You would certainly think me remiss if I didn't include an early-day picture of Worth early in this series.
This picture was taken close to the 1913-12 years. The picture was taken from a point which would be about in the middle of the present highway and looking west.
The wooden, two-story building on the left is one of the two buildings Hurley Dye moved into Worth from the town of Friend.
When the railroad from Grant City to Albany was being planned in the late 1890's, a town was planned a mile south of the Worth-Gentry County line. Somewhere between Albany and Grant City the railroad needed a source of water. At the point south of the county line, the track was to go within 150 feet of a strong, ever-flowing spring.
Railroad planners wanted to establish a town here to serve as a shipping point and as a place to replenish water in the small steam engines before they started up the rather steep grade into Grant City.
The man who owned the land upon which the spring was located thought the railroad had no other alternative, and he asked a price that the railroad thought was exorbitant. Instead, they went on north another two miles and placed a dam across the river for a source of water.
The towns of Worth and Gentry were both established by the railroad in 1899.
Worth grew quickly and as a business community it had reached its peak by the time this picture was taken. By 1915 there were about 30 businesses in addition to a school and four churches.
I have seen, but I can't recall who has it, a picture of the small water tower that the railroad built to service the trains. I would like very much to have a copy make from the print.