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From the History of Clinton
County, Ohio,
Its People, Industries
and Institutions
With Biographical Sketches of
Representative Citizens
And Genealogical Records of
Many of the Old Families
Albert J. Brown, A. M.
ISAIAH MORRIS HAWORTH
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It is not common to judge American citizens as a class
from the standpoint of their religious views because citizenship in America does
not rest upon any religion, but when we look about to find a whole class of men
who have fitted themselves into American ideals and have made, as a class,
universally good citizens and then, after analyzing this class, we find,
incidentally, that they all belong to one religious denomination, we are
inclined to conclude, that at least in this citizenship, religion – their
religion – has been a desirable factor. And such has proven the truth in the
Quaker or Friends church. In every community of Friends – and they usually abide
in communities – we find that wholesome democratic character and ideals which
have distinguished America, and among the first of these citizens might be
included the subject of this sketch, Isaiah Morris Haworth, of Union township,
Clinton County, Ohio.
Isaiah Morris Haworth was born on August 16, 1848, on
what is known as the Haworth homestead, in Union township, Clinton County, Ohio,
on Todd’s fork and died June 15, 1915. He was the son of Richard M. and
Elizabeth M. (West) Haworth. Richard M. Haworth was born July 1, 1823, on the
same Haworth homestead and died in October 1902. Elizabeth M. West was born near
Martinsville, Ohio, on July 10, 1824, and died in November of 1862.
Richard M. Haworth was the son of Mahlon Haworth, whose
pioneer ancestry is easily traceable to Revolutionary times. He was born on
October 23, 1775, in Frederick County, Virginia. The father of Mahlon Haworth
was George Haworth, whose father, James Haworth, was the son of George Haworth,
who came from Lancashire, England, with William Penn in 1699. The mother of
Mahlon Haworth was Susannah Dillon. George and Susannah Haworth in their early
married life moved to North Carolina and settled on the Yadkin River near the
home of Daniel Boone. George Haworth and his brother, James, accompanied Daniel
Boone on his second visit to Kentucky, their families being two of the six
families which made up the party that attempted the first settlement of
Kentucky. They were violently attacked by the Indians and were so discouraged
that the Haworth brothers returned to North Carolina, where they remained for
twelve years. They then went again to Kentucky, but finding the Indians hostile
they turned their course toward Greene County, Tennessee, where George settled
the place for his new home and returned to North Carolina, where after a short
stay he again started with his two small sons, John and Mahlon, aged ten and
twelve, for Tennessee. After a perilous and dangerous trip he reached the spot
he had selected for a home and with the aid of his two boys he built a cabin on
the site and made other preparation to receive his family. When this work was
completed the party returned to North Carolina, for the wife and remainder of
the children, leaving the two boys behind to guard the cabin until their return.
The father had calculated that this trip woud take about three weeks and had
left more than an ample supply of provisions for the two boys during his
absence, but high water, and other impediments to travel on pack-horses detained
them and it was more than six weeks before they returned to the spot. During
this time the provisions which were left for the boys gave out, and they were
obliged to subsist on parched corn, roots, and berries, such as they could
gather in the woods. They were also much in fear of an attack from Indians, and
when at last their parents arrived they ran to meet them with outstretched arms,
and the mother springing from her horse gathered the boys in her arms and they
all wept for joy.
In Greene County, Tennessee, Mahlon Haworth married
Phoebe Frazier and they built a home on the Little Holson River, near
Greenville, where they resided until the pioneer spirit again influenced them to
seek a new home in an unopened forest. In 1800 Mahlon Haworth made a prospecting
tour to Ohio and pushed his explorations as far as the Little Miami and Mad
Rivers. Some authorities say his father accompanied him. He did not move to
Ohio, however, at this time, because of objections made by his wife, but his
father did move to Ohio in the fall of 1803, and Mahlon with his family and the
families of John and James Wright, followed the next year, and on reaching the
place early in November, selected for their home a spot across the river
opposite Cincinnati which at that time was a village with about eighteen houses.
A story is told of their passing through Cincinnati that might be of interest
here. They moved in “old Virginia wagons” - a four horse van – and drove their
cattle and other stock with them. Mahlon had a very fine horse that he called
“Major”. In Cincinnati a citizen there took a fancy to this horse and offered
Mahlon one hundred and fifty acres of land on which the city of Cincinnati now
stands for him, but Mahlon because of his fondness for the horse and his
mistrust for the future of the land refused to consider the trade and moved on
with “Major”.
In making this trip to Ohio, Mahlon Haworth rode the
“wheel-horse” of his team-of-four and carried his infant daughter in his arms.
He had with him his three elder children, Rebecca, George Dillon, and Ezekiel,
and on his arrival in Ohio, as he drove on through the woods he “blazed” the
trees as he went in order to find his way back if need be. The land selected on
which to settle was on Todd’s fork, two and one-half miles from where Wilmington
now stands. George and Mahlon Haworth and James and John Wright were among the
earliest settlers of Wilmington. They arrived at this spot too late to build
comfortable houses before the winter set in, and so in haste they built a cabin
of round logs, filling in the cracks with moss and mud, and moved in without
laying a floor. They built a fireplace in the middle of the cabin and left an
opening in the roof for the smoke out, their windows being openings over which
they hung bed quilts to keep out the cold and rain. Their beds were made on
poles laid across some sticks driven into the ground. One night, soon after
their arrival in their new “northern” home, the horse seemed restless and
awakened the household by moving about and shaking the chains by which they were
tethered, and Mr. Haworth got up to see what the trouble was. He put his head
out of the door and cried back to his wife: “Phoebe, hard times are at the
door." Their first snow had begun to fall and continued to fall until the ground
was covered to a depth of over two feet.
In the bottoms, on the opposite side of Todd’s fork, was
an Indian camping ground, and in the season when the Indians occupied these
grounds, the lights of their camps were plainly visible from the Haworth cabin
and these Indians were not unfrequent visitors at this cabin, and once, when
Mahlon Haworth was absent from home an Indian lifted the quilt at the door of
the cabin and looked in, with a friendly grunt he then set his gun outside and
entering, walked over to a stool and deliberately took from his belt a butcher
knife and began scraping the Spanish needles from his leggings, after thus
grooming himself for a while, in broken English he asked for food and after
being supplied with a hearty meal he departed in peace. To show the different
dangers to which these earlier settlers were subject we might further relate
that later on this very same day three large bears came up to within a few feet
of the cabin.
The
question of food supplies was often a grave question with these earlier
settlers. Soon after the arrival of the Haworths in their new home they
exchanged with a neighbor, Timothy Bennett, a horse for one hundred bushels of
corn, a small quantity of hog meat and a small hog. This meat, in addition to
the wild turkey, bear and venison, which they could kill, was all the meat which
they had until they could raise it, and for a long time they ground corn with a
hand-mill for their bread. In these surroundings during this cold winter was
born to Mahlon and Phoebe Haworth a beautiful daughter, Mary (or “Polly" as she
was called), who was admired by the whole country around but who died in her
youth. Their other children were: Phoebe, Mahlon, who with his sons became
inventors and invented the first check-row corn planter and settled at Decatur,
Illinois, where they manufactured this machine and became very wealthy, and he
is still living at Decatur; Elijah, James, and Richard, who was the father of the
subject of this sketch. Rebecca, the eldest child died early in womanhood, John
and James in infancy, and the remainder of the children lived to be respected
and influential citizens of Clinton county.
At the close of the War of 1812, there came to Mahlon
Haworth’s house a company of “light horse”, as they were called, which had been
in the service during the war. The horses were almost dead. He took them all in
and fed the horses and the men until they were able to go their way. Mahlon
Haworth was a man of strong intellectual powers. He was an active, useful
citizen in everything that related to the advancement of the people and the good
of the community. High official positions in the state were offered him by his
people but these he declined because of the conscientious scruples of his wife
who was a Friend of the strictest type.
Richard
M. Haworth, the father of the subject of this sketch, was the youngest child of
Mahlon and Phoebe Haworth and was nursing on his mother's breast when she was
fifty years old. He inherited the homestead of one hundred and sixty acres and
took care of his parents until their death. In 1859 he traded with his brother
George D. for a farm east of Wilmington. He increased his holdings, until, at
one time, he had five farms of over five hundred acres in all. He invested very
heavily in the pork-packing business in Wilmington, Ohio, and reverses caused
the loss of almost his entire property. In 1883 he moved to Hendricks County,
Indiana, near Plainfield, and bought a small farm on the edge of Morgan County,
where he did general farming. He was twice married; his first wife, Elizabeth M.
West, was the mother of the following children: Thomas M., who died in 1910 on
his farm adjoining the subject’s farm; James M., who died in youth; Isaiah M.,
subject of this sketch: Frances Elizabeth and Caroline Evalyn, who both died in
infancy; Harriet Ellen, who married Orlando Hadley of Wilmington; and Anna E.,
who was born on October 12, 1862, and died on August 22. 1882. The second wife
of Richard M. Haworth was Jane Janney, who was reared at Martinsville, Ohio, and
who was the mother of two children: Lenora P., who was born on November 6, 1866,
and who married
Calvin Newlin and lives on a farm near Plainfield, Indiana; and. Clinton R., who
was born on March 23, 1869, and now lives near Plainfield, Indiana. Richard M,
Haworth was a Republican and a staunch member of the Friends church.
The parents of Elizabeth M. West were Thomas and Detamer
(Hadley) West, natives of North Carolina and members of the Friends church. They
were the parents of the following children, all of whom are now dead: Sarah, who
married David Pyle; Elizabeth M., who was the mother of the subject of this
sketch; Jeremiah, who died at the age of sixteen; Mary, who married Doctor Bond
and lived in Iowa; Isaiah, who lived on the farm where the subject of this
sketch now lives, and Eldon, who married Micajah Moore and lived in Adams
township, Clinton county.
Isaiah Morris Haworth, the subject of this sketch,
attended the district schools at Dover and later in Wilmington two years, and
then at the Dutch district school in Union township. He had but a limited
education and as a young man he worked on his father’s farm for several years
and then bought what is now known as the Charles Hunnicutt farm which he soon
sold and bought a one-hundred-acre tract of the Thomas West farm, where he lived
until he sold this tract and in 1883 he bought the present farm across the road
from the George D. Haworth farm at Starbucktown, Union township. He then rented
his farm and went to Hendricks County, Indiana, for eighteen months, after which
he returned to his present home. There is a little over one hundred acres in
this tract, which was formerly the old West homestead. The house was remodeled
by Mr. Haworth.
On September 20, 1871, Isaiah Morris Haworth was married
to Mary Johnson, who was born in the Center neighborhood of Union township. They
were the last couple to be married by the Friends ceremony in the old Center
meeting house. Mary Johnson was the daughter of Louis and Rachel (Stanton)
Johnson. Louis Johnson was the son of Louis, Sr., and Mary Johnson, natives of
Virginia, who emigrated to Ohio, and was born near Port William, Ohio, on
November 13, 1821, and died on December 5, 1908. Rachel Stanton was the daughter
of William and. Margaret Stanton, who came from Virginia and settled in
Wilmington, Ohio, where for many years he was a hatter. Rachel Stanton was born
in Wilmington, Ohio, on January 15, 1818, and died on January 10, 1899.
Louis Johnson, Jr., and wife were farmers and owned a
farm in the Center neighborhood which they cultivated for years until their
retirement, when they moved into Wilmington, where they died. They had the
following children: Ahira, who lives in Wilmington; Sarah Ann; Mary, the wife of
the subject of this sketch; Joseph, who lives in Indiana on a farm; and Mrs.
Elizabeth Sprouse, who lives on a farm in Union township.
Isaiah Morris and Mary (Johnson) Haworth were the parents
of six children, of whom three are dead and three living, as follow: Adelbert
R., who was born on July 31, 1872, and died on September 19, 1872; Delena Ann,
August 30, 1873, married Charles Hunnicutt and now lives in Wilmington, Ohio;
Rachel C., August 17, 1875. died on May 4, 1887; Alton M., July 2, 1877, is a
farmer now living on the Port William road in Liberty township on the old George
Bailey farm; Alice E., August 11, 1880, married Dr. C. B. Thomas and lives in
Plainfield, Indiana; and Marietta, October 14, 1882, died on December 11, 1884.
Isaiah Morris Haworth was, as are all his family,
attached to the Friends church of Wilmington, Ohio. Mr. Haworth was a Republican
in politics, and was conservative in his beliefs. He was humble and unseeking in
his attitude toward his fellow men and was held in the very highest esteem by
all who knew him. He was one of the men who has indeed proved that true religion
and true citizenship go hand-in-hand, and whenever he was called on gave full
evidence “that a friend in need is a friend indeed.”
Note:
(added by Donald R. Hayworth)
1.
Isaiah
Morris Haworth is descended from George Haworth the Emigrant through his son
James Haworth as follows: Isaiah Morris Haworth
à Richard Milton
Haworth & Elizabeth M. West
à Mahlon Haworth &
Phoebe Frazier
à George Haworth &
Susannah Dillon
à James Haworth & Sarah
Wood à George Haworth & Sarah
Scarborough.