subscription databases holding the 1921, 1931, and 1941 compilations. https://guides.ll.georgetown.edu/c.php?g=277299&p=1849876 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Hargrett, Lester. A Bibliography of the Constitutions and Laws of the American Indians. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1947. The standard census of what each nation printed, and the reference the catalog records cite when they identify a tribal imprint. The place to establish whether a given Seminole, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, or Cherokee law was printed at all, and in which edition.
• Indian Territory Reports: Cases Determined in the United States Court of Appeals for the Indian Territory. 7 vols., 1896–1907. Where to read the decisions that settled which Arkansas sections applied in the eastern half. Digital images. HathiTrust. Vol. 1, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4734888, through vol. 7, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4734894 (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Mieszala, Debbie. "Historic Oklahoma Statutory Law." The Advancing Genealogist. A linked library of digitized Oklahoma territorial and state session laws and compilations. https://advancinggenealogist.com/historic-oklahoma-statutory-law/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Oklahoma Department of Libraries. Law and Legislative Reference. Holds Oklahoma session laws and statutes from the territorial period to the present. The volumes not digitized elsewhere — the compilations of 1931 and 1941, and the session laws of 1945, 1947, 1949, and 1969 — are to be read here. https://oklahoma.gov/libraries/law-legislative-reference.html; state publications also at https://digitalprairie.ok.gov/digital/collection/stgovpub (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Oklahoma Historical Society. The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Entries on the Organic Act, the Curtis Act, allotment, the Reconstruction treaties, and Hollins v. Oklahoma. https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/ (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Oklahoma Historical Society. "Removal of Restrictions." The removal-of-restriction applications and orders, what they contain and where they are held. https://www.okhistory.org/research/restriction (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Oklahoma Secretary of State. State Questions. The list of measures submitted to the voters and their outcomes, for the 1933 amendment on state taxation of property, State Question 354 of 1952 on jury service, and State Question 590 of 1986 on the poll tax. https://www.sos.ok.gov/gov/questions.aspx (accessed 28 July 2026).
• Thomas, Clarence Lot. Annotated Acts of Congress: Five Civilized Tribes and the Osage Nation. Columbia, Mo.: E. W. Stephens Publishing Co., 1913. The federal acts governing allotment, restriction, and wills, with the decisions construing them. Digital images. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/annotatedactsofc00thom (accessed 28 July 2026).
• United States Women's Bureau. The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America, January 1, 1948: Report for Oklahoma. Bulletin of the Women's Bureau, No. 157-35 (Revised). Washington: Government Printing Office, 1949. The best single cross-check on this guide: it states Oklahoma's rules on majority, minors' contracts, married women's property, marriage ages, common-law marriage, wills, intestacy, guardianship, and jury service as they stood in 1948, with citations to the then-current code, and it is the authority relied on here for the contract age of 18, the spousal-testimony rules, the pre-1949 jury rule, and the working of the Community Property Act of 1945. Digital images. FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-35-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf (accessed 28 July 2026).
• University of Oklahoma College of Law. The "Thorpe" collection of federal Indian law materials, including the printed constitutions and laws of the Five Tribes and the Solicitor's opinions construing the 1906 and 1908 acts. https://thorpe.law.ou.edu (accessed 28 July 2026).

Citations

1. Treaty between the United States of America and the French Republic (the Louisiana Purchase), 30 April 1803, 8 Stat. 200. The panhandle was not part of the purchase; it came to the United States on the cession by Texas in 1850, was left outside any organized government as the Public Land Strip, and was attached to Oklahoma Territory by the Organic Act of 2 May 1890, ch. 182, § 1, 26 Stat. 81 ↩
2. Samuel H. Harris and Jean P. Day, comps., Revised Laws of Oklahoma, 1910, ed. Clinton Orrin Bunn (St. Paul, Minn.: Pioneer Co., 1912), § 4642; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=vHtKAAAAYAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026); now Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2 ↩
3. Organic Act of 2 May 1890, ch. 182, § 31, 26 Stat. 81, 94, adopting the general laws of Arkansas as published in 1884 in Mansfield's Digest, so far as not locally inapplicable or in conflict with an act of Congress ↩
4. Organic Act of 2 May 1890, ch. 182, § 30, 26 Stat. 81, 94, proviso: the judicial tribunals of the Indian nations retained exclusive jurisdiction in all civil and criminal cases arising in the country in which members of the nation, by nativity or adoption, were the only parties; and see § 31, 26 Stat. 96, to the same effect. Construed in Alberty v. United States, 162 U.S. 499 (1896), and Lucas v. United States, 163 U.S. 612 (1896). The reservation ended with the Curtis Act of 28 June 1898, ch. 517, § 26, 30 Stat. 495 ↩
5. Gidney v. Chappel, 241 U.S. 99 (1916); Perryman v. Woodward, 238 U.S. 148 (1915) ↩
6. Washington v. Miller, 235 U.S. 422, 424 (1914); Jefferson v. Fink, 247 U.S. 288, 291 (1918) ↩
7. Act of 7 June 1897, ch. 3, 30 Stat. 62, 83, taking effect 1 January 1898; digital images, GovInfo (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-30/pdf/STATUTE-30-Pg62.pdf : accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
8. Curtis Act of 28 June 1898, ch. 517, §§ 26, 28, 30 Stat. 495 ↩
9. United States v. Texas, 162 U.S. 1 (16 March 1896), holding that the land known as Greer County belonged to the United States and had never been part of Texas. The Organic Act of 2 May 1890, ch. 182, 26 Stat. 81, had expressly withheld itself from Greer County until the title was adjudicated ↩
10. Act of 4 May 1896, ch. 155, 29 Stat. 113, establishing and providing a government for Greer County, Oklahoma, and saving every interest conveyed, limited, or encumbered by any contract, lien, conveyance, mortgage, or other instrument, and all civil and criminal judgments of the Texas courts, prior in date to 16 March 1896; digital images, GovInfo (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-29/pdf/STATUTE-29-Pg113.pdf : accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
11. Board of County Commissioners of Greer County v. Clarke & Courts, 1902 OK 68, 12 Okla. 197, 70 P. 206 (1902), holding Greer County, Texas, a county government in fact from its organization in 1886 until the transfer of 4 May 1896, and its officers lawful officers for that period ↩
12. Organic Act of 2 May 1890, ch. 182, 26 Stat. 81 ↩
13. Marlin v. Lewallen, 276 U.S. 58 (1928); and see Washington v. Miller, 235 U.S. 422 ↩
14. The Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893 (Guthrie, Okla.: State Capital Printing Co., 1893), ch. 51, § 1 (general section 3600), "Minority defined"; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.35112105486825 : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
15. Revised Laws of 1910, § 932 in the history line printed under the modern section; the same rule is numbered § 879 and headed “Minors defined” in the Harris and Day edition, vol. 1, p. 238, digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101044483103&seq=514 : accessed 11 August 2026). Carried through the Compiled Statutes of Oklahoma, 1921, the Oklahoma Statutes of 1931, and the Oklahoma Statutes of 1941 to Okla. Stat. tit. 15, § 13, and amended to 18 for both sexes by Laws 1972, ch. 221; the gendered figures are stated for 1948 in United States Women's Bureau, The Legal Status of Women in the United States of America, January 1, 1948: Report for Oklahoma, Bulletin 157-35, rev., no. 1; digital images, FRASER, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/files/docs/publications/women/b0157-35-rev_dolwb_1949.pdf : accessed 28 July 2026); and recited in Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 191 (1976) ↩
16. Okla. Stat. tit. 16, § 32 (1941) ↩
17. Revised Laws of 1910, § 883, vol. 1, p. 238; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101044483103&seq=514 : accessed 11 August 2026), headed “Disabilities of minor”: a minor could give no delegation of power, and under the age of eighteen could make no contract about real property or any interest in it, nor about personal property not in his immediate possession or control, except as otherwise specially provided. The reviser's history note derives the section from the Dakota civil code, § 2514, and the Statutes of Oklahoma, 1890, § 3971, and the revision note records that the closing exception was added in 1910 to cover special instances. Now Okla. Stat. tit. 15, § 17, the age clause dropped when majority was lowered by Laws 1972, ch. 221, § 2. And see Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-35, no. 2 ↩
18. Revised Laws of 1910, § 885, now Okla. Stat. tit. 15, § 19, as amended by Laws 1965, ch. 294, § 1, and Laws 1972, ch. 221, § 3; the split at 18, and the duty to restore the consideration above that age, are stated in Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-35, no. 2, citing Okla. Stat. tit. 15, §§ 18–19 ↩
19. Revised Laws of 1910, § 1140; now Okla. Stat. tit. 16, § 1 ↩
20. Okla. Stat. tit. 10, §§ 91–92 (1941), and Okla. Stat. tit. 16, § 1, under which a person on whom the rights of majority had been conferred could convey, mortgage, or contract about land; summarized in Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-35, no. 2 ↩
21. William Walker Mansfield, comp., A Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas (Little Rock, Ark.: Mitchell & Bettis, 1884), § 3464; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/mansfieldsdigest : accessed 11 August 2026), image 745. Throughout this guide the section number in a Mansfield's Digest note links to the page image carrying that section ↩
22. Mansfield's Digest, § 3465 ↩
23. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 49, § 3 (general section 3226), "Lawful age for marriage" ↩
24. Session Laws of 1907–1908, Passed at the First Session of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oklahoma (Guthrie: Oklahoma Printing Co., 1908), ch. 55, § 3 (S. B. No. 65); digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=nTQyAAAAIAAJ : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
25. Revised Laws of 1910, § 3885, vol. 1, p. 1012; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101044483103&seq=1288 : accessed 11 August 2026); unamended until Laws 1947, p. 301, § 1, and made gender-neutral by Laws 1975, ch. 39, § 1, now Okla. Stat. tit. 43, § 3; the same three bands are stated for 1948 in Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-35, no. 18 ↩
26. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 49, § 1 (general section 3224) ↩
27. In re Love's Estate, 42 Okla. 478 (1914) ↩
28. Reaves v. Reaves, 15 Okla. 240 (1905); and see Maxfield v. Maxfield, 258 P.2d 915 (Okla. 1953) ↩
29. Ross v. Bryant, 90 Okla. 300 (1923) ↩
30. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 49, §§ 5–6 (general sections 3228–3229) ↩
31. Session Laws of 1907–1908, ch. 55, § 2 ↩
32. Revised Laws of 1910, § 3884; now Okla. Stat. tit. 43, § 2, as amended by Laws 1969, ch. 139, § 1 ↩
33. Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 1283 (1941) ↩
34. Session Laws of 1907–1908, ch. 55, § 12; carried as Compiled Statutes of Oklahoma, 1921, § 7499, and as Okla. Stat. tit. 43, § 12 (1941) ↩
35. Session Laws of 1907–1908, ch. 55, § 13 ↩
36. Session Laws of 1907–1908, ch. 55, § 14; carried as Revised Laws of 1910, § 3896, now Okla. Stat. tit. 43, § 14 ↩
37. Session Laws of 1907–1908, ch. 55, § 15 ↩
38. Okla. Const. of 1907, art. 23, § 11; The Constitution of the State of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City, Okla.: Warden Printing Co., 1907); digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/constitutionofst00okla : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
39. Okla. Stat. tit. 43, § 12 (1941) ↩
40. Eggers v. Olson, 104 Okla. 297, 231 P. 483, 485 (1924); and see Ross v. Bryant, 90 Okla. 300, on marriages contracted out of state ↩
41. In re Atkins' Estate, 151 Okla. 294, 3 P.2d 682 (1931), applying Compiled Statutes of 1921, § 11303, the same provision as Revised Laws of 1910, § 8420 ↩
42. Dick v. Reaves, 1967 OK 158, 434 P.2d 295, 297–98 (Okla., 10 July 1967), holding Okla. Stat. tit. 43, §§ 12 and 13 (1961) to violate the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses and expressly overruling the contrary decisions, among them Jones v. Lorenzen, 1965 OK 185, 441 P.2d 986, and Jones v. Shaw, 1965 OK 67, 441 P.2d 990; following Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967). The opinion prints both sections in full, so their text can be read without the session volume ↩
43. Session Laws of Oklahoma, 1969. The repeal cleared sections already held void in Dick v. Reaves, above, which is the authority for the rule. Neither § 12 nor § 13 now appears in title 43, and neither carries the “Repealed by Laws” placeholder line the compilers print for other repealed sections in that title. The repealing act is not the same as Laws 1969, ch. 139, which amended the prohibited degrees. The definition at art. 23, § 11 of the Constitution remained on the books after the marriage sections fell. ↩
44. Mansfield's Digest, § 4591 ↩
45. Mansfield's Digest, § 4592 ↩
46. Mansfield's Digest, § 4593 ↩
47. Mansfield's Digest, § 4594 ↩
48. Organic Act of 2 May 1890, ch. 182, § 38, 26 Stat. 81, 98 ↩
49. Carney v. Chapman, 247 U.S. 102, 104 (1918) ↩
50. Okla. Const. of 1907, art. 22, § 1 ↩
51. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8434; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 229 ↩
52. Okla. Stat. tit. 32, §§ 4, 9 (1941) ↩
53. Okla. Stat. tit. 32, § 5 (1941) ↩
54. Oklahoma Session Laws, 1939, Seventeenth Legislature, ch. 62, art. 2, §§ 1–4, 6, the Community Property Act, at p. 356; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3692832 : accessed 28 July 2026); codified as Okla. Stat. tit. 32, §§ 51–65 (1941). The election, the two filing offices, and the line between separate and community property are set out in Harmon v. Oklahoma Tax Commission, 189 Okla. 475, 118 P.2d 205 (1941), which also upheld the act against a state constitutional challenge; for its elective character see Commissioner v. Harmon, 323 U.S. 44, 44–45 (1944). ↩
55. Laws 1945, p. 118, the Community Property Act of 1945, effective 26 July 1945, § 16 at p. 121 repealing the act of 1939. Sections 1 to 3 were codified as Okla. Stat. tit. 32, §§ 66 (separate property of the husband), 67 (separate property of the wife) and 68 (community property), and are printed with those derivations, and the effective date, in Kane v. Commissioner, 11 T.C. 74, 75–76 (1948), which sustained the act for federal tax purposes after Commissioner v. Harmon had held the 1939 election scheme ineffective. The division of management between the spouses and the survivor's administration of the whole are stated as they stood on 1 January 1948 in Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-35, no. 10. ↩
56. Laws 1949, p. 229, § 1, repealing Okla. Stat. tit. 32, §§ 66–82 ↩
57. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 86, art. 4, § 4 (general section 6262) ↩
58. Revised Laws of 1910, § 3357; now Okla. Stat. tit. 43, § 208 ↩
59. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8419; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 214 ↩
60. Revised Laws of 1910, § 1152; now Okla. Stat. tit. 16, § 13 ↩
61. Revised Laws of 1910, § 1144; carried from the Session Laws of 1897, ch. 8, and now Okla. Stat. tit. 16, § 4 ↩
62. Okla. Const. of 1907, art. 12, § 2 ↩
63. Montgomery v. Wise, 179 Okla. 247, 62 P.2d 647 (1935); Standard Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Acton, 178 Okla. 400, 63 P.2d 15 (1936) ↩
64. Revised Laws of 1910, § 1145; now Okla. Stat. tit. 16, § 6 ↩
65. Okla. Const. of 1907, art. 12, § 1 ↩
66. Okla. Stat. tit. 16, § 32 (1941) ↩
67. Revised Laws of 1910, § 883 ↩
68. Revised Laws of 1910, § 1154; now Okla. Stat. tit. 16, § 15 ↩
69. Revised Laws of 1910, § 1141; now Okla. Stat. tit. 16, § 2 ↩
70. Mansfield's Digest, § 2571 ↩
71. Mansfield's Digest, § 2602 ↩
72. Curtis Act of 28 June 1898, ch. 517, 30 Stat. 495 ↩
73. Act of 26 April 1906, ch. 1876, 34 Stat. 137 ↩
74. Act of 27 May 1908, ch. 199, § 1, 35 Stat. 312; digital images, GovInfo (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-35/pdf/STATUTE-35-Pg312.pdf : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
75. Act of 27 May 1908, ch. 199, § 6, 35 Stat. 312 ↩
76. Act of 27 May 1908, ch. 199, § 9, 35 Stat. 312 ↩
77. Stigler Act of 4 August 1947, ch. 458, 61 Stat. 731 ↩
78. Osage Allotment Act of 28 June 1906, ch. 3572, 34 Stat. 539, §§ 2–4, dividing the lands and funds among the members on the roll of 1 January 1906, allowing each member three selections of 160 acres with one designated a homestead, reserving the minerals to the tribe, and giving each member a share of the mineral income; digital images, GovInfo (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-34/pdf/STATUTE-34-Pg539.pdf : accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
79. Osage Allotment Act of 28 June 1906, ch. 3572, § 2, subdiv. 7, 34 Stat. 539, under which restrictions on an adult allottee's surplus land could be removed by a certificate of competency issued at the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior ↩
80. Act of 18 April 1912, ch. 83, § 3, 37 Stat. 86, 87, placing the property of deceased Osage allottees and of orphan minor, insane, and other incompetent allottees under the probate jurisdiction of the county courts of Oklahoma, and requiring a copy of every paper filed to be served on the superintendent of the Osage Agency; digital images, GovInfo (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-37/pdf/STATUTE-37-Pg86.pdf : accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
81. Treaty with the Seminole, 21 March 1866, 14 Stat. 755; Treaty with the Choctaw and Chickasaw, 28 April 1866, 14 Stat. 769; Treaty with the Creeks, 14 June 1866, 14 Stat. 785; Treaty with the Cherokee, 19 July 1866, 14 Stat. 799 ↩
82. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8418, vol. 2, p. 2270; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101044483095&seq=1094 : accessed 11 August 2026); now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 213, rewritten for deaths on or after 1 July 1985 by Laws 1984, ch. 233, § 3 — read the pre-1985 text for the rule in force in this period ↩
83. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 86, art. 4, § 3 (general section 6261) ↩
84. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8418, subdivisions First, Second, and Fifth; vol. 2, pp. 2270–71, verified against the printed section, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101044483095&seq=1094 : accessed 11 August 2026) ↩
85. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8418, subdivision First, closing proviso, vol. 2, p. 2270: where the decedent had been married more than once, the spouse at the time of death took, of the property not acquired during coverture with that spouse, only an equal part with each of the living children and the lawful issue of any deceased child by right of representation ↩
86. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8418, subdivision Second, closing proviso, vol. 2, p. 2270: where the property was acquired by the joint industry of husband and wife during coverture and there was no issue, the whole estate went to the survivor, at whose death one-half of what remained went to the husband's heirs and one-half to the wife's ↩
87. Session Laws of Oklahoma, 1939, ch. 62, art. 2, § 6, vesting each spouse with an undivided one-half interest ↩
88. Okla. Stat. tit. 58, §§ 311, 313 (1941) ↩
89. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8341; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 44 ↩
90. Mansfield's Digest, § 2522, ch. 49 ↩
91. Mansfield's Digest, § 2528 ↩
92. Mansfield's Digest, § 2591 ↩
93. Mansfield's Digest, § 2592 ↩
94. Mansfield's Digest, § 2593 ↩
95. Mansfield's Digest, ch. 1, § 3, applied in Perryman v. Woodward, 238 U.S. 148 ↩
96. Mansfield's Digest, § 2524 ↩
97. Mansfield's Digest, § 2525 ↩
98. Mansfield's Digest, § 2526 ↩
99. Mansfield's Digest, § 2527 ↩
100. Act of 1 March 1901, ch. 676, § 7, 31 Stat. 861 (Original Creek Agreement); Act of 16 June 1906, ch. 3335, § 13, 34 Stat. 267 (Enabling Act); both traced in Jefferson v. Fink, 247 U.S. 288 ↩
101. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 26, § 2 (general section 1505) ↩
102. Revised Laws of 1910, § 6529, carried through Okla. Stat. tit. 58, § 768 (1941), now Okla. Stat. tit. 30, § 2-104; Revised Laws of 1910, § 6523; now Okla. Stat. tit. 30, § 2-103 ↩
103. Mansfield's Digest, § 3466, carried from the Act of 22 April 1873, §§ 1–3 ↩
104. Okla. Stat. tit. 10, § 8 (1941); Okla. Stat. tit. 30, § 7 (1941) ↩
105. Act of 27 May 1908, ch. 199, § 6, 35 Stat. 312 ↩
106. Okla. Stat. tit. 30, § 6 (1941) ↩
107. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8420; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 215, amended by Laws 1977, ch. 36, § 1 — read the 1910 text for the rule in force in this period ↩
108. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8421; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 216 ↩
109. Okla. Stat. tit. 10, §§ 78, 79 (1941) ↩
110. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 86, art. 1, § 1 (general section 6165) ↩
111. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8338, unamended until Laws 1982, ch. 131, § 1, now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 41 ↩
112. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 86, art. 1, § 2 (general section 6166); Revised Laws of 1910, § 8339; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 42 ↩
113. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8348, unamended until Laws 1961, p. 636, § 1, now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 55 ↩
114. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8347; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 54 ↩
115. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8343; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 46 ↩
116. Mansfield's Digest, § 6490 ↩
117. Mansfield's Digest, § 6491 ↩
118. Mansfield's Digest, § 6492 ↩
119. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8377; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 143 ↩
120. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8378; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 144 ↩
121. Revised Laws of 1910, § 8379; now Okla. Stat. tit. 84, § 145 ↩
122. Revised Laws of 1910, § 6234; now Okla. Stat. tit. 58, § 102 ↩
123. Revised Laws of 1910, § 6248; now Okla. Stat. tit. 58, § 125 ↩
124. Act of 26 April 1906, ch. 1876, § 23, 34 Stat. 137, as amended by the Act of 27 May 1908, ch. 199, § 8, 35 Stat. 312 ↩
125. Blundell v. Wallace, 267 U.S. 373 (1925); Long v. Darks, 87 P.2d 972 (Okla. 1939) ↩
126. Okla. Const. art. 10, § 9, headed "Amount of ad valorem tax," as amended by State Question No. 185, Referendum Petition No. 61, adopted at the election of 15 August 1933: no ad valorem tax to be levied for State purposes, and no part of the proceeds of any ad valorem levy on any kind of property in the State to be used for State purposes ↩
127. Session Laws of 1907–1908, ch. 81, art. 10, §§ 1–2 ↩
128. Session Laws of 1915, Passed at the Regular Session of the Fifth Legislature of the State of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City: State Printing & Pub. Co., 1915), ch. 164, § 1, repealing art. 17 of ch. 72 of the Revised Laws of Oklahoma, 1910 ↩
129. Oklahoma Session Laws, 1933, Fourteenth Legislature, ch. 66, art. 12, the Oklahoma Emergency Revenue Act of 1933, laying the first general sales tax; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b3692829 : accessed 28 July 2026). The corporate income tax is Laws 1931, ch. 66, art. 6, carried as Okla. Stat. tit. 68, §§ 878–879 (1941) ↩
130. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 72, art. 1, § 19 (general section 5726), "Road work" ↩
131. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 72, art. 1, § 21 (general section 5728) ↩
132. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 72, art. 1, § 20 (general section 5727) ↩
133. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 72, art. 1, §§ 23–25 (general sections 5730–5732) ↩
134. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 72, art. 1, § 22 (general section 5729) ↩
135. Session Laws of 1899, Passed at the Fifth Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma (Guthrie, Okla.: State Capital Printing Company, 1899), ch. 29, § 1, amending ch. 72, art. 1, § 21, of the Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/sessionlawspass01oklagoog : accessed 28 July 2026); Session Laws of 1901, Passed at the Sixth Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma (Guthrie, Okla.: State Capital Printing Co., 1901), ch. 27, § 4, "An Act Empowering Counties and Townships to Levy Road and Bridge Taxes to Build Roads and Bridges and for Other Purposes," approved 8 March 1901; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/sessionlawspass00oklagoog : accessed 28 July 2026) ↩
136. Session Laws of 1915, ch. 173, creating a Department of Highways and relating to roads and highways ↩
137. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 14, art. 2, § 18 (general section 576) ↩
138. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 14, art. 6, subdiv. Seventeenth ↩
139. Okla. Const. of 1907, art. 10, § 18 ↩
140. Okla. Const. of 1907, art. 3, § 1 ↩
141. State Question 590, Legislative Referendum 254, adopted 4 November 1986 ↩
142. Act of 26 April 1906, ch. 1876, 34 Stat. 137 ↩
143. Okla. Const. of 1907, art. 2, §§ 18, 19; Okla. Stat. tit. 38, § 10 (1941), repealed by Laws 1949, p. 283, § 16; that only male citizens could qualify on 1 January 1948 is stated in Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-35, no. 32 ↩
144. Okla. Const. of 1907, art. 3, § 1, as originally adopted; its text is set out in Guinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347, 356–57 (1915) ↩
145. Okla. Stat. tit. 38, § 28, added by Laws 1949, p. 282, § 11, effective 2 June 1949; Okla. Const. of 1907, art. 3, § 1 ↩
146. Laws 1951, p. 111, § 1, amending Okla. Stat. tit. 38, § 28 ↩
147. State Question 354, Legislative Referendum 101, adopted at the primary election of 1 July 1952, amending Okla. Const. art. 2, §§ 18, 19 ↩
148. Hollins v. Oklahoma, 295 U.S. 394 (1935) ↩
149. Guinn v. United States, 238 U.S. 347 (1915), holding the grandfather clause of the 1910 amendment to Okla. Const. art. 3, § 1 void under the Fifteenth Amendment, and the whole amendment invalid because the clause could not be separated from the reading test ↩
150. Laws 1949, p. 283, § 16, repealing Okla. Stat. tit. 38, §§ 1–17 ↩
151. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, ch. 25, § 2 (general section 1852); Revised Laws of 1910, § 2094, vol. 1, p. 534; digital images, HathiTrust (https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101044483103&seq=810 : accessed 11 August 2026); now Okla. Stat. tit. 21, § 152 ↩
152. Session Laws of 1909, Senate Bill 88; compiled as Compiled Laws of Oklahoma, 1909, ch. 13, art. 1, §§ 594–604 ↩
153. Lamb v. Brown, 456 F.2d 18 (10th Cir. 1972); applied retroactively in Radcliff v. Anderson, 509 F.2d 1093 (10th Cir. 1975) ↩
154. Territory of Oklahoma, Session Laws of 1895, Passed at the Third Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma (published 8 May 1895), ch. 28 (H. B. 86), pp. 153–55, §§ 1–4, "An Act to make provisions for the care and custody of incorrigible youth, and to provide for the punishment and education of juvenile offenders"; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=CU8yAAAAIAAJ : accessed 29 July 2026). Carried forward by Session Laws of 1905, Passed at the Eighth Regular Session of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oklahoma (Guthrie, Okla.: Press of the State Capital Company; published 5 April 1905), ch. 23, "Juvenile Offenders," art. 1, §§ 1–2, approved 4 March 1905; digital images, Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=sdBGAQAAMAAJ : accessed 29 July 2026). Homeless and neglected children were dealt with the same day by ch. 14, "Children's Aid Society," art. 1, which defined a "place of safety" to take in an industrial or reform school, a shelter or temporary home of a children's aid society, or an orphans' home ↩
155. Statutes of Oklahoma, 1893, § 335 (general section 4213) ↩
156. Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 385, subsec. 2 (1941); the same provision is Oklahoma Statutes of 1931, § 272 ↩
157. Daves v. State, 77 Okla. Crim. 343, 141 P.2d 1018 (1943) ↩
158. Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 385, repealed by Laws 1978, ch. 285, § 1102, effective 1 October 1978; the replacement rule is Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 2601 ↩
159. Mansfield's Digest, § 3967, carried from the Criminal Code, § 406, as amended 1871 ↩
160. Mansfield's Digest, § 3971 ↩
161. Mansfield's Digest, § 3970 ↩
162. Mansfield's Digest, § 1498 ↩
163. Mansfield's Digest, § 1500 ↩
164. Mansfield's Digest, § 2859, subsec. Second, carried from the Civil Code, § 663, as amended by the act of 12 February 1883 ↩
165. Mansfield's Digest, § 2859, subsec. Fourth ↩
166. Okla. Stat. tit. 12, § 385 (1941), as amended by Laws 1943, p. 33; stated as of 1 January 1948 in Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-35, no. 13 ↩
167. Okla. Stat. tit. 22, § 702 (1941); Women's Bureau Bulletin 157-35, no. 13 ↩
168. Act of 7 June 1897, ch. 3, 30 Stat. 62, 83, effective 1 January 1898 ↩

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.