{"id":10492,"date":"2026-02-04T12:49:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:49:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/?p=10492"},"modified":"2026-02-05T12:00:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T17:00:28","slug":"saluting-and-authenticating-lafayettes-visit-to-worthington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.worthingtonhistoricalsociety.org\/wordpress\/saluting-and-authenticating-lafayettes-visit-to-worthington\/","title":{"rendered":"Saluting (and Authenticating) Lafayette\u2019s Visit to Worthington"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Evan Johnson, Pamela Wicinas, and Evan Spring<\/strong><\/p>\n

On June 13, 2025, exactly two hundred years after General Lafayette\u2019s arrival in Worthington, a bronze historic marker from Lafayette Trail, Inc., was unveiled outside the library along Route 112. The library stands at the former site of Pearce Tavern, where Lafayette \u2013 with his diarist, Levasseur, his valet, Bastien, and his only son, Georges Washington Lafayette \u2013 spent the night during his 6,000-mile farewell tour of the United States in 1824-1825.<\/p>\n

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Julien Icher (center), president of Lafayette Trail, Inc., with Lafayette 200th Anniversary Celebration co-chairs Pamela Wicinas (left) and Evan Johnson (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The library grounds already held a memorial to Lafayette\u2019s momentous visit. In 1925, during the town\u2019s Lafayette centennial celebrations, an engraved bronze plaque was donated by the Springfield Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution and embedded in a boulder on the library lawn.<\/p>\n

An official Lafayette Trail marker was a longer time coming, partly because Lafayette Trail, Inc., which approves the markers, did not have primary source material confirming Lafayette\u2019s stay in town. The 1925 plaque and related newspaper coverage were considered secondary sources.<\/p>\n

Accounts of Lafayette\u2019s brief stay in town are mostly handed down to us from a single written source: the article \u201cLafayette\u2019s Visit to Worthington in 1825,\u201d by Katharine McDowell Rice (1859-1945), published in the June 21, 1925, edition of the\u00a0Daily Hampshire Gazette<\/em>. Setting down family and town lore passed down through the generations, Rice recounted Lafayette\u2019s lateness, the cavalcade of horsemen escorting his carriage down Buffington Hill Road, and the throng of townsfolk awaiting him in the dark and again the next morning.<\/p>\n

Back in 1825, the weekly Hampshire Gazette<\/em> meticulously noted Lafayette\u2019s progress throughout the United States for months as he headed toward Boston and the dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument. But by the time his entourage left Albany for Massachusetts, the paper was caught up in preparations for the Bunker Hill ceremony and other events of the day.<\/p>\n

It was up to the Worthington Historical Society\u2019s adroit archivist, Diane Brenner, to seek out an acceptable primary source placing General Lafayette in Worthington on the night of June 13, 1825. And find it she did.<\/p>\n

Brenner searched the Library of Congress newspaper archive and the holdings of numerous Western Massachusetts and New York libraries without success. Then she turned to the Boston newspapers. Using the GenealogyBank newspaper archive, she found a brief single mention in the June 15 edition of an obscure paper, the Columbian<\/em> Centinel.\u00a0<\/em>The report noted in a postscript that Lafayette had arrived in Worthington and would be in Boston that evening. The Lafayette Trail, Inc., and the William C. Pomeroy Foundation agreed that this was a valid primary source.<\/p>\n

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Columbian Centinel, June 15, 1825, morning edition, page 2.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The dedication ceremony for the new trail marker on the library lawn was attended by Julien Icher, founder and president of The Lafayette Trail, Inc., along with board and committee members from the Selectboard, the Worthington Library, the Worthington Historical Society, and the town\u2019s Lafayette 200th Anniversary Celebration committee, as well as other townspeople. Worthington\u2019s state senator, Paul Mark, failed to show, but he did turn up at the Lafayette Ball later that evening with the town\u2019s state representative, Lindsay Sabadosa.<\/p>\n

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Gathering for the trail marker dedication on June 13, 2025.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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First to speak at the trail marker ceremony was Jim Downey on behalf of the Historical Society. Addressing Icher, he spoke about the Connecticut-born Silas Deane, the first foreign diplomat from the United States to France.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, New Englanders can often be a subdued lot. When there was reason to celebrate a hero, much less one hired by another New Englander, who lived a little more than an hour away from here, New Englanders can become a raucous crowd. That Connecticut Yankee, named Silas Deane, met Lafayette in Paris, interviewed Lafayette, enthusiastically endorsed him, and gave him a glowing letter of recommendation to George Washington. And for George Washington, Lafayette proved to be the hire of a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Jim Downey at Town Hall later that evening for the Lafayette Ball.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u201cThe plaque we are installing today memorializes Lafayette\u2019s presence here, when he was taking his much-deserved victory lap in 1825. He was receiving the thanks and accolades of so many grateful Americans, who were finally learning of his pivotal role in the formation and the future of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

In closing, Downey expressed gratitude to Lafayette\u2019s ongoing legacy. \u201cWhen the American colonel Charles E. Stanton visited Lafayette\u2019s grave in Picpus Cemetery in Paris on July 4, 1917, to lay a wreath and to pledge the support of the United States of America to France in the First World War, he reportedly bowed his head and said, \u2018Lafayette, we are here.\u2019 Today we stand before this plaque, honoring Lafayette\u2019s presence in our town two hundred years ago. We too can now proudly say, with eternal gratitude, \u2018Thanks to you, Lafayette,\u00a0we<\/em>\u00a0are here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Next to speak was library Board of Trustees Chair Sheila Kinney, who gave some background on Pearce Tavern, where Lafayette was hosted in 1825. The tavern closed later in the 1800s, when the railroads ended much of Worthington\u2019s stagecoach traffic. The tavern building was torn down years before the library opened in 1915.<\/p>\n

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The Pearce Tavern building, photographed well after Lafayette’s visit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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As Kinney recounted, the town held a meeting in 1908 to discuss the design of the new library. \u00a0Among those present was Seth Heacock, who came from Buffalo, worked in the oil business, and summered close to the library on Buffington Hill Road. Heacock told the meeting, \u201cNow, as to the historical value of the property. I have known Worthington about fifty years. That old building was never anything more or less than an old groggery. The last one that was there that sold liquor was locked up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kinney introduced library board member Christine Mendelsohn, who revisited the town\u2019s 1925 Lafayette centennial celebrations, which were based at the library. Various committees from the local Grange, Royal Arcanum, Women\u2019s Benevolent Society and the church were invited to assist. The extravagant program included:<\/p>\n