When voters approved building a high school in Boulder in 1900, it was only the beginning of a decade of disputes. The Jefferson County Commissioners chose not to levy the tax necessary for construction, leading to a lawsuit filed by the school district trustees. By the time Judge Llewellyn Link Callaway ordered the commissioners to levy the necessary three mills and construction bids were awarded, it was the spring of 1910 before the work began.
That historical tidbit is only one among many in a series of stories about the Montana Fifth Judicial District judges over the years. Those stories, along with photos of the judges, appear on cards similar to baseball trading cards now available at The Heritage Center.
Even someone who has spent probably thousands of hours in the district courtroom covering cases surrounded by photos of the judges can find fascinating stories in the series.
In the case of Judge Callaway, he built the first home in Virginia City wired for electricity. He spent 13 years as the Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court, wrapping up an illustrious career on the bench.
Judge Joseph Boyd Poindexter’s profile contains nearly as many ties to major historical events as the story of “Forrest Gump.”
His father-in-law was with the troops that tracked down and killed John Wilkes Booth, assassin of President Abraham Lincoln. He presided over a trial of the Graves Mercantile Company for unlawfully storing dynamite that exploded in Boulder in 1910 and killed three people as well as destroying or damaging many Boulder buildings. He was governor of Hawaii when the attack on Pearl Harbor took place. He appeared on the cover of the July 23, 1934 Time Magazine. He served as a trustee of the estate of the last queen of the Hawaiian Islands.
Those details and all of the judicial stories were researched and written by Ellen Rae Thiel of of The Heritage Center, funded by the Jefferson County Museum Board, and printed by the Boulder Monitor.
For a complete set of the cards, visit The Heritage Center in Boulder.
