Relationship of Curtis Lynn Older
to
North Carolina Governor Jonathan Worth
(18 Nov 1802 to 06 Sep 1869)
MAYFLOWER DESCENDANT
Curtis Lynn Older is a
2nd cousin, 4 times removed, of
North Carolina Governor Jonathan Worth
Relationship of Jonathan Worth to Joseph Worth Senior:
1) Joseph Worth Senior (1696 - 14 July 1790)
2) Daniel Worth Senior, son (10th 12 mo. 1739 - July 10, 1830)
3) David Worth, grandson (May 19, 1776 - 1844)
4) Jonathan Worth, great-grandson (November 18, 1802 - September 6, 1869)
Relationship of Curtis Lynn Older to Joseph Worth Senior:
1) Joseph Worth Senior (1696 - 14 July 1790)
2) Joseph Worth Junior, son (29th 9 mo. 1729 - before May 1816)
3) Charles Worth, grandson (June 17, 1761 - after 1850)
4) John Worth, great-grandson (circa 1817 - after 1886)
5) Chesterfield Worth, 2-great grandson (1850 - 1892)
6) Ethel Leona Worth, 3-great granddaughter (Jan 8, 1893 - Dec 26, 1976)
7) Truxton James Older, 4-great grandson (Sept 28, 1911 - April 6, 2009)
8) Curtis Lynn Older, 5-great grandson) (2nd cousin, 4 times removed of NC Governor Jonathan Worth)
9) Rachael Lynn Older, 6-great granddaughter) (2nd cousin, 5 times removed of NC Governor Jonathan Worth)
NC Governor Jonathan Worth to Lewis W. Worth page one
NC Governor Jonathan Worth to Lewis W. Worth page two
Letter of Shubael Gardner Worth to Jonathan Worth
Envelope from letter of Shubael Gardner Worth to Jonathan Worth
Newspaper article on Jonathan Worth
Tombstone of North Carolina Governor Jonathan Worth
Curtis Lynn Older at tombstone of NC Governor Jonathan Worth
Three Brief Biographies of Jonathan Worth
Jonathan Worth 1863-1865 (Provisional) June 12 - November 16, 1865
Jonathan Worth, native of Guilford County, settled in Randolph County and made his fame and fortune there as an attorney and legislator. A Quaker and protégé of judge Archibald Murphey, Worth championed the cause of free public schools during his tenure in the legislature and, though he belonged to the greatly outnumbered Whig party, gained much stature for the practical nature of his ideas and the respect for his vision for improving North Carolina.
In 1830, he ran for a seat in the legislature from Randolph County, motivated in large part by a failing law practice. His major shortcoming, he had decided, was his deficiency as a public speaker. His peers at the Bar persuaded him there was no better way to improve his oratory and achieve better rhetoric than to become a member of the North Carolina General Assembly which thrives on talk.
He served two terms in the House, took a break from public service to build a lucrative law practice, was elected to the State Senate and then ran twice for Congress, both times unsuccessfully.
In 1858, Worth found himself back in the State Senate where he was made chairman of a committee to investigate the poorly run North Carolina Railroad. He pursued this official duty so relentlessly that the president of the Railroad, formerly a good friend, challenged Worth to a duel which he wisely declined.
Worth was an avid opponent of North Carolina's secession from the Union. Though opposed to the Confederate stands on most issues, Worth remained loyal to North Carolina's cause and refused to take part in several peace movements. He was elected State Treasurer by acclamation by the legislature.
Worth had the unhappy duty of issuing notes and bonds to finance the State's share of its war debt. Of the some $20 million in notes authorized by the State, Worth issued $8.5 million and $5.2 million were outstanding at the end of the war. War bonds totaling more than $13 million were issued. At the end of the war, all of the State's war debt was repudiated. Worth was considered a good Treasurer, doing the best he could to safeguard the financial resources of the people of North Carolina during troubled times.
Just before Raleigh was occupied by Sherman's conquering forces at the end of the war, Governor Zebulon Vance charged Worth with the duty of safeguarding the State archives which he did by evacuating them to the Company Shops in Alamance County. Worth was so highly regarded that when William W. Holden was installed as the provisional Governor, he requested Worth be named the provisional Treasurer, a title Worth held for five months until he was elected Governor. Worth is the only statewide Treasurer to become Governor.1
Jonathan Worth, 1802-1869, who was the son of David Worth of Guilford County, North Carolina. He studied law under Archibald D. Murphy, married Martitia Daniel, and started practicing law at Asheboro, North Carolina, in 1825.
Worth was a member of the North Carolina state legislature in 1830, 1831, 1840, 1858, and 1860-1863, and was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in 1841 and 1845. He opposed secession but accepted it after the fact, was public treasurer from 1863 to 1865 under the Confederate and then the Provisional government, and took office as governor under the Provisional government 28 December 1865. He was reelected in 1866 and continued in office until July 1868 when the government was suspended. He died 6 September 1869, leaving a widow, one son, and five daughters.
JONATHAN WORTH, the thirty-ninth governor of North Carolina, was born in Randolph County, North Carolina on November 18, 1802. His early education was attained at the Greensboro Academy. He later went on to study law, and in 1824 was admitted to the bar. After establishing a successful legal practice, Worth entered into politics. In his first political position, he served as a member of the North Carolina House of Commons, an office he held from 1830 to 1832. He also served in the North Carolina State Senate from 1840 to 1841; and was the North Carolina treasurer from 1862 to 1865. Worth next won election to the governorship in 1865, and was reelected to a second term in 1866. During his tenure, President Johnson’s reconstruction policies were endorsed; black suffrage rights were contested; and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment was opposed. Worth did not run for reelection, and had refused to relinquish his duties to Governor-elect William Holden. Consequently, he was removed from office by military decree on July 1, 1868. Worth then retired from political life, spending his time at his home in Raleigh. Governor Jonathan Worth passed away on September 6, 1869, and was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.
SOURCE: Sobel, Robert, and John Raimo, eds. Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Vol. 3, Westport, Conn.; Meckler Books, 1978. 4 vols.
Some Books related to Jonathan Worth
J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, The Correspondence of Jonathan Worth by Jonathan Worth; Author(s) of Review: John Spencer Bassett; The American Historical Review, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Apr., 1910), pp. 634-635
Richard L. Zuber, Jonathan Worth: A Biography of a Southern Unionist. (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1965).
Richard Cecil Todd, The Produce Loans: A Means of Financing the Confederacy. North Carolina Historical Review 27 (January 1950): 46 – 75.
An Historical Document of Jonathan Worth
Broadside from State Senator Jonathan Worth Entitled
"To my constituents of the counties of Randolph and Alamance"
On the 28th of February next you are called upon, by an Act of the General Assembly, by your vote, to declare whether or not you want a State Convention, restricted to the considerations of our National Affairs; and also, at the same time, to vote for delegates for said Convention, in case a majority of the whole State shall call it. The Act provided that the action of the convention shall have no validity unless ratified by a vote of the people. I voted against this Act, because neither the Constitution of the United States, nor of this State, contemplates any such convention,-and because I can see no way by which it can do any good, and I fear it may do much mischief.
Such a convention is a modern invention of South Carolina, to bring about a sort of legalized revolution. It has been adopted in most of the Southern States. All its original advocates were disunionists. Whenever such a convention has assembled, it has asserted the power to sever the State from the Union, and declare it an independent government. Under my oath to support the Constitution of the United States, I could not vote to call a convention to overthrow that instrument.
Jonathan Worth
January 31, 1861
A Letter from Ulysses S. Grant to Jonathan Worth
Ulysses S. Grant, Secretary of War, November 25, 1867, to Jonathan Worth, Governor of North Carolina.
Prior to becoming president, Ulysses S. Grant served as secretary of war in the administration of Andrew Johnson. In this letter Grant replies to a request from Governor Jonathan Worth to return to North Carolina the letter books containing copies of incoming and outgoing correspondence of Governor Zebulon Vance which had been by Vance at the end of the Civil War at the Greensboro Branch of the Bank of the Cape Fear where they were discovered by Federal troops and taken to Washington. Grant refuses the request on the grounds that the books "are of such a nature as to require that they should be retained in the custody of the United States." In the years following, repeated unsuccessful attempts to obtain the release of the letter books were made by state officials. In 1886 President Grover Cleveland signed a resolution allowing certified copies of the books to be sent to North Carolina. It was not until 1962 through the efforts of the Department of Archives and History (now Division of Historical Resources) that the letter books were returned to the state.
Liberty Ships built by: North Carolina Shipbuilding Company,
Wilmington, North Carolina
EC2-S-C1 Type
WSAT stands for War Shipping Administration Transport; the number in parentheses shows the number of troops the ship could hold.
USAT stands for Army Transportation Service, and indicates the ship was chartered or operated by ATS.
897
Jonathan Worth
WSAT (550) USAT
Charles W. Worth House B&B, 412 S 3rd St, Wilmington, NC 28401-5102
Charles W. Worth was a wholesale grocery merchant, as well as a commission merchant in cotton and naval stores at the turn of the 20th century - both areas of commerce that were the mainstays of the Wilmington economy before and shortly after the War Between the States. He diversified the family business after Reconstruction by acquiring the Cape Fear Machine Works. His father, David Gaston Worth, was the only son of North Carolina Governor Jonathan Worth of Asheboro.
Among notable Worth ancestors, the family tree includes Daniel Webster and Benjamin Franklin. Charles W. Worth purchased the property at 412 South Third Street in 1889. He had an existing home on the property demolished and began construction of the Queen Anne-style home in 1889. It was completed in 1893, and the Worth family resided in the home until 1930.
Historic Awards: National Register (Granted), Local Register (Granted) and City Historical Site (Granted).
Historic Memberships: National Trust, Local Historical Society and Residents of Old Wilmington.
Historic sites nearby: Fort Fisher Civil War Battlefield (10 miles), Moores Creek Battlefield (18 miles), Burgwin-Wright Museum (1 mile)
