James H. McDaniel’s sisters Sarah, Mary Ann, and Martha, along with their husbands, sued him and his brother Joseph, as well as other heirs of their father, William McDaniel, in March 1855 in Sangamon County Circuit Court in a chancery action to set aside the father’s will. Lincoln served as a defense attorney alongside William H. Herndon and James C. Conkling. The plaintiffs argued that James and Joseph took advantage of their dying, mentally incompetent father and got him drunk to secure the most favorable inheritance in his will. The sisters also stated that their father’s widow had renounced the will’s provisions and had already received her dower. The jury found for the sisters and voided William McDaniel’s will based on his mental incompetency in November 1855.

Lincoln’s team appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court, which heard the case and reversed the decision in December 1857 on the grounds that the non-resident minor defendants were neither properly summoned nor represented in the proceedings. The Court remanded the case back to the circuit court, ruling on the necessity of including all defendants but not on the legality of the will.

James H. McDaniel is referring to the remanded case in the Sangamon Circuit Court that began in August 1858. The judgment, passed down in April 1863, found for the original defendants, including the McDaniel brothers, and validated their father William’s will.