THOMAS B. WORTH, CASS TOWNSHIP.
Having come to Iowa with his parents from his distant home in Ohio when he was but eight years old, and to Cass county when he was but twelve, Thomas B. Worth, residing near Lewis, who has completed his three score years of life, has passed the greater part of his earthly existence in this State, and may be justly ranked among its pioneers. He was born in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, on January 30, 1846, and is the son of William and Nancy A. (Williams) Worth, the former a native of Guernsey and the latter of Tuscarawas county, Ohio.
The father was born in 1815 and died on June 2, 1884. He was reared in his native State, and early in life began to follow the river trade as a steamboat man carrying produce from the upper Ohio to the Mississippi and the Tennessee. This interesting and often eventful occupation engaged his whole attention until 1854, when he and his family came to Iowa, making the trip with ox teams and horses and being six weeks on the way. They had to thread the almost untrodden wilds for a good portion of the distance, often without the semblance of a trail, and most of the long way without roads or bridges, taking their chances through the trackless forests, over the unmarked swamps and across unknown streams with no definitely determined fording places.
On their arrival in the State the family stopped at Silvercreek stage station, Pottawattamie county, and there the father broke prairie in the service of others for one year. At the end of that time he moved to Mills county, where he farmed three years, and in 1858 took up his residence in Cass county, locating near Lewis. Two years later he moved to Eight Mile Grove, and one year after that took up his permanent residence in Washington township. There he broke up and improved a farm, on which he remained until his death. He was married in Ohio in 1840 and was the father of three sons and one daughter, all living but one son. One of his sons, Richard, served three years in Company I, Twenty-third Iowa Infantry, during the Civil War, and saw much hard service, taking part in the battles of Black River, Champion Hill, Milliken's Bend and many other engagements, and also seeing service in Texas, besides being at Spanish Fort and Fort Blakesley. He is now living in Kansas. The daughter is Mrs. Neth of Atlantic, and the other living child is Thomas B. The mother was born on April 17, 1811, and died on September 24, 1894, aged eighty-three years and nearly six months. The grandfather, Richard Worth, was long an active farmer in Ohio, where he died at an advanced age.
Thomas B. Worth attained his manhood in Cass county, attending the schools of the day in the rural districts, and assisting his father from an early age on the farm, helping to break up the stubborn prairie and convert it into a home. He began life for himself at the age of twenty-one as a farmer in Washington township, near where he now lives. He was married, in 1873, to Mary J. Pierson, a native of this State born in Warren county, where her parents, Granville and Elizabeth S. (Fray) Pierson, are yet living. They were natives of Boone county, Ky., where they were married in 1848, and from there they came to Iowa in 1850. Mrs. Worth's father served two years in the Mexican War, being a member of a Kentucky regiment. Mr. Worth himself served in Company I, Twenty-third Infantry, in the Civil War, being with the regiment three years, and participating in all its engagements. He is held in high esteem as a pioneer of this State.
Mr. and Mrs. Worth have had nine children, of whom seven are living: Elsie L., now Mrs. E. Prall of this county; Edgar O., of Nebraska; William G., of Council Bluffs; Newton R., of Atlantic; and Ada O., Rome L. and Edna C., at home. In politics Mr. Worth is a pronounced Republican, but he has never been an office seeker. He is well known in all parts of the county and is everywhere well though of.
From "Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 566-567.
