Nevada’s first congressman finally getting marked grave

Wednesday, March 29, 2000 | 10:16 a.m.

But since he died in 1909, the late Rep. Henry Gaither Worthington has lain in an unmarked grave in Washington D.C.'s Congressional Cemetery.

Next month, Sen. Richard Bryan and veteran Nevada newspaper publisher David Henley of Fallon will change that.

They've scheduled an April 11 ceremony to place a headstone at Worthington's grave, the Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle-Standard reported in a story for Wednesday's editions.

"When I learned that Nevada's first member of Congress was buried in an unmarked grave at Washington's Congressional Cemetery, I was appalled," Bryan, D-Nev., said.

Henley, a Nevada history buff, said he used cemetery records to discover Worthington's grave last year while doing research for an article about the congressman.

"When I came upon his grave, I found that it was marked by only a small, round metal disc," Henley said.

He said he brought it to Bryan's attention and they both "came to the conclusion that Worthington - one of the state's major historical figures - deserved better than that."

Worthington was born in Cumberland, Md., on Feb. 9, 1828, the son of a stagecoach line operator. He studied law in Maryland and moved to Toulumne County, Calif., where he practiced law and was elected a justice court judge.

He was elected to the California Legislature in 1861. The next year he moved to Austin, Nev., and upon Nevada's admittance into the Union, was elected to the 38th Congress as Nevada's first member of the U.S. House.

Worthington was sworn into office Dec. 21, 1864 and served until March 3, 1865.

In Congress, he cast one of the deciding votes for the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

"Worthington had been a close friend of President Lincoln and had visited Lincoln at the White House on April 14, 1865, the day he was assassinated," Henley said.

"That evening, Worthington was in attendance at Ford's Theater in Washington and witnessed the slaying of Lincoln by Wilkes Booth," he said. Worthington was one of Lincoln's pallbearers.

Later, President Andrew Johnson appointed Worthington ambassador to Uruguay in honor of his friendship with Lincoln.

He served as a minister to Uruguay and the Argentine Republic from 1868 to 1869, said Henley, who last year was named honorary counsel of Uruguay in Nevada.

Worthington died after a stroke July 29, 1909, at Garfield Hospital in Washington D.C. - the same hospital where Bryan was born.

Others buried in Washington Congressional Cemetery include FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover, Civil War photographer Matthew Brady, Nevada's fourth congressman Charles Kendall, 19 U.S. senators and 71 members of the U.S. House.