The day I came across the mention of Worthington Cemetery, I had no idea it would blossom into an Ohio Historic Marker and breaking bread with living descendants. Truly, it was connecting the dots for several years. Census records, newspaper articles, and family trees on Ancestry.com were the bones of the research. There have been days when fellow researcher Berne Heilshorn and I imagined what life was like for those early settlers of Highland Township. If only they had all written detailed diaries for us! We knew the goal was to gather enough information to have an Ohio Historic Marker placed at the location. There also had to be an agreement with the landowner as to where the marker could be installed.
In the background of this, I was trying to contact a few living descendants of Archibald and Elizabeth Worthington. There were some who only wanted to be kept up to date with the project. I was a complete stranger contacting this family in hopes that we could let them know what was happening with the cemetery. The trust and curiosity of one family member led to our sharing a meal together and again connecting the dots with the information they had regarding the Worthington family.
Some members of the Friends of Worthington Cemetery (FOWC) group and I met with two living relatives of Archibald. They are the descendants of his daughter Matilda and her husband William Mumford. They live in Toledo and we met at a restaurant there one afternoon in September of this year. We were all very excited about meeting them for the first time. They had attended meetings of FOWC through Zoom, but this was the first time we were meeting them in person. I was the first to arrive at the restaurant and I saw Kimberly sitting with a folder in the waiting area.
I introduced myself and gave her a hug and told her that I was happy to finally meet her. I felt that she was kind of nervous about the meeting and she showed me what she had brought in the folder. She had some information on family members funerals, names that we might recognize from our research. She was so kind and has a genuine love for her family and interest in what we were doing with the cemetery. Her cousin also came to the lunch. Kimberly said she had told other family members about it but just her cousin was coming that day. She confessed that at first, she thought it might be a scam when she received my Facebook message about the project asking if she was a relative of those that I knew to be descendants of Archibald. We both laughed at that. The FOWC members came, and we had so many “aha” moments as we shared the research and heard more information from the two ladies. Kimberly has sent me her thoughts on that lunch. I have added that here with her permission:
“On September 6, 2025, my cousin and I had an opportunity to meet in person at Longhorn restaurant in Toledo the wonderful people that had been working on The Worthington Cemetery Project. Total strangers connecting to ensure history was brought forth in Defiance Ohio. The information they shared and the information I was familiar with were all connected and I am so grateful that our family has an Ohio Historic Marker due to Sarah Marshall and her team of experts and wonderful people taking the time out to seek us out and doing lengthy hours of research to make this happen for the Mumford family. Archibald Worthington, your work is now recognized and is marked in Defiance, Ohio.”
I am forever thankful that Kimberly took the chance and responded to my message. She shared the information with many members of her family. Her cousin was also very interested in the project and took many notes during our conversation. We are still in contact with them and hope to have them come to Defiance for another meal and a visit to the cemetery location. It will be especially significant to visit the location now that the marker is finally in place! The post was installed about a week ahead of the marker. We had help from Steve Flory, a Highland Township Trustee and from Jay Budde and Dan Nutter, members of FOWC, in putting the marker on the post on October 17, 2025. This was done so smoothly and quietly that it almost felt anticlimactic.
I looked at the marker with the rise of the cemetery ground in the distance and felt that something had finally been made right. I think that feeling was shared among all of us. We will hold a formal dedication at the site in spring 2026. Another important goal-retiring that portion of the field from farming-has been achieved.
