Jonathan Worth, native of Guilford County, settled in Randolph County and made his fame and fortune there as an attorney and legislator. A Quaker and protégé of judge Archibald Murphey, Worth championed the cause of free public schools during his tenure in the legislature and, though he belonged to the greatly outnumbered Whig party, gained much stature for the practical nature of his ideas and the respect for his vision for improving North Carolina.
In 1830, he ran for a seat in the legislature from Randolph County, motivated in large part by a failing law practice. His major shortcoming, he had decided, was his deficiency as a public speaker. His peers at the Bar persuaded him there was no better way to improve his oratory and achieve better rhetoric than to become a member of the North Carolina General Assembly which thrives on talk.
He served two terms in the House, took a break from public service to build a lucrative law practice, was elected to the State Senate and then ran twice for Congress, both times unsuccessfully.
In 1858, Worth found himself back in the State Senate where he was made chairman of a committee to investigate the poorly run North Carolina Railroad. He pursued this official duty so relentlessly that the president of the Railroad, formerly a good friend, challenged Worth to a duel which he wisely declined.
Worth was an avid opponent of North Carolina's secession from the Union. Though opposed to the Confederate stands on most issues, Worth remained loyal to North Carolina's cause and refused to take part in several peace movements. He was elected State Treasurer by acclamation by the legislature.
Worth had the unhappy duty of issuing notes and bonds to finance the State's share of its war debt. Of the some $20 million in notes authorized by the State, Worth issued $8.5 million and $5.2 million were outstanding at the end of the war. War bonds totaling more than $13 million were issued. At the end of the war, all of the State's war debt was repudiated. Worth was considered a good Treasurer, doing the best he could to safeguard the financial resources of the people of North Carolina during troubled times.
Just before Raleigh was occupied by Sherman's conquering forces at the end of the war, Governor Zebulon Vance charged Worth with the duty of safeguarding the State archives which he did by evacuating them to the Company Shops in Alamance County. Worth was so highly regarded that when William W. Holden was installed as the provisional Governor, he requested Worth be named the provisional Treasurer, a title Worth held for five months until he was elected Governor. Worth is the only statewide Treasurer to become Governor.1
1 Samuel Ashe, Stephen B. Weeks, Charles L. Van Noppen, eds., Biographical History of North Carolina from Colonial Times to the Present, Vol. III (Greensboro: Charles L. Van Noppen Publisher, 1905-1917), 454-460.
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