Another house, that of Judge Benjamin S. Edwards, still stands amid its tall trees to show you how Springfield's old families were housed. Mrs. John M. Palmer has told me of a great party Judge and Mrs. Edwards gave, when it stormed so they had to have four horses to the carriage. Mrs. Judd, wife of Norman B. Judd, whom Abraham Lincoln had appointed Minister to Prussia, and her sister, Miss Rossiter, graced the occasion; Mrs. Judd in a corn-colored silk of such magnificence that the soft, lustrous folds of that gown still cast their pale yellow gleam across the length of half a century.
Judge Edwards was one of the brilliant group of lawyers that made Springfield an intellectual centre, and the family both by virtue of family and wealth, held always a leading position - he was a man of handsome presence and most courtly manner. I can recall the stateliness of his greeting and remeber he always held his hat in his hand while he was talking with a lady. Mrs. Edwards has not so long left us, but that you all remember her gentle loveliness.
-excerpts from Springfield Society Before the Civil War by Caroline Owsley Brown