JOURNAL AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

THE WORTHINGTON NEWS

  • Issues from the Worthington News from 1925 to 1963 are now available on Ohio Memory courtesy of the Worthington Libraries.   Click HERE to search to Worthington News by keyword or date.

NOTABLE COLLECTIONS of articles focused on Worthington history include:

The following articles were written by Mary Armstrong for the Worthington News in 1954 and featured local community members and thier businesses.  These articles are all accessible through the Worthington News collection on OhioMemory.org.  (Here)

  • Jan. 30, 1954 – Joe Ault, Shindle Hardware

  • July 29, 1954 – Harold Potter, Potter Lumber

  • Aug. 5, 1954 – Worthington Coal & Supply, Gordon & George Silcott

  • Aug. 12, 1954 – Worthington Savings Bank

  • Aug. 19, 1954 – Linworth Farmer’s Exchange, Edwin Datz, Manager; M.H. Jeffrey implement   building manager

  • Aug. 26, 1954 – Paul Caruthers, Worthington Realty

  • Sept. 2, 1954 – Frank Corbin, Corbin Funeral Home

  • Sept. 9, 1954 – Elmer Snouffer, Snouffer Furniture Store

  • Sept. 16, 1954 – Ross Leppert Real Estate

  • Sept. 23, 1954 – Jim Becker, Dick Heil, Worthington Ford Motor Sales

  • Sept. 30, 1954 – Clyde Bachelor, Worthington Grocery

  • Oct. 7, 1954 – Old Worthington Inn, George Snider

  • Oct. 21, 1954 – Birnie’s Drug Store

  • Nov. 11, 1954 – Worthington Hardware

  • Nov. 18, 1954 – Mel Thomas, Mechanic and civic leader

  • Dec. 2, 1954 – Ross Eicher Insurance

  • Jan. 6, 1955 – Bob Van Fleet, Worthington Barber

  • Jan. 27, 1955 – Eliseo Balzono, proprietor of Ellis Shoe Repair

  • Feb. 3, 1955 – Mahlon Maxton Chevrolet

  • Feb. 24, 1955 – Moody’s Paper Store

  • Mar. 10, 1955 – Village Lumber and Supply

  • Apr. 7, 1955 – Maple Lee Flowers

  • Apr. 14, 1955 – Three Generations Represented Loeffler’s Antiques

MCCORMICK ARTICLES ON WORTHINGTON HISTORY

Most of the below articles by Bob and Jennie McCormick were published in the Worthington News during 1989 and published as Probing Worthington’s Heritage, in 1990. This is out of print, but some of this material was included in the McCormick’s New Englanders on the Ohio Frontier, published in 1998 by Kent State University Press, available in paperback in our gift shop. Digital copies of the following articles are available:

  • Scioto Company Purchase

  • Worthington Manufacturing Company

  • Farming in Sharon Township in the 1820s

  • Early Inns and Taverns

  • Worthington Academy

  • Money and Barter

  • Justices of the Peace

  • Celebrating the Glorious 4th

  • A Village Along Main St.

  • Columbus and Sandusky Turnpike

  • Businessman Orange Johnson

  • Teaching the 3 Rs

  • Sickness and Death

  • Worthington Medical College, 1830-1839

  • The Changing Names of Old Worthington Streets

  • Educating Girls in the 19th Century

  • Three Churches Influence 19th Century Life

  • 1842 Inventory of Cowles General Store

  • Literary Societies – Roots of Adult Education

  • African Americans in Worthington Prior to the Civil War

  • Worthington at Mid-Century

Intelligencer articles

Our monthly newsletter, occasionally contains articles about an aspect of Worthington history. Digital copies of the following are available:

Award Winning School Buildings (2007)

Barrels, Bedsteads & Boots (1850 census of industry) (2007)

Brown Fruit Farm – Central Ohio’s Largest (2009)

Camp Johnson (Mary Orton) (2010)

Emma Buttles Andrews: An Extraordinary 19th Century Woman (2014)

First Traffic Light in Worthington (2013)

From Gravel Quarry to Antrim Park (2009)

From Hotel Central to Old Worthington Inn (2014)

From Switchboard to Cell Phones (2009)
Joseph and Nancy Greer: Worthington Pioneers, Lost But Now Found (2014)

Linworth Farmer’s Exchange (2012)

Manufacturing in Worthington in 1820 (2007)

Meet the Waltons (4 ‘Honor Bilts of same model) (2011)

Orange Johnson: A Self-Made Man (2013)

Radio WRFD (2010)

Remembering the Home Market (2009)

Sears ‘Honor Bilts’ in Worthington (2011)

The Homefront During World War II (2009)

The Myth of the Potter’s Creek Ghost Train (2013)

W.C. Lewis Department Store (2015)

When Coonskin Caps Were More Popular Than Mink Coats (2013)

William Walker: Worthington’s Link to the Wyandot Nation (2013)

Worthington 1818 Fencing School (2009)

Worthington Foods (2009)

Worthington Hardware (2009)

Worthington Union School (2007)

Digital copies of each article may be requested for $2 from info@worthingtonhistory.org and will be sent as an email attachment. Please pay with a check to the Worthington Historical Society at 50 W. New England Ave., Worthington, OH 43085. You may also choose to make a credit card payment via paypal here.

Other articles of interest can be found in publications by the following:

Ohio History Articles

 Several articles about Worthington have been published in the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly and its successor Ohio History, the scholarly journal of the Ohio Historical Society. The online index and digital articles are available at https://resources.ohiohistory.org/ohj/ There are serious inaccuracies in early articles based only on memories of descendants of pioneers.

A.A. Graham, “An Early Abolition Colony and Its Founder,” Vol. 4 [1896], pp. 30-43. IT HAS BEEN NOTED THAT THIS IS NOT A RELIABLE SOURCE! PURE FICTION AND HERESAY.

Mira Clarke Parsons, “Historic Worthington,” Vol. 13 [1904], pp. 71-82.

Jonathan Forman, “The Worthington Medical College,” Vol. 50 [1941], pp. 373-379.

Helen M. Dudley, “The Origin of the Name of the Town of Worthington,” Vol. 52 [1943], pp. 248-259. BASED ON LOCAL INTERVIEWS – PROVEN FALSE!

Richard G. Salomon, “St. John’s Parish, Worthington, Ohio and the Beginnings of the Episcopal Church in Ohio,” Vol. 64 [1955], pp. 55-76.

Goodwin F. Berquist and Paul C. Bowers, “Worthington, Ohio: James Kilbourne’s Episcopal Haven on the Western Frontier”, Vol. 85 [1976], pp. 247-262.

Virginia E. and Robert W. McCormick, “Episcopal Versus Methodist: Religious Competition in Frontier Worthington,” Vo. 107 [1998], pp. 5-21.

Virginia E. and Robert W. McCormick, “An Entrepreneurial Enterprise and the Financial Crisis of 1819: The Worthington Manufacturing Company,” Vol. 110 [2001], pp. 136-152.

Old-Time New England

This is the journal of Historical New England, formerly the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.  The following article is accessible online as a PDF here: https://www.historicnewengland.org/explore/collections-access/gusn/169700/

“New England Culture on the Ohio Frontier,” Robert W. and Virginia E. McCormick, Vol. 74, No. 262, Fall 1996, pp. 33-46.

Utilizes estate inventories of Abner Pinney [1804] and Levi Buttles [1805] to analyze what New Englanders took with them when they migrated west at the beginning of the 19th century

Timeline was a magazine published by the Ohio Historical Society and is available there and in local libraries.  The following article pertaining to Worthington appears as follows:

“Challenge of Command: Worthington vs. Sherman,” Robert W. McCormick,

Vol. 8, June-July 1991, pp. 26-29. Account of the 46th Ohio Volunteer Infantry’s action at the battle of Shiloh where 34 men were killed during the battle and others among the 150 wounded and 52 missing later died. This regiment, commanded by Colonel Thomas Worthington, mustered and trained at Camp Lyon in Worthington.

This publication of the Old Northwest Genealogical Society at the turn of the 20th century devoted its October 1903 issue to Worthington in honor of its centennial and continued with a few additional articles in the January 1904 issue. Both of these are available in the Worthington Historical Society and the Worthington Public Library.

Vol. 6, [Oct. 1803]

“Autobiography of James Kilbourne” written May 1845, five years before his death, focuses primarily on the founding of Worthington and on his political career in the Ohio General Assembly and US Congress

“Articles of Agreement, St. John’s Episcopal Church” a brief history and several lists of elected officers.

“1808 Militia Muster Roll” Capt Ezra Griswold’s company

“Worthington Female Seminary” brief history and 1839-40 list of students

“Worthington Reformed Medical College” brief history and list of known graduates

Vol. 7, [Jan. 1904]

“Worthington Cemetery Inscriptions” transcriptions of tombstone at St. John’s, Walnut Grove, Methodist, and Presbyterian cemeteries [see also Worthington Cemeteries]

“History of Worthington Methodist Church,” Louise Heath Wright, pp. 28-32.

brief history and some membership lists from 1847 to 1856

“History of Worthington Presbyterian Church,” Julia L. Nelson, pp. 33-35.

brief history, original membership list and 1831 membership list

Vol. 10, [1907]

“Journal of Nathaniel Little” — This is the journal kept by Scioto Co. member Nathaniel Little during the trip he and James Kilbourne made in 1802 to see prospective locations for the company’s settlement in Ohio.