Lincoln Wins His Case marker - Pontiac, IL - Abraham Lincoln on Waymarking.com

Thanks to the author of the Historical Marker Database entry on this marker at (visit link) for transcribing the text:

"[ Left Section ] Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas were opposing attorneys during Livingston County’s first regular term of circuit court, which was held on this site May 18 and 19, 1840, in Henry Weed’s log cabin. In the first lawsuit filed in the county. Lincoln served as attorney for William Popejoy, Jr., who was asking $2,000 damages for defamation of character. Popejoy claimed Isaac Wilson had publicly accused him of stealing meat from Sarah McDowell. Stephen A. Douglas represented Wilson. Lincoln won the case, but the damages were greatly reduced on appeal. The judge and attorneys, including David Davis, a twenty-five-year-old attorney from Bloomington, had come across the prairie in buggies and on horseback. Lincoln, on horseback, was drenched to the skin by a late spring shower. The jury held its deliberations on a pile of saw-logs on the banks of the river; and, afterward, standing on a dry goods box, Lincoln, then thirty-one, and Douglas, twenty-seven, debated political issues of the day to an attentive audience."

There is more to read when you visit the marker.

The Looking for Lincoln series comprises a total of 220 of these exhibits in 47 Illinois communities to help them more vividly tell their own unique Lincoln story. There are nine of these in Pontiac. Here's a local website about Pontiac's LfL markers (visit link)

Location Type: Historic Marker Property Type: Public Date of Event: May 18 and 19, 1840 Location Notes: open at all times, along Chicago Avenue north of Washington Street URL for Additional Information: [Web Link]

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