Several ISBA members will participate in a two-day journey in September in the old 8th Circuit of the 19th Century, tracing likely routes of Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln on horseback through Central Illinois.

Billed as a Lincoln Circuit Ride, the tour will be carried out by contemporary lawyers on motorcycles and other conveyances as they visit all 14 county seats in the circuit, including two courthouses that existed during Lincoln's time.

The event will begin at 7:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, on 6th Street in Springfield near Lincoln's law office. A presentation will include the history of the 8th Circuit in the 1850s federal system and types of matters that were adjudicated in those days.

Speakers are Illinois attorneys Guy C. Fraker of Bloomington, George W. Tinkham of Springfield and Bruce Baber of Paris; Indiana attorneys Sydney L. Steele and Elliott Levin, and Rod Taylor, who belongs to the bars of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri.

Mounting up at 8:30 a.m., the circuit riders will head for the Woodford County Courthouse in Metamora, where Steele will discuss ethics and conflict rules during Lincoln's time in an original courthouse (the county seat has since been relocated to Eureka).

The next stop, at 1 p.m., will be the Logan County Courthouse in Mt. Pulaski, where Lincoln practiced before the county seat moved to Lincoln. The speaker is Tinkham.

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

The next stop, at 10:30 a.m., will be 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 in 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.

The circuit ride is planned as a celebration and preservation of the Lincoln heritage in Illinois for future generations. For more information, call George Tinkham at (217) 523-8300.