Riders follow Lincoln's path to courthouses

A two-day journey through the old 8th Circuit that Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln rode on horseback in Central Illinois will be recreated Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 16-17, by lawyers on motorcycles and other conveyances.

The Lincoln Circuit Ride, co-sponsored by the ISBA, includes visits to all 14 county seats in the former federal circuit, including some historic courthouses.

Participants will gather at 7:30 a.m. Sept. 16 on Sixth Street in Springfield near Lincoln's law office to hear a presentation about the history of the 8th Circuit and types of matters that were adjudicated in Lincoln's days.

Illinois attorneys Guy C. Fraker of Bloomington, George W. Tinkham of Springfield and Bruce Baber of Paris will speak, along with Indiana attorneys Sydney L. Steele and Elliott Levin, and Rod Taylor, who belongs to five state bars.

At 8:30 a.m., the circuit riders will head for the Woodford County Courthouse in Metamora, where at 10 a.m. Steele will discuss ethics and conflict rules during Lincoln's time in an original courthouse.

At 1 p.m., the destination is the Logan County Courthouse in Mt. Pulaski, where Lincoln practiced before the county seat moved to Lincoln. Tinkham will speak.

On Sept. 17, the second day of the ride will begin at 9 a.m. at the Vermilion County Courthouse in Danville. Taylor will discuss co-counsel arrangements of Indiana and Illinois lawyers in the 1850s.

At 10:30 a.m. at the Edgar County Courthouse in Paris, Taylor and Baber will review trials and sentencing by Judge David Davis, who later served on the U.S. Supreme Court and was a president of the ISBA.

At 12:30 p.m., Tinkham will talk about Lincoln's trial practice at the Macon County Courthouse in Decatur. The ride will conclude at 2 p.m. at the Christian County Courthouse in Taylorville, where Taylor and Tinkham will speak.

For more information, call George Tinkham at (217) 523-8300.