Decatur's second courthouse stood on the southeast corner of Main and Main as an imposing brick building more than forty feet tall, topped with a cupola for the courthouse bell, and when not in use for court it served as the center of the town's civic activities until growth made it too small and it was torn down. Abraham Lincoln practiced law in Decatur first on the First Judicial Circuit, which included Macon County among its ten original counties, and he practiced in the old log courthouse on the southwest corner of Main and Main in May 1838 before the county completed the new brick courthouse a few weeks later. By March of 1839, population growth led to the creation of the Eighth Judicial Circuit, with which Lincoln became closely associated for much of his legal career. His work on the circuit usually involved routine court sessions and proceedings, and most of his cases concerned repayment of debts or debt-related questions, reflecting the difficulty ordinary citizens had in obtaining hard money or specie during the region's early development. He did not usually know what kinds of cases he would face when he came to Decatur, though he was sometimes involved in more sensational matters such as assault and battery, divorce, slander, gambling, and murder. After he had established himself in the legal profession, he advised a young man who wanted to clerk for him that the main thing required to become a good lawyer was: "Work, work, work."