Worth Memorial

Lisa’s Public Journal – Week Seven — Research

This week I have spent most of my time researching William Jenkins Worth.  I was able to find only one biography of him, “General William Jenkins Worth: Monterey’s Forgotten Hero” published in 1953, which is now out-of-print.  Instead, I’ve been reading contemporary accounts of his life and death.

The New York Times ran several articles about the festivities surrounding Worth’s interment in the monument at 25th and Broadway.  The account from 26 November 1857 is profound in its detail; an entire broadsheet, devoted to the minutia of the day.  From the number of horses that drew the casket up Broadway (“sixteen gray horses with black plumes fasten above their heads”) to the impressive number of documents that were included with the casket (I need to understand why Comptroller Flagg’s Report for 1854 was deemed as necessary for the General’s afterlife as a bible) to the many dignitaries who spoke, to the dramatic masonic rituals.

The challenge is to share enough of his biography to explain why he received the honors that he did … only one of two people to be given a public reliquary in NYC, President Grant is the other … and put this tribute in a greater context.  Why does society choose to exalt some and neglect others? The reporter who penned the story explained their reverence thusly:

“There was no spot, honorable to the wealth and magnificence of this emporium or worthy of the public services which he had rendered … But, from this day forward, the pilgrim of his genius and patriotism may here kneel in thankfulness, reverence, and admiration, at his shrine.  The youth of our counter, passing and repassing this monument, will hereafter pause to peruse the record engraved thereon, of the virtue, service, and fame, of a man whose life presents a beautiful illustration of the institutions of our country, having raised himself from civil life to the highest rank know in the army; and every gradation in the chain of his elevation having been due to the fidelity of his adherence to professional duty.”

I sat across the street from that monument for several hours last week.  The city felt almost normal, what with the hint of Spring and warming weather.  Some hundred souls passed the obelisk and not one paid it any mind.  I was reminded that even the most famous among us can be forgotten.

Worth Memorial March 2021
Worth Square, as seen from Madison Park

“THE Obsequies of General WORTH.; Address of Mayor Wood. Dedication of the WORTH Monument. Imposing Procession.” 26 Nov. 1857. Web. 17 Mar. 2021. Link: https://nyti.ms/30RaW9e