{"id":95,"date":"2012-11-08T14:17:06","date_gmt":"2012-11-08T19:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/?page_id=95"},"modified":"2026-03-23T08:05:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T13:05:28","slug":"whs-journal","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/whs-journal\/","title":{"rendered":"WHS Journal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to our free online publication, WHS Journal. <\/em>Choose from our full list of articles below.<\/h4>\n

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Helen Magargal: “A Teacher That Everybody Remembers.”<\/a> Worthington native Helen Bartlett Magargal (1920-2008) was a grandmother in her early forties when she decided to attend college and study education. First she would need a driver’s license. Then she became a beloved teacher at the R. H. Conwell Elementary School.<\/p>\n

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Night of the Living Dead VI.<\/em><\/a> The sixth visitation of Worthington ghosts, anticipated by the historical society\u2019s electromagnetic field detectors, took place on September 11, 2021, at North Cemetery on Cold Street, with stirring testimony from Samuel Buffington (1758-1830), Betsey Gove Ward (1784-1851), Arunah Bartlett (1797-1894), Amanda Higgins Tower (1815-1899), Flora Belle Stevens (1863-1944), and Perley Skelton (1868-1909).<\/p>\n

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Saluting (and Authenticating) Lafayette’s Visit to Worthington.<\/a> The historical sleuthing that proved Lafayette stayed in Worthington, and highlights from the trail marker dedication ceremony on June 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

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Our Marquis Comes to Worthington.<\/a> On June 13, 1825, during his triumphal US tour, the Marquis de Lafayette, a Revolutionary War hero, spent the night in the Pearce Tavern at Worthington Corners. Evan Johnson relates all we know about this momentous event in town history.<\/p>\n

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The Benevolent Women of Worthington in the Kitchen.<\/a> Kate Bavelock explores the food customs of over a century ago as revealed in the Worthington Cook Book<\/em>, published around 1911 by the Women’s Benevolent Society, a group within the Congregational Church. You can download the whole book for time-honored guidance on cornstarch pie, pork cake, and mountain dew pudding.<\/p>\n

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Guy Thrasher: A Worthington Legend Who Lived Off the Land.<\/a> Sapping in spring and trapping in the fall, Thrasher (1900-1985) lived almost his entire life in South Worthington. For decades his eccentric store was a roadside fixture. “In any season you would surely find Guy there, sitting by his small stove, almost as if he were waiting for you.”<\/p>\n

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A Home at Last: The Origins and Construction of the WHS Building.<\/a>\u00a0A chronicle of the extraordinary, town-wide effort to build a home for WHS at the Corners, culminating in a 1999 grand opening ceremony.<\/p>\n

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Night of the Living Dead V<\/em> at Center Cemetery.<\/a> In 2014 several ghosts along Sam Hill Road started a trend by inviting the earthbound public to their gravesites for a chat. Other graveyard residents were envious, but five years later had their moment in the spotlight.<\/p>\n

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The Worthington 250 Interviews, Part Nine: Brad Fisk, Singer and Icon of Corners Grocery.<\/a> With his wife, Judy, the late Bradford Fisk owned and ran the Corners Grocery for 25 years. One of his steaks was dispatched to Washington to serve a sitting US president. Locally he was renowned for his tenor voice.<\/p>\n

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“Just Let It All Out”: Remembering Frankie’s Place.<\/a> From the 1950s to the early 1970s, Frank Brooks ran a free-spirited local joint on a back road in West Worthington. In 2019, locals gathered to reminisce.<\/p>\n

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The Worthington 250 Interviews, Part Eight: Paul Strasburg and the Pull to Worthington.<\/a> Strasburg moved here in his late thirties and still spends half the year in California. But after rebuilding his house, raising a barn, and tending his land alongside his neighbors year after year, his Worthington roots run deep.<\/p>\n

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Postcards of Bygone Worthington.<\/a> Our fourth and final exhibit of postcards from the WHS collection, annotated by Evan Spring. Subjects range from waterfalls and carriage rides to golf, historic houses, and an old stone chimney.<\/p>\n

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The Worthington 250 Interviews, Part Seven: Norm Stafford Finds His Place.<\/a> Stafford, a relative newcomer, bonded with Worthington on the night he moved in, thanks to a warm welcome at Liston’s. Now he golfs, grows grapes, and writes picturesque novellas based on local history.<\/p>\n

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The Worthington 250 Interviews, Part Six: Ed Lewis, Birder, Skier, and All-purpose Treasurer.<\/a> Everyone in town has seen Lewis cruising the roads on his roller skis. He freelances in consulting for environmental compliance, but without his services as treasurer, every nonprofit in town would fall apart. Bonus gallery: Ed’s local bird sightings.<\/p>\n

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The Worthington 250 Interviews, Part Five: Why Carol Labonte Likes Living in Worthington.<\/a> In 1979, Labonte and her husband built a house in Worthington at the end of a dirt road. For six years the road was useless in mud season, but Guy Thrasher’s housewarming gift \u2013 a wild azalea bush \u2013 still blossoms in profusion.<\/p>\n

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The Worthington 250 Interviews, Part Four: Kevin Porter, Worthington Native.<\/a> At 12 years old, Porter harvested potatoes for Ben Albert. Now he belongs to our Highway and Fire Departments, with an alpaca farm to boot. He particularly recommends the alpaca socks.<\/p>\n

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The Worthington 250 Interviews, Part Three: Clarence Witter, Extrovert.<\/a> Witter, who moved to Worthington in 1957, recalls the old days, his famous pig roasts, and town legends Emmy Davis, Henry Snyder, Ben Albert, and Bob Cudworth.<\/p>\n

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The Worthington 250 Interviews, Part Two: Representative Steve Kulik.<\/a> From 1993 to 2019, Worthington was privileged to have a town resident representing the 1st Franklin District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Kulik recounts his 1976 move to Worthington and conversion to Hilltown ways.<\/p>\n

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The Worthington 250 Interviews, Part One: Kristin Majkowski Jay, Bicentennial Queen.<\/a>\u00a0Jay recounts growing up in Worthington and serving as the town’s official “Queen” during the Bicentennial celebrations of 1968. Added bonus: behind-the-scenes documentation of the Queen competition.<\/p>\n

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Afternoon of the Living Dead.<\/a> On September 22, 2018, five residents of Benjamin Graveyard \u2013 one of Worthington’s most beautiful and secluded cemeteries \u2013 departed from ghost protocol to tell their stories in broad daylight.<\/p>\n

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Postcards from Worthington Center.<\/a>\u00a0The best postcards of Worthington Center from the WHS collection, annotated by Evan Spring.<\/p>\n

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Moses Sash: Black Worthingtonian of Shays’ Rebellion.<\/a>\u00a0Everything we know about this African American resident of Worthington who fought in both the Revolutionary War and an anti-government insurrection in 1787.<\/p>\n

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Arthur Capen and the Worthington Library.<\/a>\u00a0A discussion and exhibit on Worthington’s beloved longtime librarian and vital citizen Arthur Capen (1881-1981).<\/p>\n

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Ben Albert and Potato Farming in Worthington.<\/a>\u00a0In 2016 Worthingtonians gathered at the WHS building to recount our town’s potato farming heyday, and its potato kingpin, Ben Albert.<\/p>\n

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Night of the Living Dead III<\/em> at Ringville Cemetery.<\/a> On September 16, 2016, the resident wraiths of Ringville Cemetery in southern Worthington greeted visitors in a chatty humor.<\/p>\n

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Dramatis Personae at the Kinne Brook Cemetery<\/a> George Bresnick explores a dramatic letter recounting a graveyard confrontation in Chester in 1866.<\/p>\n

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Worthington’s 1968 Bicentennial Celebrations<\/a>. Evan Spring recounts the grandest party of Worthington\u2019s history: the eight-day bicentennial celebrations of 1968.<\/p>\n

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Florence Berry Bates and the Worthington Health Center<\/a>. An in-depth exhibit on Worthington\u2019s beloved town nurse and the history of our health center.<\/p>\n

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Worthington and the Civil War<\/a>. An extensive exhibit on Worthington\u2019s role in the Civil War, by Diane Brenner with help from Pat Kennedy and Mark Clinton. Includes complete lists of Worthingtonians who served, and some of their letters home.<\/p>\n

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Night of the Living Dead II<\/em>\u00a0at North Cemetery<\/a>. On August 29, 2015, the residents of Worthington\u2019s North Cemetery woke from their eternal slumber, and their memorable words are chronicled here.<\/p>\n

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The Ruins of Ringville<\/a>. Dave and Cath Whitcomb led a walk through the industrial ruins of Ringville, a Worthington hamlet at two intersecting streams.<\/p>\n

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Night of the Living Dead<\/em> at Center Cemetery<\/a>. On August 9, 2014, under the full moon, the residents of Center Cemetery on Sam Hill Road rose from the dead to tell their stories.<\/p>\n

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The Brown Family Bottles<\/a>. Diane Brenner catalogs Ben Brown\u2019s collection of old bottles excavated from Worthington soil, with photographs by Kate Ewald.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Shays\u2019 Rebellion: Trouble in the Hills<\/a>. Richard Mansfield explores the armed rebellion led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays in 1786 and 1787.<\/p>\n

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Postcards from South Worthington<\/a>. Evan Spring annotates the best postcards of South Worthington from the WHS collection.<\/p>\n

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Postcards from the Corners<\/a>. Evan Spring annotates the best postcards of Worthington Corners from the WHS collection.<\/p>\n

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Lyder Frederickson, Hilltown Artist<\/a>. Jim Dodge pays tribute to Lyder Frederickson (1905-1990), an accomplished artist with a house and studio by the Middle Branch of the Westfield River.<\/span><\/p>\n

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18th-century Virginia Court Documents Found in Worthington Attic: Stolen by Union Troops in 1862?<\/a> George Bresnick investigates a remarkable find.<\/p>\n

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Recollections of Emerson Davis<\/a>. Emerson (\u201cEmmy\u201d) Jewett Davis was an eccentric and beloved figure who served as caretaker for Town Hall and presided over the dump \u2013 ahem, disposal area \u2013 among other important town functions.<\/p>\n

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Bandana Dan (1965\u20132013) Remembered<\/a>. Daniel Steer, better known as \u201cBandana Dan,\u201d died tragically young in 2013.<\/p>\n

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The Kitty O’Shea Stone<\/a>. Sean Barry investigates the provenance of a stone found on his property, inscribed \u201cOct 6 1891\u201d \u2013 the death date of Irish nationalist Charles Parnell.<\/p>\n

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The Chair at the Corners<\/a>. Diane Brenner tells the background story of Jacob\u2019s Ladder<\/em>, the chair-like metal sculpture on the WHS lawn. Created by Peter McLean and Christopher Horton, the sculpture memorializes victims of the Salem Witch Trials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome to our free online publication, WHS Journal. Choose from our full list of articles below.   Helen Magargal: “A Teacher That Everybody Remembers.” Worthington native Helen Bartlett Magargal (1920-2008) was a grandmother in her early forties when she decided to attend college and study education. First she would need a driver’s license. Then she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-95","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PdAsoD-1x","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":145,"href":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/95\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10629,"href":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/95\/revisions\/10629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}