Lake Worth Beach City Limits: City of Lake Worth is named in honor of a highly decorated U.S. Army officer.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

City of Lake Worth is named in honor of a highly decorated U.S. Army officer.

And that decorated military officer has an interesting connection to the 18th President of the United States: General Ulysses S. Grant. Learn more about that below.

Are you interested in City of Lake Worth history? What are you doing today?

The newly renovated Lake Worth Historical Museum is located on the second floor of the City Hall Annex located at 414 Lake Ave. (in the Cultural Plaza) and is open Wednesday and Friday from 1:00–4:00. Tours are also provided by appointment. Call 561-533-7354.

Earlier this year the Lake Worth Historical Museum was one of the destinations on a Downtown walking tour taken by the Florida chapter of the American Planning Assoc.; a few days later this event was front page news in The Lake Worth Herald.

Click on newspaper clipping to enlarge.

Helen Greene, docent of the Lake Worth Historical Museum, penned this front page news in the Herald. Other things you’ll discover at the museum, about a military officer named. . .

General William Jenkins Worth (1794–1849):

“United States officer during the War of 1812, Second Seminole War, and Mexican-American War.”

Image from Wikipedia:

Mathew Brady (1822–1896), “was one of the earliest photographers in American history, best known for his scenes of the Civil War.”

Interesting fact:

There are only two historical monuments in Manhattan, New York City, that serve as mausoleums: one is called “Grant’s Tomb”, the final resting place of General Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885), the 18th President of the United States. And the other is an obelisk in honor of General William Jenkins Worth.

The obelisk in honor of General Worth has a dado that reads in part:

“DUCIT AMOR PATRIAE” [The Love Of Country Leads Me].

This monument was designed by James Goodwin Batterson and dedicated on November 25, 1857:

“The obelisk contains four sets of bands with the names of 16 places of importance in the life of Major General Worth. On the south facing front of the pedestal is a bronze tablet with a high relief of General Worth on horseback, with dress military uniform holding his sword in his right hand while pointing it forward. Above this figure is a complex trophy depicting cannons, swords, flags and eagles.”

Here is the first paragraph about General Worth from Wikipedia:

Worth was born in 1794 in Hudson, New York, to Thomas Worth and Abigail Jenkins. Both of his parents were Quakers, but he rejected the pacifism of their faith. He received common schooling as a child and moved to Albany where he was working as a merchant when the War of 1812 began.

You can learn more about General Worth using this link, the Texas State Historical Association:

He became an instructor of tactics at West Point in 1820 and in 1825 was made commandant of cadets. By the time of his transfer to field duty in 1828, Worth had instilled high standards of conduct and discipline still evident today in the West Point Cadet Corps.
He was promoted to major, ordnance bureau, on May 30, 1832. During the 1830s Worth served under Scott in the Illinois campaign against the Black Hawks and participated in the removal of Cherokee Indians from the southeastern United States.

and. . .

The city of Fort Worth and a large lake [now the Lake Worth Lagoon] in Florida are named in Worth’s honor. Worth was a member of the Church of Christ (Congregational), a Democrat, and a Mason.