Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 May 1900 — Marriage License Law. [ARTICLE]

Marriage License Law.

Attorney General Taylor, in an official opinion, says the effect of statute fixing the ages of applicants for marriage licenses “is to require the county clerk to know that the male is eighteen years old and the female sixteen years of age before he issues a license, and a minister to likewise know these facts before he solemnizes the marriage.” In discussing the question unofficially, the attorney general said that it was not unusual for ministers to believe they had a right to marry applicants' without knowing their respective ages or whether their parents were willing taat they should be married. Under the statute he said, preachers are responsible for marrying persons who are not of the required age. The opinion was given in response to an inquiry from the clerk of Marshall county.