To visit the old courthouse in Metamora is to sense a certain presence there. Mr. Lincoln's greatest attribute was his moral sense of justice which he saw with such keenness and presented so vividly that he left no doubt in the minds of those who heard him of what was right and what was wrong. The manner of his own life was directed by his ever present awareness of this line of distinction for which he allowed no variance. Thus, if the Melissa Goings story is true, it is only because everyone knew that under the circumstances of her case she deserved to be acquitted. Lincoln was so completely honest that no one could doubt him. He was without any sense of arrogance. His kindly helpful ways, his feeling of complete democracy, his love of humor, his inimitable way of telling a lively story, his love of people and his feeling of reverence for the sublime, all were attributes which made him a man to whom the whole world has paid honor. The little courthouse in Metamora stands as a monument because he once practiced law there.

In the sixties several lawyers came to El Paso. John T. Harper graduated from the Chicago School of Law, now Northwestern, following his Civil War service, and began practicing law in El Paso in 1865, forming a law partnership with Robert G. Ingersoll of Peoria and Joseph J. Cassell of Metamora. Travel from this area to Metamora in all kinds of weather was not always possible, so several of our early lawyers became associated with some Metamora lawyer for that reason. Later Joseph J. Cassell moved to El Paso. There is an affidavit recorded in the records of Woodford County and a reference in the 1878 County History "That at an early date there was a Recorder's Court in the City of El Paso, and that the presiding judge was Joseph J. Cassell, said court being later discontinued by an Act of the Legislature. W. G. Randall was Master-in-Chancery of said Court in 1871-2. The records of this Court were destroyed by fire when a building in which they were stored on West Front Street burned."

In 1865 we find three others practicing law in El Paso, W. G. Randall, Calvin E. Barney and Simon P. Shope. From the close of the Civil War until the national panic of 1873 El Paso was a flourishing town. There were two railroads, the Campbell House and the Strathman Building were imposing three-story structures, there were eight new churches, two large flour mills, a barrel factory, a brewery, a roundhouse, an iron foundry, plow and wagon factories, two lumber yards, one and often two newspapers, three buggy and wagon factories, a livery stable, elevators, the new east side school and the Eagle Block building, both three stories high. All this building with many stores well stocked with merchandise meant an expenditure of more than a quarter-million dollars within eight years. Such a boom attracted notice, and among the new inhabitants were seven doctors and eleven lawyers.

From the panic of 1873 until that of 1884, the intervening years represented less prosperity. Not many improvements were made, but

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