“In the autumn of 1849, I was sitting with Judge David Davis in a small country hotel in Mt Pulaski, Illinois, when a tall man, with a circular blue cloak thrown over his shoulders entered one door of the room, and passing through without speaking went out another. I was struck by his appearance. It was the first time I had ever seen him, and I said to Judge Davis, when he had gone, ‘Who is that?’ ‘Why don’t you know him? That is Lincoln.’

In a few moments he returned and for the first time, I shook the hand and made the acquaintance of that man who since then has so wonderfully impressed himself upon the hearts and affections of mankind…For eleven years thereafter we traversed this circuit together, the size of the circuit being diminished by the Legislature as the country increased in settlement; staying at the same little country hotel riding and driving together over the country, and trying suits together, or, more frequently, opposed to each other.”

-- Leonard Swett
Lawyer, 8th Judicial Circuit
Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by Distinguished Men of his Time
1909