Ohio History Journal

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THOMAS WORTHINGTON, PIONEER BUSINESS MAN OF

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.

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