Wondering: Did Abraham Lincoln have a will?
. . . did our 16th president have a plan for his money
after death? The answer is no; Abraham Lincoln died intestate, meaning
without a will. These days, any major figure of state is certain to have
a proper will, but in Lincoln's day, this was not so common. So what
happened?
By noon the day Lincoln died, his
oldest son, Robert, had sent a telegram to Justice David Davis of the
United States Supreme Court asking him to get at once to Washington in
to take change of his father's affairs. Mrs. Lincoln and Robert then
penned a letter to the county court in their home state of Illinois to
recognize Davis as the administrator of Lincoln's estate.
In
the end, there was over $110,000 to be divided from the estate. Justice
Davis did not take any payment, and had handled the estate
administration entirely on his own, without even hiring an attorney.
With record-keeping as common to the time and the devotion to the late
president, much is known about his estate. For example, Lincoln's unpaid
debts only totaled $38.31 at his death -- far less than most could
imagine in today's age, even with inflation.
Bearing
in mind that Davis was a Supreme Court Justice, it is no surprise that
he was able to manage it on his own. Estate administration is not a
simple process, and typically, the person charged with it hires and
attorney. An experienced attorney can be an irreplaceable resource for
families and individuals in need of estate planning or administration.
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