A luminary of this state's judicial history, Samuel Hubbel Treat, will have been dead 119 years next month, but few tributes to his memory exist outside of musty law books.

No visitor to Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery would become aware that Treat's body lies near the tomb of Abraham Lincoln, who practiced before him in several courts. Treat's remains repose obscurely without a marker.

The Illinois Bar Foundation and Illinois State Bar Association joined Judge Richard Mills of U.S. District Court for the Central District last fall in an effort to generate enthusiasm, and funding, for an appropriate memorial.

The goal is to provide, in the words of Judge Mills, “a fitting monument to one of the greatest jurists on Mr. Lincoln's Prairie.”

Although just over $2,000 was quickly raised for the project, along came Hurricane Katrina, the Bar Foundation Gala, the ISBA Midyear Meeting, and annual year-end appeals by charitable institutions around the world.

A replica of the proposed monument was viewed by the bench and bar during a Springfield reception in September. The estimated cost is $15,000 – about $13,000 more than has been realized so far.

It remains for the bench and bar to meet the challenge of honoring one of its long forgotten legends. “I'm sure that with all of us plugging together, the goal to remember Judge Treat will ultimately be reached,” Mills said last month.

Tax-deductible contributions should be mailed to the Illinois Bar Foundation, 424 S. Second St., Springfield, Ill. 62701, designated for the Judge Samuel Treat Fund.

Treat was the first judge to serve in all three court systems in Illinois: circuit, supreme and federal. He presided in the Southern District court for more than three decades, working until a few weeks before his death.

Between 1839 and 1855, Treat heard Lincoln argue 870 circuit court cases and about 162 Supreme Court matters, As a federal judge, he presided in at least 136 more of Lincoln's cases.

Treat died March 27, 1887. The administrator of his estate received permission on Dec. 11, 1888, to expend not more than $200 on procuring a tombstone and placing it at the site. No explanation has been found as to why that responsibility was neglected.

In addition to the ISBA and IBF, sponsors of the funding project include the Supreme Court Historical Society, the Sangamon County Bar Association, and the Bar Association of the Central and Southern Federal Districts of Illinois.