Article: The First Wortham Born In Kentucky

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REPUBLISHED FROM THE WORTHAM FAMILY NEWSLETTER, VOLUME 31, MARCH 1998. 

    Samuel Wortham, born Dec 5, 1794, in Nelson County was the first Wortham born in the 
Commonwealth of Kentucky. He was the first of eleven children born to Charles W. Wortham and 
Lucretia F. Hackley. Charles had been brought to the Kentucky District of Virginia by his 
guardian and step-father, Samuel Stigler who had married Charles' mother, Ann Wortham after 
the death of her husband in Middlesex County, Virginia.

    On October 20, 1814, Samuel married Elizabeth Foushee, in Nelson County. That same year, 
he was part of the Kentucky Volunteer Militia, having enlisted at Bardstown in Nelson County. 
The Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve of 1814 officially ended the War of 1812, 
therefore it is doubtful that Samuel actually participated in any organized military action.

    Samuel and Elizabeth's first child, Charles M. Wortham was born on October 22, 1815. He 
would be the first of eight children born to this couple. in 1816, at age 22, Samuel first 
appeared on the Grayson County, Kentucky Tax Rolls when he was taxed for one slave and one 
horse. He owned no land, but paid a poll tax on himself, indicating that he was residing in 
Grayson County. He continued to appear on the Grayson County records through 1820 and in 1822 
through 1824, he was found back in Nelson County where he owned 100 acres of land on the Lick 
Crick watercourse. He is not found in the Nelson County tax records for three years, but 
reappears there in 1828, at which time he paid taxes on 80 acres of land in Hardin County, 
situated on Rough Creek, 1 town lot in Leitchfield in Grayson County, as well as his 100 acres 
in Nelson County, the county of his residence. He appeared on the Nelson County Tax Lists 
through 1831 and continued to pay taxes on land in both Nelson and Hardin Counties. In 1829, 
he owned 228 acres in Nelson County and 180 acres in Hardin County.

    In 1832, Samuel was living in Hardin County, where he was appointed Commissioner of 
Revenues for the Eastern District of the county, and in February of the next year, he was 
selected to serve as County Justice, a position that he would hold through 1849.

    At age 50, in 1844, he was licensed as a Cumberland Presbyterian Minister and served in 
that capacity in the Stephensburg area. Samuel is on record as having performed a marriage 
ceremony in 1868, the same year as his death. In 1851, he was the Grand Master of Masonic Lodge 
#212 in Stephensburg. He was active in the Lodge until his death at age seventy-four on October 
19, 1868. He is buried alongside his wife Elizabeth at White Mills, in Hardin County, Kentucky.