The legal battle was fierce and protracted. The will was defended by the law firms of Williams, Holt and Wheeler, and Lyman and Jackson. After a defeat in the Circuit Court, the disputants appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court in Ottawa, Illinois. There, on 19 June 1893, the will was sustained in all its provisions. Central to the evidence was the fortitude with which John Crerar had drafted his monumental will. As Goodspeed writes, "It was not made in any immediate expectation of death. It was not the hurried work of the sick bed, but the well-considered, fully matured work of a man little past middle age, in the full vigour of health, with the possibility of many years of active life still before him… it was evidently the result of long reflection and final, deliberate, purpose." To the benefit of Chicago, the will was upheld.