Doyle,
Yes, I see your point, and that could very well be true.

A lot of people in Illinois (and likely other states too) couldn't afford an attorney, so they paid with their property deeds and lost all they had. No reason why they wouldn't have done the same thing with Lincoln defending them.

One of my husband's ggg grandfathers was accused of murder in Johnson Co. (southern IL). He ran out of money as the case went on for years. He ended up deeding his property to John A. Logan, Josh Allen and A.J. Kuykendall--all prominent attorneys and later politicians. Oh--he was found "not guilty" because he died before the case was over.

As an attorney Lincoln could have acquired property very easily with very little money (cash). And if you look at the Hotel that Grant stayed in at Cairo--almost all of the servants, cooks, etc. were black, although the owner wasn't. (The owner's brother joined the Confederate Army. Came back to Cairo after the war was over).

Another way lawyers often became rich was buying up Tax property. (pay the taxes for a poor family for a couple of years, then the property is yours).

Doubt that anyone will ever find that Lincoln owned a slave (who was called a slave). Had much better names for them in the "free States".

Have you ever heard of the Sunset towns in Illinois?
Ann