Society Organized to Preserve Court History
By Chris Krueger

The efforts of the Eastern District Historical Society to preserve the history of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California are well underway.

Led by Chief Judge William B. Shubb, the society was founded last year to preserve the history of the district. On December 13th, the society held a reception at the United States Courthouse for the society's initial group of approximately 90 charter members. The purpose of the reception was to recognize the strong support that the charter members have given the society in only its first year.

The atmosphere of the reception, which was held in the court's law library, was infused with the theme of honoring and preserving court history. The library contains a public display of the Sherrill Halbert Lincoln Collection, a collection of published works and memorabilia about President Lincoln collected by the late District Judge Sherrill Halbert. Judge Halbert, initially appointed to the bench in 1954, when Sacramento was part of the Northern Division of the Northern District, became one of the first three judges of the Eastern District when it was formed on March 18, 1966. Besides Judge Halbert's collection, the library also contains photographs of the past and current judges of the district.

Martha MacBride and Sue Wilkins, the widows of Judge Thomas J. MacBride and Judge Phillip C. Wilkins, the second and third chief judges of the Eastern District, were honored guests. The loss of Judges MacBride and Wilkins, as well as Judge Edward Dean Price, before their oral histories could be taken served as the impetus for the formation of the society, Judge Shubb said in an interview.

Judge Shubb said the society has immediately engaged itself in the preparation of oral histories of several major figures in Eastern District history. An oral history of Senior District Judge M. D. Crocker, a 1959 appointee of President Eisenhower who served as the first chief judge of the Eastern District, was recently completed. Oral histories of Senior District Judge Milton L. Schwartz, Bankruptcy Judge Robert Woodward, Magistrate Esther Mix, and Federal Defender Dick Walker are also in the works.

Taking oral histories "is the best way we have to preserve the recollections, the experiences, and the thought processes of judges who have come before us," Judge Shubb said.

Judge Shubb took Judge Halbert's oral history on behalf of the Ninth Circuit Historical Society before Judge Halbert's passing in 1991.

A second function of the historical society will be to collect and preserve court records of historical significance, said Courtney Linn, the society's secretary. The society will work with the clerk's office to ensure that materials in court files of potential interest to historians are preserved.

Ann Taylor Schwing, the ex officio reporter for the historical society, said the society is "sensitizing people to keep their eye out for things" of historical significance. Schwing, who clerked for Judge MacBride from 1977 to 1980, said she intends to donate some of the written materials she collected when Judge MacBride presided over the so-called "Roseville explosion" trial. The trial, a lawsuit between the Southern Pacific Transportation Company and the United States regarding liability for an April 28, 1973 explosion of a train carrying bombs from Nevada to the Bay Area, lasted more than two years.

Judge Shubb said a room has been set aside in the courthouse to house historical court materials. Although the society will be selective in the material that it collects due to space constraints, Judge Shubb stated that anyone who has materials of potential historical significance should contact Linn regarding possibility of donation to the society.

While the society hurries to take oral histories and to preserve historical materials, it has already established a solid beachhead in cyberspace. Judge Shubb, an experienced webmaster in his spare time, has created a website for the historical society. A particular achievement was reserving the names courthistory.org and courthistory.com for the society's website. By contrast, the United States Supreme Court Historical Society, founded in 1974, has a more unwieldy name, supremecourthistory.org, for its website.

Visitors to the Eastern District Historical Society's web page can find historical information about the Eastern District prepared by Judge Shubb and tributes to past judges, as well as information about the society.

"We may have the best web page of any historical society," Judge Shubb said. "Historical societies are good at looking backward at things, and web pages are a Twenty-First Century phenomenon."

Judge Shubb said the board of historical society plans to meet twice each year to establish annual goals. Charter members will be invited to probably one function each year. The society will communicate with its members through its website, though members will also receive the Eastern District Annual Report each year. The December reception was sponsored by the law firm of Jackson Lewis Schnitzler & Krupman.

Anyone interested in joining the Eastern District Historical Society or donating materials to the society should contact Courtney Linn at clinn@courthistory.org

Dick Nichols and Ann Taylor Schwing.

Martha McBride and Sue Wilkins.