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| Statues of Melissa Goings and Abraham Lincoln in Metamora, IL. [*] The Metamora Courthouse is in the background. |
On October 4, 1858, in the midst of his now-famous debates with Stephen Douglas across the state of Illinois, Abraham Lincoln made a campaign stop in the small town of Metamora in Woodford County. But the reason for the stop wasn’t
In April of the previous year, a seventy-year-old woman named Melissa Goings took a piece of wood and struck her seventy-seven-year-old husband, Roswell Goings, several times on the back, shoulders, and head. He died four days later. [2]
Mr. Goings, a local, well-to-do farmer, had a reputation as a heavy drinker and a wife-beater. That particular day, an argument over the opening of a window in their home led to a violent quarrel; he grabbed Mrs. Goings and attempted to strangle her. She managed to break away, grabbed the piece of stovewood, and defended herself. [3]
Most of the town was sympathetic to her cause. However, a few men in the community evidently felt threatened by the precedent they believed Mrs. Goings was setting for other wives: get mad at the hubby, take a stick of wood to his head, and later accuse him of abuse to escape consequences. In an era where the jury box was a strictly male domain, the deck was stacked against her. While her actions were a clear-cut case of self-defense, that legal doctrine was still in its infancy in Illinois and notoriously unreliable. For a woman to invoke such a defense was a fragile gamble in a trial where her "peers" were the very people most invested in maintaining the status quo of domestic control. It was a classic display of 19th-century misogyny.
Following a preliminary hearing on April 23, 1857, bail was set at $1,000—a staggering sum for the time. Her son, Armstrong, and a neighbor, Samuel W. Beck, stepped forward as sureties to post the bond, and she was released until the fall term of the circuit court. [4]
On October 10, 1857, Mrs. Goings returned to the Metamora courthouse to face an indictment for murder. She was accompanied by her attorney, Henry Grove, and another lawyer whom Grove had asked to be his co-counsel: Abraham Lincoln. The document they faced was a chilling relic of 19th-century law, charging that Melissa Goings—"not having the fear of God before his {sic} eyes but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil"—did kill and murder Roswell Goings. [5] Despite the clerk’s failure to even update the gender on the legal boilerplate, the stakes were clear. On the advice of her legal team, Mrs. Goings stood before Judge James Harriott and pleaded not guilty. [4]
The court was in no mood for delay; the trial was ordered to begin immediately. Before the jury could be empaneled, Lincoln made a move to buy his client some space. He requested more time to familiarize himself with the case, but the judge—perhaps sensing a delay tactic—abruptly denied the motion. Instead, the court granted a "short recess" so the defendant could hold a private conference with Lincoln. [5]
The Courthouse Escape
Lincoln and Melissa Goings retreated to a vacant room downstairs for their court-ordered conference. But when Lincoln returned to the courtroom alone, the atmosphere shifted instantly. Robert T. Cassell, one of the justices who had originally held Mrs. Goings on the murder charge, was serving as the court bailiff that day. When the State’s Attorney ordered him to bring the defendant forward for trial, Cassell returned with a startling report: Mrs. Goings was nowhere to be found. [6]
An incensed Cassell supposedly accused Lincoln of orchestrating the escape. Lincoln, a master of both the letter and the spirit of the law, coolly denied that he had "run her off". According to local legend, he offered only a cryptic, folksy explanation:
“She said she was thirsty and wanted to know where she could get a good drink of water. I said that Tennessee has mighty fine drinkin’ water.” [6]
While no documentary evidence beyond hearsay corroborates this exact remark, it was a brilliant piece of misdirection. By pointing the law toward Tennessee—to the Southeast—Lincoln was sending them in the opposite direction of the true gateway to the West: St. Louis, Missouri. If the legend is true, Lincoln wasn't just making a joke; he was providing the smokescreen Melissa Goings needed to begin her long journey toward the Pacific.
The court immediately forfeited her recognizance and issued a scire facias (a judicial writ "making known" that the bail was now a debt to the state) for her arrest. When she could not be located, the state pursued a lawsuit against her son and neighbor to recover the full $1,000 bond. [4]
It wasn't until Lincoln’s campaign stop that day, a year later, in October 1858, that the matter was finally put to rest. Between political speeches, Lincoln met with State’s Attorney Hugh Fullerton. After a protracted negotiation, Lincoln successfully persuaded Fullerton to dismiss the prosecution against the bondsmen, her son and the neighbor, for the money. A year later, the entire murder case was stricken from the docket. [4]
According to Woodford County deed records, Melissa Goings eventually settled in California, where she lived for the remainder of her life. Her attorney moved on to become President of a war-torn nation, and ultimately, a murder victim himself at the end of that struggle.
📜 Afterword: The California Coda
The legal saga of Melissa Goings did not end with her vanishing act from the Metamora courthouse. Alhough she was a fugitive from justice, a fascinating loophole in 19th-century law allowed her to retain a financial stake in her late husband’s estate. Because she had escaped before a jury could deliver a verdict, she remained—in the eyes of the civil courts—the legal widow of the deceased rather than a convicted felon. At that time, Illinois had no "slayer statutes" to prevent a suspected murderer from inheriting from their victim, and her "dower right" (a widow’s entitlement to one-third of her husband’s land) was considered a sacred property interest that could not be easily stripped away without a conviction. [6]
By 1865, Mrs. Goings had successfully navigated the arduous journey to Tehama County, California. Her presence there is confirmed, strangely enough, by a deed record in Woodford County from August 26, 1865, in which she and her daughter, Eliza Huffman, conveyed (sold) seven-eighths of her dower rights to a Frank Joseph Sikle. Most telling is the "consideration" listed for the transfer: a mere one dollar. This token payment suggests the transaction was not a business deal for profit, but a final legal "housecleaning." By accepting a single dollar, Mrs. Goings was officially "quieting the title"—severing her last legal tie to the Illinois soil where the tragedy occurred and providing the farm’s new occupants with a clean deed, all while remaining safely out of reach of the Illinois authorities. [7]
The Silent Commentary
By encouraging Mrs. Goings to escape the "justice" of that small Illinois town in 1857, Lincoln risked everything—jail, disbarment, and a ruined political reputation. The Melissa Goings case stands as a profound testament to the character of the circuit-riding lawyer. It suggests that his commitment to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" wasn't just a political talking point, but a personal conviction he was willing to act upon, even at great personal cost.
Given Lincoln’s known reverence for the law, his actions that day stand as a "very loud" silent protest. In an era where the legal system offered women almost no protection from domestic brutality, Lincoln chose a higher moral law over a flawed statute. His role in her disappearance remains one of the most compelling "unwritten" arguments of his career—a silent commentary on the rights of women to be free from abuse and a stark judgment on the fate of abusers.
A woman in peril, a lawyer with heart—another legal anecdote from the archives of Abraham Lincoln, Storyteller.
Mac
[*] FYI: In 2009, the Woodford County Historical Society raised more than $100,000 for statues of Lincoln and Goings (shown at the beginning of this post) to memorialize this event. These statues, by John McClarey, were placed in the town square, across the street from that Metamora Courthouse - now a State Historic Site.]
🎩 Hooked on Honest Old Abe’s courtroom drama? Here are two more tales from the docket on Abraham Lincoln, Storyteller:
Abe's first murder trial back in 1838 was a surprise to the courtroom spectators—and to Lincoln himself! [Read: A Rookie's Bold Debut]
A fatal stabbing, a family feud, and a press war—Lincoln’s last murder trial had it all. [Read: A Knife, A Grudge, and a Political Storm]
📚 Works Cited
[1] Keneally, Meghan. “Rep. Ralph Norman jokes about Ruth Bader Ginsburg being ‘groped’ by Abe Lincoln.” ABC News – September 21, 2018. Retrieved September 21, 2018 from https://abcnews.go.com/US/rep-ralph-norman-jokes-ruth-bader-ginsburgs-groped/story?id=57986316 [The cited article prompted this post. Even as a sick joke, this sort of behavior by anyone – let alone a lawyer being considered for the court – was repulsive to Abraham Lincoln. The Melissa Goings case stands as proof.]
[2] The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln Blogsite Retrieved September 21, 2018 from http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137143
[3] Myers, Jean. “Justice Served: Abraham Lincoln and the Melissa Goings Case.” Peoria Magazines – March/April 2009. Retrieved September 21, 2018 from https://peoriamagazines.com/as/2009/mar-apr/justice-served
[4] Deckle Sr., George R. “People v Melissa Goings: Transcript of a Murder Case Defended By Lincoln.” Abraham Lincoln’s Almanac Trial Blogsite. Retrieved on September 21, 2018 from http://almanac-trial.blogspot.com/search/label/Melissa%20Goings [I highly recommend this site AND his book Prairie Defender: The Murder Trials of Abraham Lincoln. Excellent reading! Here’s his main blog site: https://plus.google.com/+BobDekle ]
[5] Common Law Record 1857–1861, Record of Circuit Court at Oct. Term A.D. 1857, Woodford County Courthouse (Metamora/Eureka, Illinois). [The Devil and God appear as part of the legal phraseology in many murder indictments in central Illinois during this time – not just Melissa Goings’. However, I thought this wording presented a bizarre – if not chilling – image of a defendant – especially when read to a grand jury.]
[6] Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society Spring 1953: Volume 46, Issue 1, pp 79-83. from https://archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-the-illinois-state-historical-society_spring-1953_46_1/page/78/mode/2up
[7] Deed Record S, Woodford County, 626. Melicia [sic] Goings and Eliza Huffman to Frank Joseph Sikle, residence not stated, Aug. 26, 1865. Consideration $1. Retrieved January 7, 2026.
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