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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—right in the middle of his legendary debates with Stephen Douglas—Abraham Lincoln made a campaign stop in the tiny town of Metamora, in Woodford County Illinois. But the reason for the visit wasn’t just politics. Part of it had to do with a murder. [1]
The Stovewood Defense
In April of the previous year, seventy‑year‑old Melissa Goings struck her seventy-six‑year‑old husband, Roswell, with a piece of stovewood during a violent quarrel. He died four days later. [2]
Roswell was a well‑to‑do farmer, but also a notorious drinker and a wife‑beater. That day, an argument over an open window turned deadly when he grabbed Melissa and began to strangle her. She broke free, grabbed the wood, and fought for her life. [3]
While the town was largely sympathetic, a vocal minority of men felt threatened. They feared the precedent: if Melissa Goings walked free, what was to stop other wives from taking a stick to their husbands and claiming abuse? In an era where the jury box was a strictly male domain, the deck was stacked. The legal doctrine of self‑defense was in its infancy in Illinois and notoriously unreliable—especially for a woman.
The Indictment
Bail was set at a staggering $1,000, which her son and a neighbor stepped forward to post. [4] When Melissa returned to court in October 1857, she was represented by Henry Grove and a co‑counsel he had recruited: Abraham Lincoln.
The indictment was a chilling relic of 19th‑century boilerplate, charging that Melissa—“not having the fear of God before his {sic} eyes but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil”—had murdered her husband. [5] The clerk didn’t even bother to update the gender on the form. On the advice of her legal team, Melissa pleaded not guilty.
The court was in no mood for delays. Judge James Harriott ordered the trial to begin immediately. Lincoln tried to buy his client a little breathing room and asked for more time to study the case. Harriott—perhaps sensing a stalling tactic—denied the request outright and granted only a “short recess” so Lincoln could confer privately with the client. [5]
The Vanishing Act
What happened during that recess is the stuff of legal legend.
Lincoln and Melissa retreated to a vacant room downstairs for their court‑ordered conference. When Lincoln returned to the courtroom alone, the atmosphere shifted immediately. Robert T. Cassell—one of the justices who had originally held Mrs. Goings on the murder charge and now serving as bailiff—was sent to bring the defendant to the courtroom. He came back with a stunning report: Melissa Goings was nowhere to be found.
An enraged Cassell allegedly accused Lincoln of engineering her escape. Lincoln, ever precise about 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]
Whether Lincoln truly pointed her toward Tennessee or simply let the moment unfold, the result was the same: Melissa Goings was gone. The famous quip about “mighty good water” may be hearsay, but it captures the brilliance of Lincoln’s misdirection.
By sending the court’s imagination southeast toward Tennessee, he drew their eyes away from the real escape route—West. If the legend holds truth, Lincoln wasn’t just making a joke; he was giving Melissa the smokescreen she needed to begin her long, arduous journey toward the Pacific.
Cleaning Up the Legal Debris
The court immediately forfeited Melissa’s bond and issued a scire facias—a judicial writ “making known” that her bail was now a debt to the state. When Melissa could not be located, Illinois turned its sights on her son and her neighbor, suing them to recover the staggering $1,000 sum. [4]
The matter hung unresolved for a year. Then, during Lincoln’s October 1858 stop in Metamora—wedged between his famous debates with Stephen Douglas—he sat down with State’s Attorney Hugh Fullerton. After a protracted negotiation, Lincoln persuaded Fullerton to drop the prosecution against Melissa’s son and her neighbor. By the following year, the entire murder case was officially stricken from the docket. [4]
The California “Housecleaning”
What happened next lay far beyond the reach of any Illinois courtroom. Melissa Goings didn’t just disappear; she survived. Because she escaped before a jury could deliver a verdict, she remained the legal widow of the deceased rather than a convicted felon. At the time, Illinois had no “slayer statutes” to prevent a suspected murderer from inheriting from their victim. Her “dower right”—a widow’s entitlement to one-third of her husband’s land—was a sacred property interest that couldn’t be stripped away without a conviction. [6]
By 1865, Melissa had successfully reached Tehama County, California. Her presence there is confirmed by a fascinating deed record in Woodford County. She and her daughter sold her dower rights to a man named Frank Joseph Sikle for the token sum of one dollar. [7]
This wasn’t a sale for profit; it was a final legal “housecleaning.” By accepting a single dollar, Melissa was “quieting the title”—severing her last tie to the Illinois soil and providing the farm’s new occupants with a clean deed, all while staying safely out of reach of Illinois authorities.
His Loud Silent Commentary
In helping Melissa Goings slip beyond the reach of a flawed judicial system, Lincoln risked his reputation, his law license, and his political future. But he also revealed something essential about himself: when the law failed a vulnerable woman, he chose justice over procedure.
Given Lincoln’s known reverence for the law, his actions that day stand as a very loud opinion—delivered not from a podium, but in the space left behind when a frightened woman vanished. It was Lincoln’s silent commentary on the right 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
Notes & Works Cited
[*] FYI: In 2009, the Woodford County Historical Society raised over $100,000 for statues of Lincoln and Goings to memorialize this event. Created by John McClarey, they stand in the town square across from the Metamora Courthouse.
[1] The following 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. Keneally, Meghan. “Rep. Ralph Norman jokes about Ruth Bader Ginsburg being ‘groped’ by Abe Lincoln.” ABC News – September 21, 2018. Retrieved May 9, 2026 from https://abcnews.go.com/US/rep-ralph-norman-jokes-ruth-bader-ginsburgs-groped/story?id=57986316.
[2] The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln Blogsite Retrieved May 9, 2026 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 May 9, 2026 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 May 9, 2026 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 May 9, 2026.
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