[1449] Rev. Stat. of Idaho (1887), 302; Deering, Codes and Stat. of Cal. (1886), II, sec. 62, p. 24: act of March 30, 1874, Amendments (1873-74), 185.
[1450] The Ann. Codes and Stat. of Wash. (1897), I, 1174, fixes the age when marriage may be contracted at twenty-one for males and eighteen for females; but elsewhere provision is made for written consent of parent or guardian before license may be issued to persons below these ages respectively: ibid., I, 1177.
[1451] It is provided by the Rev. Code of Del. (1874), chap. 75, sec. 1, "that a divorce may be granted in case the parties were, when married, below the ages specified (eighteen and sixteen), and did not voluntarily ratify the marriage after arriving at those ages;" and this is retained in Rev. Stat. (1893), 596. Cf. Wright, Report, 30.
[1452] From 1864 to the act of Feb. 7, 1889, in Idaho, the ages of consent were respectively eighteen and sixteen for males and females; but in the last-named year eighteen was fixed as the age for both sexes: Laws (1863-64), 613: Gen. Laws (1889), 40.
[1453] Below the ages of sixteen and fourteen in Iowa "marriage is a nullity or not, at the option of the minor, made known at any time before he or she is six months older than said ages."—Wright, Report, 30; see Code of Iowa (1897), 1123; ibid. (1873), sec. 2186.
[1454] North Dakota shows a retrogression. By the Rev. Code (1895), 608, the ages of consent to marriage are sixteen and thirteen: the same by the act of March 20, 1890: Laws, 276; which act had been superseded by that of March 9, 1891, Laws, 228, 229, which is in turn repealed by the act of 1895. Still earlier the laws of Dakota Territory had fixed the ages at eighteen and fifteen respectively: Code of Dakota (1883), sec. 36, p. 743; at sixteen and fourteen on May 7, 1862: Gen. Laws (1862), 390; and at fourteen and thirteen in 1866: Civil Code (1865-66), 11. By this last act the marriage of a woman under fourteen might be annulled, if contracted without consent of parent or guardian, and not followed by cohabitation, nor ratified after the girl attained that age.
[1455] Formerly the ages in Utah were fourteen and twelve: Laws (1888), 88-91; they were fixed at sixteen and fourteen respectively for males and females by the act of March 11, 1897: Laws, 40.
[1456] Solemnization against law as to age and parental consent does not invalidate: Parton v. Hervey, 1 Gray, 119, 122; Holtz v. Dick, 42 Ohio Reports, 791. In Kansas, 1859-67, the ages were twenty-one for males and eighteen for females: Webb, Gen. Stat. (1897), II, 939, note.
[1457] In Oregon a license may be issued for the marriage of a minor without such consent, when there is no parent or guardian resident in the state, if the female has lived in the county where the license is applied for during six months: Codes and Gen. Laws (1892), II, 1321; Codes and Stat. (1902), II, 1684.
[1458] Laws (1797), II, 974.