THOMAS WORTHINGTON, PIONEER BUSINESS MAN
OF
THE OLD NORTHWEST1
by ALFRED B. SEARS
Professor of History, University of
Oklahoma
Thomas Worthington was born in the
Shenandoah Valley near
the site of the present town of Charles
Town, West Virginia, in 1773.
He was the grandson of the Quaker
immigrant John Worthington,
Gentleman, who came to America in 1714,
and after some sixteen
years residence near Philadelphia
settled on a three-thousand-acre
farm in Berkeley County, Virginia.
Thomas' father, Robert Worth-
ington, was a prominent farmer-stockman,
a justice of the peace,
county coroner, a founder of Norborne
Parish Church, a collector of
tithables, and in general an influential
member of this frontier
county. His estate adjoined that of the
Washingtons, and he and
George often surveyed together. He
served with the Virginia militia
in Braddock's campaign and was actively
engaged in the Revolution
when death overtook him in 1779. His
wife died the next year
leaving six orphans, the youngest of
whom was Thomas, a boy of
seven.
Young Tom was indifferently schooled by
his brothers, but at
an early age secured a sufficient
knowledge of mathematics to use
his father's surveying instruments. At
the age of eighteen he in-
dulged his inclination to go to sea by
shipping to Jamaica. There
he invested his savings in a consignment
of molasses, but when the
young merchant's shipment was opened in
Port Glasgow, Scotland,
it turned out to be salt water. Hence
for the next two years he was
by necessity a common seaman aboard
several ships trading be-
tween Scotland, Greenland, Nova Scotia,
and the Baltic. In Novem-
ber 1792 his ship was boarded by a
British press gang and he nar-
rowly escaped service in the royal navy.
In January 1793 he was
honorably discharged by his captain at
Alexandria, Virginia, and
returned to Berkeley County to establish
bachelor quarters in the
modest country home he had inherited.
Here for the next three
1This article was given as a paper at
the annual meeting of the Mississippi
Valley Historical Association, held in Rock Island, Illinois,
April 22-24, 1948.
69
70
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
years he assiduously devoted himself to
farming, stock raising, and
surveying. He was soon a deputy sheriff
and a lieutenant in the
Virginia militia.
In the summer of 1796 he caught the Ohio
fever and made a
trip west to the valley of the Scioto
River where his fellow Vir-
ginian Nathaniel Massie was establishing
a town. Entranced by the
prospect of becoming a landowner in this
area, he bought several
town lots of Massie and prowled through
the thicket-bottoms and
the upland forest spying out the good
farming land.
Returning to Virginia he married Eleanor
Swearingen of
Sheperdstown and planned the disposal of
his property pursuant to
his decision to remove to the Ohio
Country. The next spring, ac-
companied by his brother-in-law, Dr.
Edward Tiffin, he made an-
other trip to Massie's town, now called
Chillicothe, and was amazed
to find that in twelve months the
cluster of huts had grown from
twenty to almost a hundred. After
contracting with Massie's brawny
surveyor Duncan McArthur to locate 7,600
acres for him, Worth-
ington and Tiffin built log cabins in
the village and returned to
Virginia.
The following spring (1797) the
Worthingtons and Tiffins,
together with several other families
related by blood or friendship,
made the long trip by horseback,
carriage, and boat to the wilder-
ness village at the juncture of the
Scioto River and Paint Creek.
Thus Virginia moved west. Dissatisfied
with their isolation
from tidewater politics, determined to
free themselves from the
enervating influence of a society coming
more and more to be built
on slavery and whiskey, and glad to
exchange their shallow Shen-
andoah lands for the rich bottoms of the
Scioto, Worthington and
Tiffin aspired to leadership and wealth
in the virgin territory north-
west of the river Ohio. Kentucky and
Tennessee had had their
state builders; why should they not
become the architects of the
next new commonwealth and the leaders in
its economic develop-
ment? The twenty-five-year-old
Worthington and the thirty-two-
year-old Dr. Tiffin in 1798 thus became
two of the courageous and
talented leaders in a territory which
five years later was to be ad-
mitted as the seventeenth state in the
Union.
It may be of interest to note at this
point that at twenty-five
Worthington was a mature man; tall,
sandy haired, florid com-
THOMAS WORTHINGTON 71
plexioned, and blue eyed, his face was
open, his appearance out-
wardly placid, dignified, and benignant.
Quiet for the most part,
his eyes could burn with ardor or
excitement, and his face flush
with zeal or indignation. Usually
reticent and short of speech,
when necessity dictated he could with
rude eloquence cut to pieces
an opponent's argument, or with mounting
anger and burning
invective espouse a cause to rectify a
grievous wrong.
It is not within the limits of this
paper to cover the career of
Worthington except as a business man.
Hence I can only enumer-
ate the most important of his other
varied activities. He was made
a major of militia and judge of the
court of common pleas on his
arrival at Chillicothe. Two years later
he was appointed register
of the Chillicothe land office, and soon
after United States deputy
surveyor, and supervisor of internal
revenue.
He was a member of the territorial
legislature until statehood,
at which time he was selected as one of
Ohio's first United States
senators. In 1807 he was adjutant
general for Ohio and a member
of the state legislature. From 1811 to
1814 he again served in the
United States Senate, resigning to
accept the governorship of Ohio,
to which office he had been
overwhelmingly elected despite his vote
against war. He served two terms as
governor. Thereafter he was
frequently a member of the state
legislature and was one of the
state's chief promoters of the canal
system which connected the
Ohio River and Lake Erie. He died in
1827 while on a business trip
to New York City.
In the spring of 1798 when Worthington
established his home
in Chillicothe he immediately went to
work to improve his fortune.
Having traded his Virginia lands for
warrants and bought up many
others, he personally located the land
to which he wished to secure
title. Chillicothe was on the west bank
of the Scioto in the Virginia
Military District, a region reserved for
Virginia soldiers. Here the
camel-back, cut-and-carve type of survey
was in use, and he was
able to secure much choice land by
selective surveying. In two years
he had title to over eighteen thousand
acres in this four-million-
acre reservation.
Across the Scioto in the Congress lands,
where the rectangular
survey established by the Ordinance of
1785 was operative, Worth-
ington gradually acquired several
thousand more acres.
72
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Buying, selling, and trading land was
one of the most lucrative
ways of getting ahead. It was not a
get-rich-quick method, but it
paid well over the long pull. The major
objection to it was that
the speculator rarely knew when he had
enough invested, and each
recession or depression found him land
poor and unable to liqui-
date his assets except at great
sacrifice. Throughout his career
Worthington was a moderate speculator in
land and at his death
still owned over fifteen thousand acres
and several hundred town
lots.
The cheapest way to secure land was to
buy up soldiers' war-
rants at from five to fifty cents an
acre, hold the land for a time,
and then sell it, usually in small
parcels, at as large a profit as
possible. Most large investors had
warrant buyers in the East
seeking out the veterans and their
pieces of precious paper. Worth-
ington, since he made many trips east,
did most of his own warrant
buying. Sometimes there were exciting
contests between rival specu-
lators to see which could first secure
the requisite amount of war-
rants to cover some particularly
valuable tract; then came a contest
to get the entry, the survey, and
finally the patent from the land
office. Thus McArthur wrote his agent
Robert Means that he had
sent him a warrant to cover by entry a
tract already half covered
by Worthington who awaited more
warrants. He concluded that
Worthington "will no doubt be much
enraged when he hears the
news but I trust you will not let my
name be known in the business
though it is generally believed he would
take the chance if it was
in his power. I would not regard it was
he not so near a neighbor."
Buying, selling, and paying taxes on
land of absentees was also
an important phase of Worthington's
business. Fairly generous fees
were charged for such services. Where he
located and supervised
the survey of a tract the usual charge
was one-fourth the land.
Sometimes he ran the survey himself and
collected another fee for
that service. He was agent for Albert
Gallatin for both his Ohio and
Virginia lands, for Senator James Ross
of Pennsylvania, for Na-
thaniel Macon, Stevens Thomson Mason,
John Breckinridge,
Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Bedinger of
Virginia, and for a score
of others. An annual retainer, perhaps
$25, was sometimes paid
for the general supervision of a
person's interests and for the re-
THOMAS WORTHINGTON 73
sponsibility of looking after his taxes.
Other times Worthington
charged as his fee five or six percent
of the amount of taxes paid.
In his own land-buying Worthington
astutely secured mill
sites and very early had mills running
on Paint Creek, Kinnikin-
nick Creek, and at the falls of the
Hockhocking River. His Kinni-
kinnick mill, located a few miles north
of Chillicothe, did so well
that in 1802 he could record in his
diary, "Find my mill grinds
for % of the people in Fairfield and
Ross Counties." A little later
he erected another mill at his farm on
the Mad River in Logan
County. At one time or another he also
had several sawmills in
operation.
In 1810 Worthington established a
ropewalk and cloth mill
at Chillicothe, thereby inaugurating a
home manufacturing project
which he regarded as an indispensable
practice for the state and
nation. His first cloth was chiefly
linsey, casmette, and flannel. He
tried knitting cotton and woolen socks
and other small articles of
clothing but could make no profit at it.
He was more successful
with cloth, rope, and yarn. His dyes
included navy blue, light blue,
yellow, black, snuff, light brown,
green, and drab. His fulling
mill was a liability, but the process
was a necessity. Year after
year he persevered. Some years he made
some money; others he
went into the red, especially while in
the senate and busy with war-
time duties both in Washington and Ohio.
By 1817 his investment in machinery was
$7,200 and included
two wool carding machines, one mule of
204 spindles, two throstles
of 108 spindles each, 1,600 wired
spools, a 41-skein reel, one loom,
a 30-spindle Betty, and a 40-spindle
Jenny. His volume of business
is indicated by his receipts of
$5,845.34 1/4 for his finished product
in the first six and a half months of
1820-mostly for yarn, but
including 640 yards of flannel and 289
yards of shirting. In this
particular six months period his profits
seem to have amounted to
about thirty percent.
In order to provide wool for his mill he
engaged in sheep
raising. He constantly sought to improve
his flock by introducing
new, improved breeds. Thus in 1810, from
his old neighbor John
Mason he bought a full-blooded Merino
ram and several full-
blooded ewes. The ram cost him $250. In
this connection it may be
74
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
noted that he also raised flax for his
mill; cotton, however, he had
to import from Kentucky, Tennessee, or
New Orleans.
Some years later he inspected the
Waltham cotton mills in
Massachusetts which were paying fifteen
to twenty percent divi-
dends, a margin of profit he never could
consistently attain in his
own. About the same time he sent his
eldest son to England to
inspect the British textile mills and
bring home new ideas.
In addition to sheep Worthington raised
and dealt in cattle,
horses, and hogs. One cattle deal is
worthy of mention. In July
1810 he purchased 405 yearlings from the
Chickasaw Indians of
Tennessee at $13.25 a head. The cost of
driving them to his farm
was $780, which, together with the loss
of fifteen on the way
brought their cost to $16 per head.
These with those already on
hand gave him a total at his Chillicothe
farm of 750. On July 25
he helped brand 205 of them with his TW
mark. His Indian cattle
were probably not a profitable venture,
for in November he
recorded in his diary that they were
suffering from the cold rains
to which they were not accustomed and
that they remained scrawny
and poor because they had not yet
learned to eat corn.
Pork was a profitable product.
"Railsplitter" (razorback)
hogs were easy to raise. They roamed the
woods feeding on the
nuts and acorns; they cleaned up after
the cattle and horses and
"hogged" the fodder down after
the corn was picked; they scav-
enged about the gristmills and fed on
the mash from the stills.
Hogs required little care and grew fat
although seemingly almost
unfed. Later Worthington raised improved
varieties of hogs
("Miami Valley Hog") and
packed for export any kind his neigh-
bors had for sale. One batch he
butchered in 1809, probably
razorbacks, averaged 180 pounds. A
sideline of pork packing, of
course, was lard, which was packed for
shipment in eight-gallon
casks or in barrels.
Cattle and hog raising thus led him
directly to meat packing
and indirectly to shipbuilding and the
manufacture of water-tight
barrels. Flour and salted meat had been
exported to New Orleans
by the Scioto-Ohio-Mississippi riverway
in considerable quantities
since 1800. In October 1802 when the
Spanish closed that port it
"struck the Ohio Valley with
consternation," and the shippers of
Kentucky were almost apoplectic.
Worthington, then on territorial
THOMAS WORTHINGTON 75
business in Washington, together with
the congressmen from the
West, forced the administration to take
immediate steps to get it
reopened and induced President Jefferson
to issue orders for the
raising of troops in Ohio, Kentucky, and
Tennessee to open it by
force if necessary. Fortunately the
Spanish intendant revoked his
edict, the Louisiana Purchase was
announced, and exporting was
not long interdicted. In fact on
February 24, 1803, the first Chilli-
cothe-built, Orleans-bound boat on
record cleared for the Southern
metropolis with a load of pork and
flour. After 1803 exports from
the Ohio Country grew from a trickle to
a flood. Moreover, by
this time there was sufficient wealth in
the area to start considerable
upstream imports, notably hardware, fine
textiles, sugar, coffee,
tea, wine, and other delicacies.
While Worthington was in the senate he
left his business
interests in the hands of a manager,
usually on shares. John Car-
lyle of Chillicothe wrote him May 16,
1812, that he had shipped
thirteen hundred barrels of flour to New
Orleans in May, since he
had heard on April 14 that one hundred
vessels were waiting for
cargo and were offering $8.00 a barrel.
These thirteen hundred
barrels of flour were a part of the
63,000-odd barrels of that
precious commodity which were received
at New Orleans from the
north in the first five months of 1812.
Worthington built a good many flatboats
for the transporta-
tion of his produce down the river. His
own men cut and sawed
the timber, constructed the boats, and
then loaded them with the
produce of his farm and mills, chiefly
flour, pork, beef, and
whiskey. Whiskey was shipped in great
quantities, for though
Worthington was no drinker himself, he
had no serious compunc-
tion at distilling and marketing it for
consumption by others.
During the War of 1812 he sold much of
his produce to the army
contractors and shipped the rest down
the river. After the war he
was a member of the firm of Worthington,
Waddle, and Davisson
which shipped from Chillicothe,
Portsmouth, and Cincinnati.
During the decade 1817-27 this firm
supplied provisions for the
army posts of the Southwest, for some of
those on the east coast,
and for military expeditions such as
that under Colonel Henry
Atkinson which in 1819-20 sought to
explore the upper reaches of
the Missouri.
76 OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
The improvement of stock and agriculture and the advance-
ment of home manufacturing were of equal importance to Worth-
ington. He was instrumental in establishing the Scioto Agricultural
Society in 1819 and was elected its first president. He used his
office chiefly to advocate a self-sufficient economy, holding that it
was the duty of every true patriot to patronize home industries.
He delighted in the letter of a Lexington, Kentucky, friend who
wrote him he would never buy any more foreign woolens, that
though his suit of "mixed merrinos" had cost him $2.25 a yard, he
had worn it for four years and it was good for at least another year
of decent wear.
Worthington spent the equivalent of several years in tile saddle
on his frequent trips to his farms and on his many trips to the
East. On these rides he was constantly on the lookout not only
for good land and mill sites but also for coal, iron, brick clay,
building-stone, and salt licks. His ability to recognize a business
opportunity paid dividends. To illustrate, he laid out the town of
Logan in Hocking County because he saw that a town would grow
at the site of his mills there and especially so as the surrounding
country was underlaid with rich coal fields and iron and salt
deposits bad been discovered.
No account of Worthington's business career would be com-
plete without mention of his investments in bank stock. As early
as 1801 he was putting his extra cash in six percent United States
stock and other active bank shares. In 1805 he had one of his big
years for this type of venture, for in that year he invested $19,104
in eastern bank securities which were currently paying from three
to eight percent.
He was also a director and stockholder in the State Bank of
Chillicothe, established by legislation introduced and promoted by
him in the legislature of 1809. He was one of the chief promoters
of the Bank of Chillicothe established in 1811, and sat on its first
board of directors. When the United States bank was rechartered
in 1816, he was sent to Philadelphia by his friends to secure a
branch for Chillicothe, in which effort he was successful. He was
appointed on its first board of directors.
It is appropriate to mention the fact that Worthington had
very little recourse to the courts for adjudication of any of his
THOMAS WORTHINGTON 77
business problems. His philosophy was never to sue and, if
possible, never to be sued. He preferred to settle his few legal
difficulties out of court, this too in a period when the court dockets
in Kentucky were clogged with lawsuits and where it seemed
every other citizen was a lawyer.
I have not yet indicated that Worthington had much competi-
In 1807 Worthington built a two-story, fourteen room, stone
From his orchards and gardens came apples for cider, currants
78
OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Worthington came to Ohio in 1798
currently worth probably
$5,000. When he died twenty-nine years
later his estate was con-
servatively estimated at $146,000. His
debts amounted to $38,000,
so his net worth was about $108,000.
This is remarkable in view
of the fact that he had necessarily
spent tremendous amounts of
money and lost not less than $30,000 by
going surety for many
friends and relatives during the panic
of 1819.
What was the genius of this man that
made him preeminent
in the business world? First, his
ability to recognize a good thing
when he saw it, whether in land, water
power, livestock, agricul-
ture, or industry. We can call it vision
or business acumen. Second,
he had an enormous energy, an
indefatigable industry which,
coupled with economy and sobriety, gave
him the edge over the
great majority of his associates. Third,
character, that steadfast
dependability which built and maintained
for him a reputation for
honesty and integrity. Fourth, and
perhaps most characteristic, a
constant inspiration, a driving
conviction that he was under the
leadership and guidance of the Almighty.
Though a Quaker, he
was a Calvinist too; he thoroughly
believed that he was one of the
elect and called to succeed. Extremely
devout, though independent
in his church relations and a member of
no religious congregation,
he was a liberal giver to all, and felt
that education, both religious
and secular, was the touchstone of a
successful life. Finally a cer-
tain modicum of justifiable pride and
self respect rounded out his
personality; Virtute Dignus
Avorum (worthy of one's ancestors),
the old family motto, was a constant
challenge in his daily life and
work and conversation; Old England's
aristocratic Puritanism at
its highest level, it might be called,
or Jeffersonian aristocracy
perhaps, an aristocracy not yet far
removed from that of John
Adams and strikingly similar to the
moral rectitude and philosophy
of life usually associated with John
Quincy Adams.
The Chillicothe Committee of Honor who
made his funeral
arrangements summarized his career as
follows:
The builder of his own fame and fortune
. . . [he was] conspicuous in
that small but enterprising band of
pioneers, who in less than a quarter of a
century caused the wilderness "to
blossom as a rose." . . . Without disparage-
ment to any it may be truly said, that
he was greatly instrumental in promot-
ing us from the Territorial to the
dignity of State Government. ... In all his
THOMAS WORTHINGTON 79
various stations he met and performed
his duties with that ability, prompti-
tude and indefatigable industry, which
commanded the respect of his associ-
ates, and inspired his constituents with
renewed confidence.
The editor of his hometown paper put it
this way:
Endowed by nature with a vigorous and
discriminating mind, and a
great firmness of purpose . .. he always
maintained the reputation of a faith-
ful, zealous and vigilant public officer
and a true friend to the interests of
his country. As a man of business he was
remarkable for untiring industry,
uncommon penetration, and astonishing
perseverance. The ordinary difficulties
which usually arrest the operations of
other men seemed only to increase his
ardour; and neither the rigors of the
season, the infirmities of nature nor
even bodily suffering, appeared for a
moment to impair his mental and
physical activity.
Such was Thomas Worthington, pioneer
business man of the
Old Northwest.
THOMAS WORTHINGTON, PIONEER BUSINESS MAN
OF
THE OLD NORTHWEST1
by ALFRED B. SEARS
Professor of History, University of
Oklahoma
Thomas Worthington was born in the
Shenandoah Valley near
the site of the present town of Charles
Town, West Virginia, in 1773.
He was the grandson of the Quaker
immigrant John Worthington,
Gentleman, who came to America in 1714,
and after some sixteen
years residence near Philadelphia
settled on a three-thousand-acre
farm in Berkeley County, Virginia.
Thomas' father, Robert Worth-
ington, was a prominent farmer-stockman,
a justice of the peace,
county coroner, a founder of Norborne
Parish Church, a collector of
tithables, and in general an influential
member of this frontier
county. His estate adjoined that of the
Washingtons, and he and
George often surveyed together. He
served with the Virginia militia
in Braddock's campaign and was actively
engaged in the Revolution
when death overtook him in 1779. His
wife died the next year
leaving six orphans, the youngest of
whom was Thomas, a boy of
seven.
Young Tom was indifferently schooled by
his brothers, but at
an early age secured a sufficient
knowledge of mathematics to use
his father's surveying instruments. At
the age of eighteen he in-
dulged his inclination to go to sea by
shipping to Jamaica. There
he invested his savings in a consignment
of molasses, but when the
young merchant's shipment was opened in
Port Glasgow, Scotland,
it turned out to be salt water. Hence
for the next two years he was
by necessity a common seaman aboard
several ships trading be-
tween Scotland, Greenland, Nova Scotia,
and the Baltic. In Novem-
ber 1792 his ship was boarded by a
British press gang and he nar-
rowly escaped service in the royal navy.
In January 1793 he was
honorably discharged by his captain at
Alexandria, Virginia, and
returned to Berkeley County to establish
bachelor quarters in the
modest country home he had inherited.
Here for the next three
1This article was given as a paper at
the annual meeting of the Mississippi
Valley Historical Association, held in Rock Island, Illinois,
April 22-24, 1948.
69