Deskins Inn was a stopping place in the 1840s for lawyers and judges traveling the old 8th Judicial Circuit in central Illinois, and its location directly across the street from the Postville Courthouse made it significant. Postville was the first county seat of Logan County when the county came into existence in 1839, largely through the efforts of the young Springfield legislator Abraham Lincoln. David Davis judged many cases tried by Lincoln and later served as his campaign manager at the 1860 Chicago convention that nominated him for president. Lincoln often told a story set at the inn in which, after innkeeper Deskins insisted he had no whiskey, a man at the door exclaimed, "Great heavens, give me an ear of corn and tin cup and I'll make it myself." The existing well on the property dates from the early 1830s and was used by Abraham Lincoln and others while court was being held at the Postville Courthouse.