Jonathan Worth

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 9 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1823 Jonathan Worth comes to Hillsborough to read law under Archibald D. Murphey Worth moved to Hillsborough to study law with the judge Archibald DeBow Murphey, who became his mentor. In 1824 he married Murphey's niece, Martitia Daniel, and then settled in Asheboro to practice. People: Archibald D. Murphey Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Martitia Daniel WorthSearch the index · NCpedia: Worth, Jonathan (Dictionary of North Carolina Biography)
2. February 13, 1866 Federal command lets Orange courts try freedpeople's cases Answering a letter from Orange County's county attorney that Governor Jonathan Worth had passed on, General Ruger's headquarters ruled that the civil courts could try offenses where the law punished Black and white offenders alike. Freedmen's Bureau agents kept only petty cases punishable by up to a month in jail or a $100 fine. People: Jonathan Worth Place: Hillsborough (Orange County courts) · Also named: Thomas H. RugerSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, February 21, 1866, p. 2
3. July 13-18, 1866 The Freedmen's Bureau turns freedpeople's cases in Orange and Alamance over to the county courts After Governor Jonathan Worth certified that state law no longer discriminated against free people of color in the courts, the Freedmen's Bureau ordered its officers to send all cases involving freedpeople to the county and state courts, keeping only claims for wages under contracts its agents had approved. Lt. Isaac Porter, assistant superintendent of the Bureau's sub-district of Orange and Alamance, published the order in Hillsborough. The order reached Porter by an endorsement of July 13 from the Bureau's Central District headquarters, which turned criminal cases over to the civil courts and told him to act as counsel for freedpeople there. People: Jonathan Worth Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Isaac PorterSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, July 25, 1866, p. 2 · Also: Freedmen's Bureau, North Carolina Field Offices, Hillsboro: Letters Received, part 1, transcription pp. 56-57
4. October 18, 1866 Orange elects John Berry to the state Senate and S. D. Umstead and W. W. Guess to the Commons In the state election of Thursday, October 18, 1866, Orange County chose Capt. John Berry for the state Senate over Richard M. Jones and Thomas Vickers, and S. D. Umstead and William W. Guess for the House of Commons over John F. Lyon, B. C. Hopkins and John H. Watson. The county also voted for Governor Jonathan Worth over Alfred Dockery. People: John Berry, John H. Watson, Jonathan Worth Place: Orange County · Also named: S. D. Umstead, William W. Guess, Alfred Dockery, Richard M. Jones, John F. LyonSearch the index · Hillsborough Recorder, October 24, 1866, p. 2
5. November 1866 General Colston offers the state free scholarships at the Hillsborough Military Academy Gen. R. E. Colston, superintendent of the Hillsborough academy, offered without charge one scholarship for a young man from each congressional district and one from the state at large, to be named by the governor. Governor Jonathan Worth laid the offer before the General Assembly in his annual message and asked it to help the poor young men chosen meet their other costs. People: Jonathan Worth Place: Hillsborough Military Academy, Hillsborough · Also named: R. E. ColstonHillsborough Recorder, December 5, 1866, p. 2
6. May 27, 1867 Dialectic Society students ask Governor Worth to help make President Johnson a member Writing from Chapel Hill on May 27, 1867, J. R. Strayhorn, P. B. Means and W. S. Pearson asked Governor Jonathan Worth, on behalf of the Dialectic Society, to use his influence to secure President Andrew Johnson as an honorary member. They noted that the society already counted James K. Polk among its regular members. People: William S. (William Simpson) Pearson, Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), James K. Polk Place: Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina · Also named: J. R. Strayhorn, P. B. MeansSearch the index · Internet Archive: North Carolina Historical Review 28 (1951), p. 496
7. June 1867 President Andrew Johnson attends commencement Andrew Johnson came to the 1867 commencement with Secretary of State William H. Seward, Postmaster General Alexander Randall and General Daniel E. Sickles, the military governor under the Reconstruction Acts, and recalled passing through Chapel Hill on foot in 1826. Johnson joined the Dialectic Society and Seward the Philanthropic, but a minority of Dialectics blocked Sickles. People: William H (William Henry) Seward, David L. Swain, Jonathan Worth Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Andrew Johnson, Alexander W. Randall, Daniel E. SicklesSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 759 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, October 13, 1993, p. 1
8. August 22, 1867 Swain and the faculty resign as trustees plan a new university At a meeting Governor Jonathan Worth called to face the university's collapse, Charles Phillips presented the resignations of President Swain, Professors Hubbard, Fetter and Smith, law professor William H. Battle and himself, and the trustees adopted Kemp P. Battle's resolution for a committee to plan an elective university system with higher standards. People: David L. Swain, Charles Phillips, Kemp Plummer Battle, Jonathan Worth Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: William H. BattleDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 763
9. Commencement 1884 Governor Jonathan Worth's portrait is given to the university At the 1884 commencement John Manning presented an oil portrait of Worth on behalf of the late governor's grandsons, recalling his nearly thirty years as a university trustee. President Battle accepted it, Governor Jarvis spoke, and the portrait was hung beside those of Davie, Caldwell and Swain. People: John Manning, Kemp Plummer Battle, Thomas Jordan Jarvis Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 281