Haywood murder trial docket given to college
BOISE – A century-old, leather-bound court docket from the murder trial that followed the 1905 assassination of Idaho Gov. Frank Steunenberg has been donated to Albertson College of Idaho by his descendants.
The docket, rescued from a trash bin more than a decade ago, includes the original complaint that led to the arrest of Harry Orchard and union boss William “Big Bill” Haywood.
Haywood, the leader of the Western Federation of Miners, was acquitted after being represented by Clarence Darrow, the era’s legal star. Orchard confessed, and died in the Idaho State Penitentiary in 1954, according to Albertson College.
Steunenberg was killed by a booby-trap bomb at his Caldwell home in 1905, historians say, because of his efforts to suppress labor union uprisings in the state. After his assassination, public officials asked for federal troops to deal with unrest.
The 1907 trial gained national attention. Idaho historians call it Idaho’s “Trial of the Century.”
The docket likely would have ended up in a landfill if not for Pat and Warren Widner, amateur historians and collectors.
Their son, Canyon County Sheriff Chris Smith, who was then a deputy, called his mother and stepfather and told them old documents were being thrown out by the county.
“We jumped in the pickup and roared down to the courthouse,” said Warren Widener, now 80. “We backed the truck up to the dumpster and pitched things in without knowing what they were.”
They still have 27 other dockets taken from the trash. The one involving the assassination of Steunenberg they are selling to Bill Crookham, a descendant.
The Crookham/Steunenberg families decided to donate the docket to the college. They have already donated other family documents.
Jan Boles, an archivist with the college, said the condition of the docket is 9.9 out of 10. It has unmarred brown leather, marbled paper and gold embossing.
She said she was astonished to receive the docket for the college’s archives. “I had to get up and walk around,” she said.