Volunteers in Defiance County have taken ownership of a long-forgotten cemetery once tied to a man born into slavery in Virginia, marking a new chapter in a years-long effort to protect the site. The Friends of Worthington Cemetery acquired the one-acre parcel earlier this year after the Ayersville Water and Sewer District donated the land.
Archibald Worthington was born a slave in Virginia in 1818, according to Jay Budde, the group’s president. “A former slave freed by his owner, we believe around 1850, which was before the Civil War,” Budde said. Worthington eventually settled in the Defiance area, where he owned hundreds of acres that he farmed. He also built a school and a church on his land for a community of freed slaves who lived in the area. A cemetery was part of that community.
Sarah Marshall, a local history specialist at the Defiance Public Library, began researching the cemetery during the pandemic. She had been looking into local cemeteries when she came across one she had never heard of.
“I love a good mystery and this was a big one. The more we uncovered, the more questions we had that we needed to find answers to,” Marshall said.
Marshall’s research led to an Ohio Historical Marker, which now stands on Worthington’s former land. Worthington’s family eventually moved out of the area, and the cemetery fell into disrepair. The headstones are long gone and the site was overgrown.
The land had been owned by the Ayersville Water and Sewer District for decades and is still farmed today. The group was able to acquire the cemetery land earlier this year.
“The Ayersville Water and Sewer District literally gave us the land. All we had to do was pay for the survey. We got one-acre and the lane behind us in the deal,” Budde said.
Budde said the work is personal. “Respecting these folks and restoring this cemetery is important to me because it’s the right thing to do,” he said.
Through Marshall’s research, the group connected with some of Worthington’s relatives, who live in the Toledo area and have visited the cemetery.
The group is inviting the public to a community meeting from 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday on Bowman Road between State Route 15 and Dohoney Road, at the historic marker. Attendees can share feedback on the project and help envision what the site might become. The event may move indoors in case of weather. Updates will be posted on the Friends of Worthington Cemetery Facebook page.
“I just think cemeteries ought not to disappear. End of story,” Budde said.
