Details
[LINCOLN, ABRAHAM]. MATHENY, O.R., Clerk of Sangamon County Court. Printed document signed, docketed on verso by G. Elkin, Sangamon County Sheriff, Springfield, Illinois, 7 May 1834. 1 page, folio, accomplished in manuscript, circular embossed seal of Sangamon County at left, minor fold separations reinforced from verso.
LINCOLN THE BANKRUPT: THE SANGAMON COUNTY SHERIFF'S WRIT AGAINST "ABRAM" LINCOLN AND WILLIAM F. BERRY, HIS NEW SALEM PARTNER
A remarkable relic of the twenty-four-year-old Lincoln's extravagant business dealings, which resulted in bankruptcy and the sheriff's seizure of his property to satisfy his creditors. The document, printed in a variety of typefaces is headed: "The People of Illinois. To the Sheriff of Sangamon County...We command you that of the goods and chattels, lands and tenements of Abram [sic] Lincoln & Mr. Wm. F. Berry late of your county you cause to be made the sum of Fifty seven Dollars and 86 Cents, which William Watkins lately, in our Circuit Court for Sangamon County, hath recovered against him for debt in an appeal...with legal interest thereon from the 26 day of April...until paid; also Eight Dollars and 16 Cents, which were adjudged to him [them] in our said Court...whereof the said Abram Lincoln & Wm. F. Berry are convicted, as appears to us of record; and that you have that money at the Clerk's Office of our said Court...ninety days after the date hereof to render the said Wm. Watkins the debt interest and costs as aforesaid; and have you then there this writ. Witness, the Honorable Samuel D. Lockwood, Judge....C.R. Matheny, Clerk." On the verso, sheriff Elkins has recorded additional information relative to the judgement, including the note: "Recd. Aug.5 1834 on the within Execution of W. Berry Twenty four dollars & fifty cents. Aug 25 Recd. of Sheppard for Berry seventeen dollars & forty cents."
Lincoln's short and eventful mercantile career began with his purchase, in the fall of 1832, of an interest in the Herndon-Berry store in New Salem, Illinois. Lincoln and William F. Berry then bought the store of a rival in New Salem from an interim owner, William Greene, by a complicated series of promissory notes. One of these, when the obligation went unmet, was assigned to a Springfield money-lender, Peter Van Bergen, who in the fall of 1834 obtained a judgement against Lincoln, Berry and Greene for a total of $154. In the meantime, Lincoln, who had studied surveying to be able to take surveying jobs, had purchased a horse, saddle and bridle on credit from William Watkins, giving him another promissory note for $57.86. When he defaulted, Watkins sued and on 26 April 1834 obtained a judgement in Sangamon County Circuit Court. When Lincoln and Berry proved unable to pay the two judgements, sheriff Gerrit Elkin seized personal possessions of Lincoln which included his horse, saddle, bridle and surveying instruments, which were sold at auction to satisy the judgement. A friend of Lincoln's, James Short, who lived near New Salem, went to the auction, purchased the horse and surveying instruments for $125 and returned them to Lincoln.
LINCOLN THE BANKRUPT: THE SANGAMON COUNTY SHERIFF'S WRIT AGAINST "ABRAM" LINCOLN AND WILLIAM F. BERRY, HIS NEW SALEM PARTNER
A remarkable relic of the twenty-four-year-old Lincoln's extravagant business dealings, which resulted in bankruptcy and the sheriff's seizure of his property to satisfy his creditors. The document, printed in a variety of typefaces is headed: "The People of Illinois. To the Sheriff of Sangamon County...We command you that of the goods and chattels, lands and tenements of Abram [sic] Lincoln & Mr. Wm. F. Berry late of your county you cause to be made the sum of Fifty seven Dollars and 86 Cents, which William Watkins lately, in our Circuit Court for Sangamon County, hath recovered against him for debt in an appeal...with legal interest thereon from the 26 day of April...until paid; also Eight Dollars and 16 Cents, which were adjudged to him [them] in our said Court...whereof the said Abram Lincoln & Wm. F. Berry are convicted, as appears to us of record; and that you have that money at the Clerk's Office of our said Court...ninety days after the date hereof to render the said Wm. Watkins the debt interest and costs as aforesaid; and have you then there this writ. Witness, the Honorable Samuel D. Lockwood, Judge....C.R. Matheny, Clerk." On the verso, sheriff Elkins has recorded additional information relative to the judgement, including the note: "Recd. Aug.5 1834 on the within Execution of W. Berry Twenty four dollars & fifty cents. Aug 25 Recd. of Sheppard for Berry seventeen dollars & forty cents."
Lincoln's short and eventful mercantile career began with his purchase, in the fall of 1832, of an interest in the Herndon-Berry store in New Salem, Illinois. Lincoln and William F. Berry then bought the store of a rival in New Salem from an interim owner, William Greene, by a complicated series of promissory notes. One of these, when the obligation went unmet, was assigned to a Springfield money-lender, Peter Van Bergen, who in the fall of 1834 obtained a judgement against Lincoln, Berry and Greene for a total of $154. In the meantime, Lincoln, who had studied surveying to be able to take surveying jobs, had purchased a horse, saddle and bridle on credit from William Watkins, giving him another promissory note for $57.86. When he defaulted, Watkins sued and on 26 April 1834 obtained a judgement in Sangamon County Circuit Court. When Lincoln and Berry proved unable to pay the two judgements, sheriff Gerrit Elkin seized personal possessions of Lincoln which included his horse, saddle, bridle and surveying instruments, which were sold at auction to satisy the judgement. A friend of Lincoln's, James Short, who lived near New Salem, went to the auction, purchased the horse and surveying instruments for $125 and returned them to Lincoln.