 |
"We stand in slippery places.”
Mary Worthington was the first child of Thomas and Eleanor Worthington. She was born in Berkeley County, (West) Virginia a year before the family relocated to the Northwest Territory. Unusual for girls in the early 1800’s, Mary and her sister Sarah were well educated in boarding schools in Kentucky and Maryland. At the Academy for Young Females in Baltimore, they received their fashionable training and parlor manners of society. Mary attended one of Dolly Madison’s tea parties at the White House.
It was after Mary’s marriage to David Macomb at the age of nearly 19 that her life took a tragic turn. Even though David was from a prominent family, he was not a good provider for his wife and children. Debts forced an auction of their belongings in Chillicothe before their move to Tallahassee, Florida. Life was primitive there and financial difficulties continued. Mary wrote home that she feared for her children’s educations. “We stand in slippery places” was written to her brother Albert as he also had not found a good place in life and they both felt forsaken by their parents.
David Macomb was lured from Florida to what he thought would be a better life in Texas. It was on that trip that Mary became ill and never recovered. She was 39 years old and had given birth to seven children, two of whom died. Husband David, despondent and ill, committed suicide a year later and the two were buried in the “wild woods of Texas.” Their graves were never located.
|
|
Adena Mansion and Gardens
Thomas Worthington & Family
Tecumseh
The Old Northwest Territory
Ohio Statehood
Great Seal of the State of Ohio
Benjamin Latrobe
|
|
Call us at 
Adena Mansion & Gardens Society manages this site on behalf of the Ohio History Connection.