Lincoln served in the General Assembly in 1839 and helped engineer the creation of Dane County at the urging of area friends. Taylorville had no sign of habitation, but landowner Daniel C. Goode persuaded the appointed commission to choose the site and name it for commissioner John Taylor of Springfield. The first session of court scheduled for Dane County in June 1839 was not held, but Lincoln and officials of the Eighth Circuit visited yearly until 1853. In 1852 he settled a case for defendant Samuel Brown but did not receive his fee of $6.22. By 1855 he was no longer coming to Taylorville, so he asked Hound Powel, son of a former Springfield neighbor, to seek a judgment against Brown on his behalf, which was granted in 1856. In 1856 county trustees retained Lincoln in a legal dispute with the builders of the new brick courthouse, and he argued the case before the Illinois Supreme Court and won a reversal of a verdict that had favored the contractor. Named for Nathan Dane, creator of the Northwest Ordinance, the county's name was changed by popular vote on the Taylorville Square to reflect the roots of emigrants from Christian County, Kentucky. Taylorville was established in May 1839, immediately surveyed and platted, with the first house begun by H. M. Vandeveer in July and Samuel Reece moving his grocery store from nearby Edinburg that winter. Before its twentieth anniversary, Christian County replaced its frame courthouse in 1856 with a brick structure begun by Overholt and Squier, and the community Lincoln had helped bring to life was firmly established.