This is known as township two, in range eighteen, and is one of the townships included in the United States military district.  The original township was known as Liberty, and at that time it extended for a considerable distance into what is now Delaware county.  Franklin county, was first organized, comprised but four townships, of which this was located in the northeast, Franklin in the northwest, Darby in the southwest, and Harrison in the southeast.  The names was changed from Liberty to Sharon, Mar. 4, 1806, and it was finally established, with its present boundaries, Mar. 4, 1816.  It is now five miles square, and is bounded on the east by Blendon, on the south by Clinton, on the west by Perry township in Franklin county, and has for its northern boundary the Delaware and Franklin county line.
     The first election, held in the original township of Liberty, took place at the house of Joseph Beaty, June 21, 1803, at which time Joseph Hunter and Ezra Brown were elected justices of the peace.  At the same election Jeremiah Morrow was made the first representative from the State of Ohio to Congress.

NATURAL FEATURES

     At the date of the advent of the early settlers, Sharon township, Franklin county, like nearly all portions of Ohio, was covered by a dense forest, consisting here of oak, elm, beech, maple, ash, walnut, and other varieties of timber.  When these were removed, by the gradual process of clearing and burning, a rich soil was revealed, especially in the valleys of the Olentangy, and the numerous runs which help to form that stream.  The entire surface of the township is naturally well drained, the land being of a sufficiently rolling nature to effect this without the use of any great artificial drainage.  The Olentangy river runs from north to south through the township, a number of small runs emptying into it on either side.  The eastern part of the township is drained by a number of small runs that empty into it on either side.  The eastern part of the township is drained by a number of small runs that empty into Alum creek, in Blendon townshp.

ORIGINAL OWNERS.

     Sharon township, or at least the western part of it, was originally owned by General Jonathan Dayton of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and Doctor Jonas Stanberry, of New York ity.  It is included in the military lands, appropriated by congress in 1796, to satisfy the claims against the government of the United States, held by officers and soldiers who served in the Revolutionary war.  These lands were surveyed about 1798, into tracts of five miles square, which were divided into quarters, containing each four thousand acres.
     On the fourteenth day of December, 1802, a colony was formed in the States of Massachusetts and Connecticut, to purchase land and found homes in Ohio.  Articles of agreement were made and signed by the owners of the land, comprising four sections (or quarters) situated upon and near the Whetstone (now Olentangy) river, in the military tract, as follows:  "In the eighteenth range, first township and first section, second township, second and third sections, and third township, second section, containing sixteen thousand acres."  The price agreed upon was one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre.
     The purchasers in the formation of the colony agreed

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between themselves that one lot of one hundred acres   .......

SETTLEMENT.

     Colonel James Kilbourn

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coln, Charlotte, and James.  His son, Lincoln, is engaged in the hardware business in Columbus.  Colonel Kilbourn died in April 1850.

     Roswell Tuller

     Captain Abiiel Case

     Moses Carpenter

     James Russell

     Arias Kilbourn

     Judge Recompense Stansberry

     Jacob Fairfield

     Isaac Case

     Samuel Wilson

     Bela M. Tuller

     Flavel Tuller

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     Homer Tuller,

     Mr. Chapman

     Josiah Fisher

     Mr. Starr came early, and settled north of Vining, in the north part of Sharon Township, on the west side of the river, where he died.  His widow married a man who worked for them, and afterwards sold the farm, and removed to near Carey, Ohio.  One of the family still lives there.

     Charles Thompson

     Jonathan Park

     Moses Mayanrd

     Samuel Abbott

     Jedediah Lewis

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     Elias Lewis

     Stephen Maynard

     Potter Wright

     Deacon Goodrich

     Isaiah Wallace came very early, but at what date is not known.  His son, Norman Wallace, was a drummer in the war of 1812.  All moved from here many years ago.

     Stephen Hoyt was an early settler, and one of the first blacksmiths in Worthington.

     Orange Johnson

     Dr. Starr came very early, but did not practice medicine here.  James, his son, owned a tract of land north of town, which he sold, and then removed to Texas.

     Deacon abbott

     Milton Green came from Vermont, about 1812, and worked at carpenter work in the Worthington factory while it was in operation.

     William Page worked in the factory, about 1816, in the cloth fulling department.

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     Joseph Poole

     Chester Griswold

     James Starr owned a farm north of Worthington, quite early, but where he went from here is not now known.

     Berkley Comstock

     Richard Dixon

     Ira Kellogg

     Mrs. Cynthia Barker

     Rev. Henry Matthews

     Mr. Harrington was an early settler, who went as a soldier in the war of 1812, and died when on his return, and nearlyhome, leaving a widow.

     John Snow

     Demas Adams came to Worthington previous to 1816.  He married a daughter of Colonel James Kilbourn, and was an assistant in the factory or store.

     Stephen M. Frothingham

     Obedian Benedict was a blacksmith in Worthington in 1816.

     Asa Weaver owned a farm west of town in an early day.  His house was in the village.

     William Thrall was a blacksmith in the factory.

     Eliphalet, Peter, Samuel, and Brooks Barker were early comers, and lived in Worthington many years.  Samuel and Peter were carpenters, and worked at that business.

     Nathan Mason

     A man named Cole was an early settler.  He was a graduate of an eastern college, and for many years was a school teacher in this vicinity.  He went east, where he died.  Many of his descendants now live in Franklin county.

     Bishop Philander Chase

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     Salmon P. Chase

     Ozem Gardner came from Otsego county, New York, to Ohio, in 1817, then not quite twenty-one years of age.  Some two or three years after his settlement he bought a parcel of land three miles north of Worthington, exchanging land in Lewis Center for it, with a man named Conine.  He has since added to his purchase.  There were several cabins, and something of a clearing, when he purchased.  For five or six years he lived with Mr. Comstock, a mile south of his place, at the same time clearing and improving his land.  One season he burned brick on Mr. Thompson's land near Mr. Comstock's and three seasons burned brick at Worthington,  In 1823 he married Jane Wilson, and commenced house-keeping on his own place.  They raised eight children:  Harriet, Joseph, Samuel W., Ozem B., Lucy J., Leonidas H., Paryntha, and Althina.  One child died in infancy; Harriet married John Potter, who ownes a nursery on the adjoining farm; Joseph lives in Geneva township; Ozem B. was chaplain of the thirteenth Kansas infantry, and was captured by bushwackers, and shot, at Cabin creek, Arkansas; Jucy J. died; Leonidas lives on a part of the home farm; Paryntha married John De Witt, and lives in Morrow county; Althina lives at home, unmarried, and cares for her aged father.  Mrs. Gardner died in 1869.  Ozem Gardner was an original abolitionist, and his house was an asylum for many fugitive slaves.  It was a station on the "underground railroad," from slavery to freedom.  He has assisted more than two hundred fugitives on their way, in all weathers and at all times of day or night.  No slave hunters ever came to his house, and no slave once in his care was ever captured.  He used to conduct them to Eden, in Delaware county, or to the Quaker settlement; sometimes up Alum creek, to another friendly station.

     John Bishop

     William Bishop

     Ozais Burr

     Rev. Uriah Heath

FLAVEL TULLER

EARLY EVENTS.

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JUSTICES.

WORTHINGTON VILLAGE.

GEORGE H. GRISWOLD

M____  GRISWOLD

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POST-OFFICE

PHYSICIANS

WORTHINGTON MANUFACTURING COMPANY

NEWSPAPERS.

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lin Chronicle, and was short lived, being discontinued in about two years.

SCHOOLS.

WORTHINGTON ACADEMY

WORTHINGTON COLLEGE

REFORMED MEDICAL COLLEGE

PREPARATORY SCHOOL.

FEMALE SEMINARY.

OHIO CENTRAL NORMAL SCHOOL.

[PORTRAITS:  REV. WILLIAM T. SNOW & ELECTA SNOW]

[PORTRAIT JOHN SNOW]

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PUBLIC SCHOOLS

CHURCHES.

ST. JOHN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

METHODIST CHURCH.

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PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

THE METHODIST CHURCH.

THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH.

CEMETERIES

     Several meetings of citizens of Worthington were held, in November and December, 1858, and a committee was appointed to examine grounds for use for cemetery purposes, and to make a report as to the terms of purchase of a suitable tract.  They reported, in December, in favor of a ground on the land of Mr. Hoyt.  The report was favorably considered, and a meeting of the citizens, on the proposed ground, was held Jan. 20, 1859, which was largely attended.  At this time the committee perfected arrangements for the purchase, from Mr. Hoyt, of fifty dollars, with the view of selling all but ten acres.  These grounds are situated within one mile of Worthington, and south from the village, near the east bank of the Olentangy river, and in full view from the pike leading to Columbus.  They contain a little more than ten acres of land, and are covered with a growth of young walnut, trees, from which the cemetery is appropriately named.

[PICTURE of RESIDENCE of HORACE W. WRIGHT, WORTHINGTON, FRANKLIN CO., O.]

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SOCIETIES.

THE MASONIC FRATERNITY.

INDEPENDENT ORDER OF GOOD TEMPLARS.

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OLENTANGY ENCAMPMENT.

GRANGE.

CELEBRATION.

SURVEYOR'S MARKS.

GAME AND FISH.

[PORTRAIT OF J. W.  WHITE]

REV. J. W. WHITE

HORACE W. WRIGHT

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