Side A: Archibald Worthington (1818-1895) was a freed slave from Virginia, a Civil War veteran, and prominent landowner in Highland Township. Census records indicate he was manumitted prior to 1850, and by 1860 owned land in northwest Ohio. Worthington also farmed, boarded freed slaves, and owned apple orchards and livestock. April 1866 township records show that he supported the local school for Black families. He and his wife Elizabeth raised three children: Henry, Mathilda, and James. Henry enlisted in the Massachusetts 54th Volunteer infantry, one of the first Black regiments formed in the Civil War. He died January 8, 1865, in a prison camp and is buried in North Carolina’s Salisbury National Cemetery. Mathilda and James both met partners and married, had children, and left the area. Archibald Worthington died in 1895 and is buried in Wilmington’s Sugar Grove Cemetery.
Side B: Around 1855, Archibald Worthington designated a section of his farm land for use as a cemetery. A 1936 Works Progress Administration (WPA) survey of the area noted the significance of the cemetery as likely the earliest and “only colored cemetery in Defiance County.” Located near State Route 15, two miles south of city limits, the cemetery was found in a wheat field, covered in straw, with most of the markers buried. WPA surveyors believed that there were 50 graves, although only 12 white stones and 1 pedestal marker remained standing. Anney Champ (1781-1855) was the only named and likely oldest burial. The cemetery was abandoned sometime after 1895. Although communal memory has faded and headstones been removed for easier farming, modern field research confirms the presence of human burials in Worthington’s Cemetery.
Sponsors: Defiance County Board of Commissioners, Defiance Public Library, Defiance College, Ohio History Connection
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