Sardis Bapt. Church 2022

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Worthington Springs Home 2022

Worthington Springs Post Office

Granville H. Worthington

Like his father, Samuel and brother, Samuel, Granville was a farmer, owning adjacent lands west of Otter Creek, Levy County, Florida  where they were trying to raise their families and eke out a frontier living. However, an Indian uprising in 1856 would see the two brothers leave their families/farms, serving  together in the last Florida campaign against the Seminoles as privates in Lieutenant Enoch Daniel’s Mounted Volunteers attached to Captain Asa A. Stewart’s Company No. 2 Detachment of the Special Battalion, Florida Volunteers, commanded by Colonel M. Whit Smith. Again, just a few years later, the brothers would answer the call to duty, enlisting on April 5, 1862 as privates in the Gulf Coast Rangers at Cedar Key, Levy County, Florida. This service would not be as short-lived, terminating some three years later and carrying them to the battlefields of Virginia. In September 1863, their Rangers unit was redesignated Company A, 6th Battalion, Florida Volunteers, and in March 1864 following the Battle of Olustee (Ocean Pond), Company A, 9th Regiment, Florida Infantry. On September 10, 1864, National Archive records show Granville captured by the enemy at Petersburg, Virginia, and held as a Prisoner of War at Point Lookout, Maryland until November 1, 1864 when he was exchanged and paroled. Details of his return to Florida and transition to post-war status are unknown. During Reconstruction years, Granville apparently prospered as a farmer and continued to increase his family, with only a few mentions of little significance being found in local records. His wife Sarah Ann died on July 24, 1901 and is buried in a marked grave in the Rocky Hammock Cemetery, Levy County, Florida. Granville is reported to have died on February 7, 1908 and is believed buried in an unmarked grave alongside Sarah Ann. Thus ended the near-100 year saga of the Samuel Worthington family in settling and defending the Territory of Florida, which encompassed 5 Indian war enlistments, 1 Mexican War, and 2 WBTS; plus 2 lives lost due to probable Indian action ....Right or wrong, a  'tip of the kepi' to these ancestors for fighting for what they believed in!

Granville Hickman Worthington (1827-1908) Son 

Granville H. Worthington was born 01/29/1827 in Alachua County, Florida, the son of Samuel and Mary Worthington. It is believed that Granville grew to adulthood near the north bank of the Santa Fe River in the area later to be named for the family, Worthington Springs. It is said that he and his two brothers, Samuel H. and John, had as playmates the children of neighboring Indian tribes, though periodic tribal uprisings would require the family to seek refuge just downriver in nearby Fort Call, or across the river in Fort Gilliland near Newnansville. Also, the namesake spring is said to have been discovered one day by the young brothers when playdigging  under an oak tree near the river. 
   It is unknown exactly when the family first “homesteaded” in the Springs area but is believed to have been considerably earlier than the April 26, 1845 date when Samuel was given clear title by exemption from “execution attactments and distress”. In any case, according to family lore settling the area did not come without a price, with Granville's mother Mary and brother John losing their lives to Indian action during the 1840-41 uprising. 

Granville was enumerated in his father’s household for the 1830 and 1840 Censuses, but was absent for the 1850 Census. National Archive records show him enlisting June 18, 1847 as a Private, age 20, in Capt Livingston’s Company, Florida Volunteers at Alligator (now Lake City), Florida for service in the Mexican War. On December 6, 1847 he was found with the US forces in Pueblo, Mexico through copy of a letter that he wrote to his sister Mary Ann at Alligator, and on July 8, 1848 he was mustered-out at Mobile, Alabama. As aforesaid, he has not been found in Florida for the 1850 Census, though on September 8, 1850 he was in Marion County where he married Sarah Ann Marston, born December 13, 1837 in Georgia, the daughter of Randel N. Marston and mother unknown . In the early ‘50’s he and Sarah Ann are believed to have joined his father and brother Samuel H. in adjoining Levy County. An item of interest here are the ages of Granville and Sarah Ann at the time of their marriage, he at age 23yrs-8mos and she at 12yrs-9mos!

They were the parents of 12 children: all born in Levy Cty, Fl

1~Samuel Randel Washington B:  11/11/1851 D: 4/16/1900 M: Dora Curry 1886 apx, Levy Co. FL. Remarried to Minnie L. McKinney 6/25/1899, in Levy Co., FL. 

2~John Langley Washington B: 12/15/1853   D: 5/5/1892 M: Susan Taylor, 3/16/1876, Levy Co.FL. Remarried to Ella Lee, 12/16/1883, Levy Co., FL

3~Benjamin S. Washington B: 6/23/1856  D: 3/1/1882 M: Vanna Alinda Davis, 10/14/1880, Levy Co.,     FL. 

4~Mary Jane Washington B: 4/25/1859 D: 12/4/1923; M: Edwin J. Williams on 9/17/1899.Levy Co.,        FL. Remarried to a Mr. Forbes.

5~Thomas Robert Washington B: 3/12/1862   D: 3/26/1889;  never married.

6~Sarah Fannie Washington B: 10/8/1865    D: 2/22/1898 M: Alexander H. King, 12/25/1881, Levy Co., FL.

7~Louisa Carolyn Washington B: 11/1/1867 D:(dec.); M: Simon Frasur Sheppard, 4/12/1885, Levy Co., FL.  B: 2/22/1861, Otter Creek, Levy Co. FL, D: 1917apx; son of  Simeon Frazar A. Sheppard (1819-1901) and Rose Ann Kirkland  (1832-1917).

8~Granville W Washington B: 03/22/1870  D:10/13/1877.

9~James Curry Washington B: 2/14/1873     D:  9/25/1905  M: Mary Van Dora Fleming, 4/26/1891, Levy      Co. FL.

10~Ella Magnolia Washington B: 06/29/1875 D: 10/13/1877.

11~Ellsey Harris Washington B: 9/8/1877   D: (dec.); M: Virginia Ann Hudson, 7/6/1902, Levy Co., FL.

12~Henry Oliver Washington B: 3/27/1881 D: 7/6/1886.

Samuel Worthington (1785-1857)

Samuel Worthington was born  around 1785 in Newberry District, SC, the son of Quaker parents John Worthington 1759-1827 and Elizabeth Davis 1765-1833. Samuel moved to the Territory of Florida as early as 1812, pioneering in the St Marys River area of NE Florida. Samuel married Mary, ancestry unknown Family lore gives her maiden name as Ish(i)e, and was born in Switzerland. Mary died after 1840 and is believed to be buried in the Newnansville Cemetery, Alachua County, Florida. Samuel died in 1857 at Otter Creek, Levy Cty, FL and is said to be buried in an overgrown field just to the the south of the Rocky Hammock Cemetery, Levy Cty, FL. They were the parents of 6 children:

1~Samuel Hall Worthington B: 07/16/1821 D: 10/10/1896 M: Felicia A. Brown B: 01/14/1824 D: 12/27/1899 Both buried in  Rocky Hammock Cemetery, Levy Co, FL.

1~Mary Worthington Howard1845–1911
2~Felicia Caroline Worthington Yearty1852–1904
3~Lucretia Worthington Hudson1855–1875
4~Elizabeth H. Worthington Collier1859–1923

2~John Worthington B: 1823 apx  D: 1840 apx

3~Mary Ann Worthington B: 11/03/1825  D: 06/02/1907 M: Langley Bryant 1812-1878 Both buried in Bethel United Methodist Cemetery, Lake City, FL.

1~Rebecca Jane Bryant Hunter1848-1931
2~Granville Worthington Bryant 1850-1940
3~Esther Ann Bryant Mattox 1852-1911
4~Mary Ann America Bryant Brown 1855-1946

4~Granville Hickman Worthington B: 01/29/1827 M: 09/08/1850 to Sarah Ann Marston D: 02/07/1908 Mary is buried in Rocky Hammock Cemetery, Levy Co, FL & Granville is believed bu. alongside her in unmarked grave.

5~Esther Worthington B: 1829apx D: 1840 apx

6~Martha Jane Worthington  B: 05/18/1833 D: 12/27/1906 M: Thomas Jones, 02/02/1849 M2: 1854 John Sasser B:  1820 D: 1895, buried in Old Providence Baptist Cemetery, Columbia Co, FL. 

1~Celia A. Sasser Deas 1848–1925
2~Martha Sasser 1863–1903 M: 1885 Joiseph W NesSmith 1857-1932

1~Corrie NesSmith Dukes1888-1978

The first record of Samuel’s presence in the Territory of Florida is a 4 Feb 1817 Petition for 100 acres on the St Marys River for himself, his wife, and one negro slave; though he would state later in a Deposition given on 19 Mar 1846, that he has known the Alachua country since 1812 when he moved to Columbia County. For the first 30 or so years, Samuel farmed and raised a family in the NE Florida area bordered by the St Marys, St Johns, Suwanee, and Santa Fe Rivers. It appears he homesteaded and sold several parcels of land in the area before settling on a 40 acre plot on the north bank of the Santa Fe River where a small town, Worthington Springs, is named for him. He was granted homestead rights to that plot on 11 Mar 1845.

The family was never very far from one of the several forts in the area due to the danger of Indian uprisings. Such was the case during 1836-37 when he moved the family to safety, and taking young Samuel H. with him, joined the Florida Mounted Militia for 3 months. Twice more in ensuing years one or more of his three sons would join with the Militia against the Indians, John in 1840-41, and Samuel H. and Granville in 1856 (from Levy Co.). John never returned from his service, and family members believed him to have been slain by Indians. Family lore says Mary also was killed by Indians while at the fort near Newnansville where they had fled for safety during an uprising. Since Mary was not listed in Samuel's household for the 1850 Census, but had previously signed a legal document on 26 December 1840, the possibility exists that she was killed during the 1840-41 uprising.
Samuel and Samuel H. both voted in Florida’s first statehood election in 1845, Samuel serving as election clerk and voting at the Fort Call precinct near Worthington Springs, and Samuel H. voting in the Alligator Precinct (Lake City). Samuel’s move from the “cursed” Springs to Otter Creek appears to have been ca. 1851-52, probably in company with son Samuel H. and his growing family. Son Granville, after returning from the Mexican War had married Sarah Ann Marston in 1850 in Marion County and rejoined his father and brother in Levy County shortly afterwards. The two daughters, Mary Ann and Martha Jane had married in the Springs area, and remained there to raise their families. Samuel died in 1857, never knowing that his two sons would once again answer the call to duty, serving in the Florida Infantry during the War Between The States, 1862-65. It can be said that Samuel Worthington left quite a legacy as a Florida Pioneer, including a town named for him, plus many proud descendants in present-day Union and Levy counties. 

Memorial Markers 

Memorial marker installed for Mary Worthington in Newnansville Cemetery, Alachua Co., FL. Submitted by Mary’s 3 Grandson James M. Scruggs, of Cocoa Beach, Florida.

At my direction, the subject marker was installed in Feb 1997 as a Memorial to g'ma Mary. Due to a scarcity of information about her, my decision was to use the best information available at that time; the assumption being that Mary was likely Samuel's first cousin (daughter of his uncle Benjamin Worthington) who had removed his family first to Kentucky, then to Alabama ca. 1817, and that she had died at Newnansville during the first Florida Seminole War, 1836-37. Subsequent to that time some of the assumptions have proven false, or at best questionable, and need to be corrected. The known areas affected are: 1) the marker itself; 2) page 112 of the historical publication, "Lest We Forget, A Town, Newnansville, Florida", researched and compiled by Mary Lois Douglas Forrester, 1998; 3) and the listing submitted by me to this site in May 1999. Viewer's of this listing are advised that the dates shown inscribed on the marker have been deleted from the listing and correction to the marker will be made by physically obscuring the dates; plus Mrs Forrester will be advised of the incorrect dates given to her. All other inscriptions on the marker are considered valid and will remain. For the benefit of future viewer's who may be researching the Samuel Worthington line, his family sketch is provided below, including sources of information. As shown, Mary's origin is still unresolved and research is continuing. Earlier suppositions by other researchers offer that Mary and Samuel were married in South Carolina before removing to Florida. However, the birth date/place of their first born (of record), plus Samuel's deposition that he was in Columbia County, Florida by 1812, suggests that  their marriage was likely in Georgia or Florida instead, and that her maiden name was probably Ishie, as handed down by family lore. Also that she died sometime between 26 Dec 1840 when she made her mark on an Indenture of Dower Release, and the 26 Nov 1850 Census when she was absent from Samuel's H/H.

Samuel Worthington

Jim Scruggs