Lincoln’s Last Case
Nearly every author who has written a biography
of Abraham Lincoln or a study of his twenty-five
year law practice notes the first case in which
Lincoln served as an attorney. Hawthorn v.
Wooldridge actually was two different cases tried in
the fall of 1836, involving an assault and a debt
collection with Lincoln representing the defendant
in both cases. On the other end of the spectrum,
scholars generally ignore Lincoln’s last case, but
often refer to the “Sandbar” case of Johnston v. Jones
and Marsh in April 1860 as Lincoln’s last case of
any importance.
On May 18, six weeks after the conclusion
of the Johnston case, Lincoln received the
Donors
The project acknowledges with deep
appreciation the generosity of the following
contributors:
Richard C. Bjorklund
Richard Grosboll
Morgan County Historical Society
Daniel W. Stowell
While the Lincoln Legal Papers finished
systematic searching for documents in 1999,
new documents seem to appear monthly. The latest
entry in this ongoing process of discovery took place
in the Sangamon County Recorder’s Office in
Springfield—a mere four blocks from our offices.
Mary Ann Lamm, the Sangamon County
Recorder, contacted Dr. James Cornelius, the curator
of the Henry Horner Lincoln Collection at the
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, about several
Lincoln deed records. Cornelius thought they might
have been copies of the deed to Lincoln’s home and
asked John Lupton to accompany him to examine
the documents. Lupton and Cornelius found three
deed record pages each with a Lincoln endorsement
on them. While the project knew of the existence of
these endorsements, we were unaware of the location
of the originals.
The first two endorsements relate to a non-litigation
action in which Lincoln loaned money to
Ritta Angelica Da Silva, a Portuguese immigrant,
who secured the loan with a mortgage on her
property, which was recorded in the deed record
books. Several months later, Lincoln loaned her more
money and took out a second mortgage. She
eventually paid both debts, and Lincoln noted the
satisfaction of the mortgages in the deed record book.
Endorsement by Abraham Lincoln from a Sangamon County Deed Record Book
Deed Record Entries Located
The third endorsement concerns Mary
Lincoln’s aunt. Maria Bullock, who lived in
Lexington, Kentucky, owned some property in the
city of Springfield. Lincoln helped her divide the land
into lots, advertised them, sold them, and collected
the money for her. Lincoln sold one of the lots to
Patrick Keilly, who was unable to pay the full amount
and gave Lincoln a promissory note secured by a
mortgage on the lot. Keilly later paid the promissory
note, and, in the deed record book, Lincoln noted
the satisfaction of the mortgage on behalf of Maria.
The previous recorder had the deed record
pages framed in the 1970s and hung them on his wall.
When Lamm became recorder, she inherited the
documents by virtue of her position. Lamm is nearing
retirement and wanted the documents to be more
publicly visible and hopes to work out a permanent
loan of the documents to the Abraham Lincoln
Presidential Library and Museum.
