Research Materials

Primary Sources:

Buttles Diary, Trinity Episcopal Church, Columbus, OH.  [Copies of extracts held in WHS archives.]

Charles Whittlesey Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, OH.

Griswold Family Papers, Ohio Historical Society Archives, Columbus, OH.

Griswold Family Papers, 1810- 1820, Worthington Historical Society Archives

Jackson, Ronald V., Gary R. Teeples, and David Schaefermeyer. Index of Ohio Tax Lists, 1800 1810. Bountiful, Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1977.

James Kilbourn to the Bishops, Clerical and Lay Delegates of the Episcopal Church meeting in New York City May 1st, 1817, (typed photocopy), Worthington Historical Society Archives. Original in the archives of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, Cleveland, OH.

James Kilbourne Letters (1843 – 1850). Litchfield Historical Society, Litchfield, CT.

Jones, Emma, ed., A State in the Making: Correspondence of the Late James Kilbourne. Columbus: Tibbetts Printing, 1913.

Kilbourne, James. “Autobiography of Col. James Kilbourne.” Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly, VI (1903).  [Book in WHS library holdings]

Minute Book of the Scioto Company, Ohio Historical Society Archives, Columbus, OH. (copy in the Worthington Historical Society archives)

St. John’s Episcopal Church Record Books, Ohio Historical Society Archives, Columbus, OH.

R. W. Cowles Papers, Ohio Historical Society Archives, Columbus, OH..

“The Scioto Company Abstract of Articles,” Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly, VI (1903).  [Book in WHS library holdings]

Thomas Worthington Papers, Ohio Historical Society Archives, Columbus, OH.

Secondary Sources:

NOTE: Some of these materials are part of the Worthington Historical Society Library Collections or can be found at The Old Worthington Library. The Worthington Room at the Old Worthington Library has a Worthington Authors Collection and books about Worthington and early Ohio.

Armstrong, Mary Edge Armstrong. From the Beginning: The History of the Worthington Historical Society.. Worthington: Worthington Historical Society, 1986. [Book in WHS library holdings]

Berquist, Goodwin and Paul C. Bowers, The New Eden: James Kilbourne and the Development of Ohio. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983. [Copies available for purchase at the Shop at the Old Rectory.]

Buley, R. Carlyle, The Old Northwest: Pioneer Period, 1815 – 1840 (reprint). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.

Cayton, Andrew R. L., The Frontier Republic: Ideology and Politics in the Ohio Country, 1780 – 1825. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1986.

Chase, Philander. Bishop Chase’s Reminiscences: An Autobiography. Boston: James B. Dow, 1848.

Corbin, Frank. A Walking Tour of Old Worthington. Worthington: 1969. Brief descriptions of 46 sites, many of which have been demolished. [Book in WHS library holdings]

Fruehling, Byron D., and Robert H. Smith. “Subterranean Highways of the Underground Railroad in Ohio.”Ohio History 102 (Summer-Autumn 1993).

Fuller,Lisa D. The 200 Year-History of Worthington Libraries. Worthington Libraries, Worthington, 2004. [Book in WHS library holdings]

Griswold, Edwin Viets. The Griswolds on the Olentangy. (1939) Reprinted in 1953 with the Supplement The Descendants of the Worthington Griswolds. Berkeley and Los Altos: Theodore and Edith Griswold Ligda, 1953.

Haueisen, John. Worthington, Ohio: From Before the Civil War and More.  Worthington, OH: Worthington Historical Society, 2006. [Copies available for purchase at the Shop at the Old Rectory.]

Holbrook, Stewart H. The Yankee Exodus: An Account of Migration from New England. New York: Macmillan & Co., 1950.
Huntington C. C. “A History of Banking and Currency in Ohio before the Civil War.” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications. 235-539 (Vol 24 /July 1915/ No.3)

Lee, Charles. History of Walnut Grove Cemetery. Naples FL.: Neapolitan Publishers, 1970. A brief statement of the cemetery’s organization and a partial listing of tombstone inscriptions and burial records.  [Copies available for purchase at the Shop at the Old Rectory.]

Main, Jackson Turner. Society and Economy in Colonial Connecticut. Princeton: PrincetonUniversity Press, 1985.

McCormick, Robert W. Around Worthington. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 1999. [Copies available for purchase at the Shop at the Old Rectory.]

McCormick, Robert W. Histories of Structures in Worthington and Sharon Township. Worthington: 1992. A reference notebook of sixty 19th century structures prepared for the Architectural Review Board of the Worthington Municipal Development Commission. (available here online via worthingtonmemory.org)

McCormick Virginia E., and Robert W. McCormick. New Englanders on the Ohio Frontier. Migration and Settlement of Worthington, Ohio. Kent: KentStateUniversity Press, 1998. [Copies available for purchase at the Shop at the Old Rectory.]

McCormick, Robert, and Jennie McCormick. Probing Worthington’s Heritage. Worthington: Cottonwood Publications, 1992. A collection of newspaper columns about Worthington’s first 50 years which appeared in the Worthington News during 1989. [Book in WHS library holdings]

McCormick, Robert, and Jennie McCormick. Worthington Landmarks: Photo-Essays of Historic Worthington Properties. Worthington: Cottonwood Publications, 1995.  [Copies available for purchase at the Shop at the Old Rectory.]

McCormick Virginia E. Scioto Company Descendants: Genealogies of the Original Proprietors of Worthington, Ohio. Worthington: Cottonwood Publications, 1995.  [Copies available for purchase at the Shop at the Old Rectory.]

McCormick, Jennie ed., How Worthington Grew. Worthington: Worthington Schools, 1992. A series of 12 stories and a teacher’s guide developed with teachers at Worthington Park School as a local history unit for third grade students. [Book in WHS library holdings]

McCormick, Jennie. Worthington Neighborhoods. Worthington Historical Society, Worthington, 2006. Plat maps, narrative descriptions and photographs of twenty-three Worthington neighborhoods.  [Copies available for purchase at the Shop at the Old Rectory.]

McCormick, Jennie, ed., Worthington, Ohio Estate Records, 1803-1850. Worthington, OH: Worthington Historical Society, 2005. Transcriptions of inventories, appraisals and personal property sales, with abstracts of receipts, guardianships, and wills for eighty-eight persons who died during this period.  [Copies available for purchase at the Shop at the Old Rectory.]

“Mr. Kilbourn’s Congressional Career.” Old Northwest Genealogical Quarterly 7 (January 1904).  [Book in WHS library holdings]

Parsons, Mira Clarke. “Historic Worthington.” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications. 71-82 (Vol 13/ January 1904/Number 1).  [Book in WHS library holdings]

Peeke, Hewson L.A. “Charles Dickens in Ohio in 1842.” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Publications . 72-81 (Vol 28/January 1919/Number 1).  [Book in WHS library holdings]

Roseboom, Eugene H., and Francis P. Weisenburger. A History of Ohio. Columbus: Ohio Historical Society, 1986.

Sears, Alfred Byron. Thomas Worthington: Father of Ohio Statehood.” Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1958.  [Book in WHS library holdings]

Shedding Light on Worthington. Worthington: Presbyterian Church, Woodrow Guild, 1931. A collection of anecdotes and names of persons in early Worthington.  [Book in WHS library holdings]

Squier, Ephraim G., and E. H. Davis, Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, 1848 (reprinted edition with an introduction by David Meltzer). Smithsonian Classics of Anthropology, 1998.

Style and Structures of Old Worthington. Worthington: Worthington Historical Society, 1997. This survey presents an overview of old Worthington’s architectural environment. Four albums, one for each quadrant, are arranged by street, containing a separate page for each structure in the quadrant, illustrated by color photographs.  [Notebooks in WHS library holdings]

Utter, William. The Frontier State: 1803-1825. Columbus: Ohio State Archeological and Historical Society, 1942.

Western Intelligencer, 1811 to 1814; Worthington News, 1925-1992. Local newspapers on microfilm at the Worthington Library.

Worthington: Celebrate the Architecture. (Worthington: ABOT Productions, 1997. A video overview of 19th and 20th century architectural style in Worthington. (Watch recording on worthingtonmemory.org, here.)

Worthington: Celebrate the Discovery. Columbus: Olentangy Productions, Inc., 1993. A video presenting a visual image of old Worthington.  (Watch recording on worthingtonmemory.org, here.)

Worthington: New England in the Wilderness. Worthington: Worthington Historical Society, 1976.  [Book in WHS library holdings]

Young, John, ed. Exploring Our Roots: A Story of the Worthington United Methodist Church, 1808 – 1986.Worthington: UMC, 1986. A chronological history of the Methodist congregation in Worthington.

compiled by Jutta Catharine Pegues, President of the Worthington Historical Society