SELFISH INTENTIONS - K-REx - Kansas State University

of separating from the defendant, but made in sincerity and truth because of the gravity of the
causes mentioned in the petition. The statutes further stipulated the divorce proceedings had to
be brought in the couple’s district of residence. 76 Each of these guidelines helped to establish the
procedures for divorce proceedings in the Kansas Territory.
The 1868 General Statutes of the State of Kansas summarized the previously mentioned
grounds for divorce and reworded the statute so that it was more succinct. The statutes listed the
following grounds for divorce: when either of the parties had a former husband or wife at the
time of the marriage, abandonment for one year, adultery, impotency, when the wife was
pregnant by another man at the time of the marriage, extreme cruelty, fraudulent contract,
habitual drunkenness, gross neglect of duty, and conviction of a felony or imprisonment. 77 This
updated statute retained the clause stating the plaintiff must have been a resident in good faith of
the state for one year preceding the filing of the divorce petition and must also be a resident of
the county in which the action was brought. 78 Through these updated statutes, divorce law in
Kansas remained quite similar to the statutes adapted from the territorial statutes.
In 1868, the statutes established the guidelines for the district court judge to determine
fault, property rights, alimony, and child custody as part of a divorce settlement. Furthermore,
these changes allowed for a judge to declare a marriage null and void if either of the parties in
the marriage were incapable because of age or understanding to enter into the marriage contract.
In the final section of these statutes, the law provided state residency to a wife living in the state
even if her husband resided elsewhere. 79 This statute upheld women’s rights because it asserted
that a wife’s Kansas residency took precedence over the coverture assumption that a wife’s legal
76 The Statutes of the Territory of Kansas, Chapter 62, Section 2.
77 General Statutes of the State of Kansas 1868, Ch 80, Article XXVIII, Sec 639.
78 General Statutes of the State of Kansas 1868, Ch 80, Article XXVIII, Sec 640.
79 General Statutes of the State of Kansas 1868, Ch 80, Article XXVIII, Sec 651.
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