200th Anniversary Edition

March 2006
Text Box: Thomas Worthington was born on July 16, 1773, near Charleston, Virginia (modern-day West Virginia). His father died while Worthington was still a child, and his elder brothers raised him. At the age of eighteen, Worthington spent two years in the merchant marine. He returned to Virginia in 1793 and began to study surveying. In 1796, he assisted Duncan McArthur in surveying the Virginia Military District. He received payment in land and decided to move from Virginia to his land near Chillicothe, Ohio. Edward Tiffin, his brother-in-law, accompanied him. Before leaving Virginia, the two men freed their slaves, and they might have come to Ohio in opposition to slavery. These men were both members of the Methodist Church and probably opposed slavery because of their religious beliefs. Several of these now free African-American men accompanied their former owners to the Northwest Territory. Upon arriving in the Northwest Territory, Worthington built his home, Adena, near Chillicothe. Modeled after Southern plantations, Benjamin Latrobe, the architect of several government buildings in Washington, DC, designed the home. Adena was one of the finest early homes in Ohio. Worthington quickly emerged as a major political leader in the Northwest Territory. From 1799 to 1803, Worthington served in the territorial legislature. A committed member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Worthington became a major opponent of Governor Arthur St. Clair, a supporter of the Federalist Party. St. Clair actively opposed Ohio's admittance to the United States. He hoped that Ohio would not become a single state but rather two states. If this occurred, St. Clair believed that the Federalists would continue to control the government. Democratic-Republicans in what was to become Ohio opposed St. Clair's efforts. Worthington, Tiffin, Nathaniel Massie, Michael Baldwin, and several others urged President Thomas Jefferson, the founder of the Democratic-Republican Party, to make Ohio a state. Jefferson responded by issuing the Enabling Act of 1802. This act called on the people of Ohio to form a constitutional convention and to fulfill the other requirements of the Northwest Ordinance to become a state. St. Clair denounced the Enabling Act, prompting Jefferson to remove St. Clair as governor. Ohio became the seventeenth state of the United States of America on February 19, 1803. Worthington served in the Ohio General Assembly briefly in 1803 but became one of Ohio's first two United States Senators that same year. He served as senator until 1807 when he became a member of the General Assembly again, holding this office for the next two years. In 1810, he returned to the United States Senate. Among his most memorable acts as senator included urging the United States government to send military assistance to the white settlers of Ohio to aid them against the Indian forces of Tecumseh and the Prophet. He also believed that the United States was too weak to defend itself adequately against the British and opposed the War of 1812 for that reason. He stepped down from his senate seat in December 1814 to become governor of Ohio. He was reelected governor in 1816. As governor, Worthington advocated numerous social reforms, including the regulation of bars and taverns, state assistance to paupers, and prison reform. He also became one of the earliest advocates for a canal system, as well as a supporter for free public education in the state. After his second term as governor, Worthington remained active in public life, serving two more terms in the Ohio legislature during the early 1820s. He died on June 20, 1827. Thomas Worthington was admitted to Scioto Lodge #2 on December 6, 1815.

Page 5

Thomas Worthington
Text Box: Thomas Worthington Text Box: In March of 1803, Ohio became the seventeenth state and "the first fruits of the Ordinance of 1787", Chillicothe became the first state capital. Representatives in Congress who were members of Scioto Lodge #2 Duncan McArthur—1813 to 1815 and again from 1823-1825. William Creighton, Jr., was elected but resigned December 14, 1814; Henry Brush 1819 to 1821, and Joseph Miller from 1857 to 1859. Text Box: Newly Raised Master Mason (2/19/06) Brother Burkle has undertaken the task of launching a new web site for the Chillicothe Masonic Bodies. New graphics, additional content, upgrades on various pages and introducing new ideas. He will be the web master for our web site. His talents and skills as a designer will compliment Scioto Lodge #6 F. & A. M. and the Chillicothe York Rite Bodies.

Introducing William Stephen Burkle