Henry Ford wanted to collect and protect buildings and artifacts of people that he admired, and apparently Henry was good at getting what he wanted. A case in point is that he wanted Thomas Edison's Laboratory moved from New Jersey. The problem was that Edison had stipulated that the building must always stand on New Jersey soil. Ford had truck loads of soil transported into Michigan and then had Edison's Laboratory moved, thus satisfying Edison's requirement. I don't know the terms under which Lincoln gave up their courthouse, but I imagine that Ford was very convincing. Robert P. Roach