Nationality Irish American Occupation Pioneer and surveyor | Name Edward Worthington Died 1818 | |
Known for Explored Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley; founder of Worthington's Station | ||
Edward Worthington (1750-1754–1804) was an 18th-early 19th century American frontiersman, longhunter, surveyor, soldier, pioneer, and state militia officer who explored and later helped settle the Kentucky frontier. A veteran of the American Revolution and the Indian Wars, he also served as a paymaster under George Rogers Clark during the Illinois campaign. His grandson, William H. Worthington, was an officer with the 5th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War. Historian and author, Kathleen L. Lodwick is a direct descendant of Edward Worthington. Noted attorney, Greg A. Jennings of Owensboro, Kentucky is also, a direct descendant of Edward Worthington.
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Early life
Edward Worthington, born in Macroom, Muskerry West, County Cork, in Kingdom of Ireland, between 1750 and 1754. Worthington came from a family of four brothers and five sisters. He emigrated to the British thirteen colonies from Ireland, in 1768, with his father, brother, Thomas, mother, sister, Ann, and several other family members, landing in Baltimore, Maryland, and staying there for some time. In 1774, Edward and his father, joined the colonial Virginia Militia, in Lord Dunmore's War, where Edward served as a private. Worthington was first recorded, as a surveyor, marking land, on Beargrass Creek, near the Ohio River, as early as 1775.
American Revolutionary War
Edward Worthington was, one of the defenders, at McClelland's Station, in Kentucky territory and was wounded, in the attack, by the Mingo chieftain, Pluggy, on December 29, 1776. Worthington traveled to Harrod's Town, with George Rogers Clark, the following month.
In early 1778, Edward Worthington left his wife, at Harrod's Town, and joined the Kentucky Militia, as a captain, under Colonel George Rogers Clark. With Clark and his Illinois Regiment, Virginia State Forces, Captain Worthington, went down the Ohio River, accompanied by thirteen, pioneer families, and arrived at Corn Island, now Louisville, Kentucky. At Corn Island, Colonel George Rogers Clark set up his military camp, where he recruited and trained his troops, for the secret campaign, to capture the Illinois Country, from the British.
In 1779, Edward Worthington, still serving under Clark, participated in the siege of Vincennes, in which they soundly defeated the British forces. Edward Worthington was granted 3,234 acres (13.09 km2) land, for his military service, as a paymaster, during the Illinois Campaign. That same year, Edward Worthington established Worthington's Fort, four miles (6 km) southeast of Danville, Kentucky. In 1780, Worthington was ordered to occupy Chickasaw Bluff, just south of the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and construct Fort Jefferson, to protect American interests in Illinois County, Virginia, from enemy incursions, coming up river, from the Gulf of Mexico. Fort Jefferson would be garrisoned by Virginia soldiers from Worthington's company, of the Illinois Regiment. In 1781, Captain Worthington was ordered by General Clark, to withdraw his company of soldiers, and abandon Fort Jefferson, because of its remote and indefendible location, from continuous, Chickasaw attacks.
Later life and death
In his later years, Edward Worthington served as the state representative for Mercer County, in the Kentucky Legislature. In 1804, Edward Worthington was in New Orleans, Territory of Orleans, within the Louisiana Purchase, of the US, now New Orleans, Louisiana, to conduct, what turned out to be, a business deal, gone bad. He had filed a lawsuit, in New Orleans, against Dan Callaghan, who had swindled him, out of a large sum of money, in a land fraud scheme. Edward Worthington died from yellow fever, before the case was tried, but his family continued the suit and they were awarded judgment against Callaghan, as according to the court documents, in the Minute Book, Louisiana Court of Pleas, 1804.