729

627. James H. Matheny (Jesse W. Weik Interview)

[ca. 1883-88]

Judge Matheney agreed with Davis and Hay. He told me also that although in worldly matters Lincoln was a prudent and careful as the average man, yet he never succeeded in acquiring very much property. Compared to his second partner, Stephen T. Logan, David Davis, and a few other associates of like standing at the bar, he was poor. At the time of his election in 1860 the house in which he lived was the only real extate he possessed and his personal accumulations did not exceed ten thousand dollars. His tastes were proverbially simple; he indulged in no excesses and his expenditures were kept at the minimum. His wife, on the other hand, had a weakness for certain luxuries, but they were modest and only few in number. She loved fine clothes, but in other respects she was close and in no sense extravagant.

Weik, 91