“… We received a letter from S. M. Tinsley & Co. of Springfield, Ill. In the early part of the month, advising us of a Deposit having been made at your Bank with instructions that the same shall be forthwith remitted to our address. As we have not had the pleasure of hearing from you relative thereto and fearing that this remittance might have been made, without having reached us, shall we ask the favor of you to inform us what has been done in this matter …”

      [With handwritten note by recipient at bottom]: “No deposit made yet. So soon as a certain deed from Kiedy of Illinois to Lohman of this State is executed the deposit will be made and forwarded to you.”

             An interesting association between Illinois legal clients of 32-year-old Abraham Lincoln and the famous Jewish Gratz family of Philadelphia. Edward Gratz and his son David had offices in Philadelphia but most of their business was conducted in the Lykens Valley, where they owned and operated Anthracite Coal mines, Edward was the son of Simon Gratz and the grandson of Michael Gratz. The revered Rebecca Gratz, who founded the Jewish Sunday School movement and was an inspiration of Sir. Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe was Edward’s aunt. Edward and David had a falling out with their relatives and were parties, from 1839 onward, to an acrimonious inheritance lawsuit which eventually made its way to the US Supreme Court in 1850.

Seth M. Tinsley (1808-1868) a Virginian who had settled in Illinois in 1830, was one of the wealthiest merchants in Springfield – and the landlord of Lincoln’s law offices, located in the same building as Tinsley’s dry-goods store, (now a National Historical Monument.) Before purchasing his own home, Lincoln also rented a house from Tinsley. Apart from his store, Tinsley also owned a mill and a distillery and over $ 40,000 in real estate, plus being a director of the Turnpike Company and a local bank and a Springfield city Alderman. This letter was written weeks before Tinsley first retained Lincoln as his lawyer in July 1841. Lincoln continued to represent Tinsley in various matters until 1846. “Kiedy” probably refers to John A. Keedy, one of Tinsley’s business partners and another Lincoln client.  (His name is also misspelled “Keidy” and “Kidey” in different historical documents). Keedy retained Lincoln on various legal matters from 1840 to 1851. All the historical accounts of Abraham Lincoln’s sympathy for the Jewish people date from the early years of his Presidency. While there is no evidence that Lincoln ever had direct contact with the Gratz family while they were doing business with Tinsley and Keedy in Springfield, this letter may represent the very first association between significant figures in Lincoln’s early life and the most celebrated Jewish family of Philadelphia.