The Illinois General Assembly chartered the railroad in February 1847 to construct and operate a railroad between Alton, Illinois, via New Berlin, and Springfield, Illinois. Section two of the company’s charter allowed the incorporators to issue $500,000 in stock at $100 per share, and section six required subscribers to purchase stock by paying $5 on each share subscribed at the time of subscribing and the balance in installments called for by a board of directors. The incorporators opened subscription for stock in May 1847. Many stock subscribers owned property near the proposed route. On January 29, 1851, however, the General Assembly altered the charter to allow the company to construct the road on a more direct route, bypassing the property of several stockholders. Believing that the change in route voided their subscription agreements, several investors refused to pay their remaining installments, and the company hired Lincoln & Herndon to collect the full subscriptions. Barret, Klein, and several of the delinquent subscribers were from Sangamon County, Illinois, and thirty-seven were from Madison County, Illinois.

Lincoln originally planned to also bring suit against Thomas J. Kirkpatrick and John M. Burkhardt, but Kirkpatrick and Burkhardt paid their installments, and the railroad dismissed its cases against them. Lincoln continued to work on the Barret and Klein lawsuits.

Lincoln hoped to depose Gibson in the Barret and Klein lawsuits. On February 26, Lincoln wrote Gibson, the secretary of the railroad, requesting that he bring the books of the corporation and appear before the Sangamon County Circuit Court at the opening of its spring session on March 17. Gibson responded to this letter with this telegram and a letter of the same day. Gibson gave his deposition in August 1851 in New York City.