McLEAN COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY NEWS
By Euleen Rickard
Celebrations across the country commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition began in January and will continue through the remainder of the year. In Louisville, Kentucky the IMAX Theater is showing “Lewis & Clark, Great Journey West” as one of their contributions to the celebration.
In 1803 President Thomas Jefferson convinced Congress to purchase the land now known as the Louisiana Purchase. This doubled the size of our country and opened the door to westward expansion. The same year Congress approved money for an expedition across North America and President Jefferson told Meriwether Lewis that his mission was to find the most direct waterway to the Pacific Ocean for the purpose of commerce.
William Clark joined Meriwether Lewis in Louisville, Kentucky and their adventure began on October 26, 1803 when they put their canoe in the waters of the Ohio river for a trip to St. Louis. There they met other members of the expedition. Timothy Egan of the New York Times wrote “It was a cross-continental odyssey by two Virginians, a black slave, a teenage Indian girl and her baby, a motley support crew and a dog named Seaman.”
From 1803 until 1806 they traversed prairies abounding in buffalo, elk and deer, crossed mountains in snow and fought the raging waters of many rivers on the 8,000-mile journey to the Pacific Ocean and back. Along the way they documented plant and animal life and with the Indian woman Sacagawea as their translator they traded and bought supplies from several tribes.
In 1781 William Worthington volunteered in Westmoreland Pennsylvania and served as a Private in the American Revolutionary war under George Rogers Clark He was captured below the mouth of the Miami River and was a prisoner of war until he escaped and made his way back home in 1792. There he married Mary Meason (Mason) and in 1786 the family migrated to Kentucky, arriving at Fort Vienna (Calhoun) in March of that year. They stayed in Fort Vienna for thirteen years, then moved upstream on the south side of Green River in Muhlenberg County where Worthington acquired several large tracts of land. In 1803 he was appointed Circuit Court Judge and he was a member of the state Senate from 1814 to 1826. In 1829 he was appointed postmaster of the Worthington post office that was in his home. When the railroad was built in 1872 a station was built on Worthington land and the town was called Island Station, later changed to Island in November 1882.
Mary Mason Worthington died in 1827 and was buried on the home place. Judge Worthington left Kentucky in 1845 and died in Mississippi in 1848. His body was packed in salt and shipped by boat back to be buried beside his wife.
Their graves were just back of the Island School that I attended. They were stone-walled about eighteen inches above ground and covered with marble slabs. The inscriptions were “Wm. Worthington, Died June 5, 1848, aged 87 years.” and “Mary Worthington, Died August 25, 1827, aged 66 years. To the students who played on the hill their graves were to be respected and we were not allowed to go there without a teacher.
In the 1950s the marble slabs were destroyed and their graves plowed over, a careless act that destroyed a part of the early history of Island and McLean County
Virginia Davis, an Island native and descendant of Worthington was instrumental in getting a marker placed at the site of the graves and a Kentucky Historical Highway marker in honor of Judge Worthington placed on the lawn of the Baptist church at the corner of Highways 431 and 85. In a heritage day program sponsored by the Island Community Development Association it was dedicated on November 14, 1987.
As you pass this marker be reminded that it is a memorial to the life of William Worthington, a pioneer with courage and fortitude, a life to be celebrated along with Lewis and Clark.