THOMAS WORTHINGTON.

BY FRANK THEODORE COLE,

Secretary of "The Old Northwest" Genealogical Society.

About the middle of the seventeenth century two brothers of the ancient Lancashire family of Worthington' arrived in Philadelphia, bringing with them some fair amount of property. After some time one of them went to New England and the other, Robert, with his son Robert, a mere lad, went to Maryland, where he bought land in the neighborhood of Baltimore, and established iron works, which in due time brought him fortune. He then removed to Baltimore.

Robert Jr. grew to manhood, married and had children. In his old age, he lost his wife and, all his children being married, he proposed to take as a second wife, a very young woman. When his children objected, he divided his property into eight or nine shares, kept one for himself, gave the others to his children, married his young wife and moved to Berkeley Co., Virginia, at the mouth of the Opequam Valley, where he bought land, cleared and stocked it, and where in 1731-2 a son was born to him, he being then about seventy years of age. While this boy was still an infant, the father died while returning from a visit to Baltimore. His young widow married again and died at a great age in 1798.

The estate of this child, named Robert, increased greatly in value during his long minority and was still further augmented by his own prudent management.

At an early age he married Margaret Edwards of Prince Edward county. He is represented as sedate and gentle in his manners, yet decided and prompt in action, and a devout Epis

1 For the family and personal matters of this article, I have followed, in the main, the Worthington Private Memoir, by Mrs. Sarah Peter, Governor Worthington's daughter. For this rare book-only thirty copies were published I am indebted to the courtesy of William N. King, Esq., of Colum-bus, Ohio.

copalian. His time was employed in agriculture and in land speculations. He was a captain of colonial troops in one Indian expedition and, in 1775, raised and equipped largely at his own expense a troop of horse, for service under Washington in Massachusetts. When all was ready he appointed a farewell barbecue at Bath Springs, intending to march the following morning.

That night he died of bilious colic. His wife survived him but a few years. Of his six children, Thomas, born July 16, 1773, the subject of this sketch was the youngest.

The oldest son, Ephraim, was at Princeton College, but leaving on the death of his father, lived at the Manor, married, and died a young man. The eldest daughter, Mary, who married Edward Tiffin, afterwards first Governor of Ohio, died in 1808. The second son, Robert, also settled in Ohio.

Left an orphan in early childhood, Thomas Worthington's early years were spent at the Manor. After his brother's early death, he must have been greatly under the influence of his sister Mary, "a woman of commanding talents and rare piety, to whom he was devotedly attached." From her he probably imbibed the dislike for slavery which induced him at a later date to free the slaves that came to him by inheritance.

At the age of fourteen he chose as guardian Gen. William Darke, a Revolutionary veteran, under whose wise management his property multiplied, and who secured for him such educational advantages as the times allowed.

When nineteen years old he desired to travel and his guardian refusing his consent, he secretly left home with some money, and took passage on a British ship bound to the West Indies, from thence to Northern Europe, and home, a voyage of two years. He was swindled out of his money, and at Glasgow shipped as a sailor, on the same ship and made the voyage up the Baltic and back to Alexandria, having at one time barely escaped the Press Gang, by the determination of his captain. This voyage must have had great influence on his character. The experience of such misfortunes and the determined overcoming of them developed and trained the energy and perseverance for which he was afterwards so noted.

He took possession of his property and busied himself in its care for a year, till in 1796, he joined a party of young men, who started for the Virginia Military District between the Miami and Scioto Rivers in Ohio, to locate the land warrants of their fathers and friends. The party rode to Pittsburg, floated down the Ohio to the Mouth of the Scioto, and made their way thence by a blazed trail to Chillicothe, where they found some twenty houses of the rudest structure. Col. Massie had laid out the town that summer, and Mr. Worthington evidently bought three lots from him at this time.

Soon after his return from this trip he married, December 13, 1796, being then twenty-three years of age, Eleanor Van Swearingen, only daughter of Josiah Van Swearingen, deceased, at the residence of her aunt, Mrs. Shepard, in Berkeley (now Jefferson) county, Virginia. Her mother was Phebe, daughter of James Strode of near Martinsburg, Berkeley county. General Forman, a British officer, who had married a daughter of the Duke of Hamilton, had been sent to the colony on affairs of some moment. His wife and daughter, Annie, accompanied him. The latter became the wife of James Strode and died in 1784, leaving four daughters, the third of whom, Mrs. Van Swearingen, died a few days after her mother. She was followed seven years later by her husband. They left one daughter, Eleanor, and three younger sons. The grandfather Strode cherished great affection for this granddaughter, and on his death, bequeathed to her the mother's share of his estate (excluding her brothers). To this was added the fourth part of her father's

estate.

These young people were thus possessed in their united. fortunes of large wealth, and were at the same time independent of control. The inbred nobleness of their character permitted them to use their wealth and independence for justice and the good of their fellow men, and their calm Christian faith tempered their acts with mercy, benevolence and self renunciation.

They determined to free the slaves that they had inherited, and as the law of Virginia then required that the manumitted slave be provided with a home they decided to settle them in

Ohio, whose fertile soil Mr. Worthington had seen the previous year.

The land of Gen. Darke, near Chillicothe, was purchased, and with his brother-in-law, Dr. Edward Tiffin, Mr. Worthington set out on May 1, 1797, arriving at Chillicothe on the 17th.

In a letter to his wife he says they found the greatest change from the year before, some hundred houses in the town and probably one hundred and fifty families within a circle of twelve miles, four shops fairly well stocked, and a good class of people as settlers. He determined to move there himself, and during the summer built a house on the block bounded by the present Paint and Walnut streets. This was the first house in the place to have glass in the windows. Dr. Tiffin also built a house that summer and early in the fall they returned to Berkeley, where, November 20, 1797, his first child, Mary, was born.

The winter was spent in preparation and in the latter part of the following March the party started for their new home, Mr. and Mrs. Worthington and child, his brother Robert and his family, Dr. Edward Tiffin and his wife and two younger brothers of Mrs. Worthington.

They took with them plate, china, damask, and other evidences of their wealth; bulbs, roots, flower seeds, shrubs, and domestic animals, and were accompanied by a large company of freedmen whom Mr. Worthington settled on parts of his land, allowing them to purchase a freehold, by gradual payments, if they desired.

They followed the usual route, to Pittsburg by carriage, to the Scioto by flat boats, and through the woods by trail to the new home, where they arrived April 17, 1798. By the help of their followers they were soon comfortably settled, and the gardens bloomed with the familiar flowers. Mr. Worthington was then twenty-five years old.

At the time of his first visit, Chillicothe was in Hamilton county, but on the establishment of Adams county, July 10, 1797 was included therein. At the first session of Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Manchester September 12, he was one of the justices of peace present.