HONOR THY FATHER & THY MOTHER:Information about Joel Haworth

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Joel Haworth (b. April 17, 1786, d. December 04, 1854)

The headstone of Great Great Great Great Grandfather Joel Haworth in Salem Friends Burying Ground near Cottage Grove in Union County, Indiana

Joel Haworth was born April 17, 1786 in Haworth Bend Farm, Holston River, Jefferson County, North Carolina (now Tennessee), and died December 04, 1854 in Salem, Union County, Indiana. He married Elizabeth Maxwell on April 11, 1811 in Grassy Valley Meetinghouse, Jefferson County, Tennessee.

Notes for Joel Haworth:
Joel Haworth was born near New Market, Tennessee (formerly North Carolina) on April 17, 1786. He was born on his parents' farm located on the Holston River some 25 miles above Knoxville, Tennessee. His birth is recorded in the minutes of Lost Creek Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Jefferson County, Tennessee.

He married Elizabeth Maxwell at the Grassy Valley Meetinghouse in Jefferson County on Fourth month 11th, 1811. Elizabeth was a daughter of Hugh Maxwell and Elizabeth McBonder. After his marriage to Elizabeth Maxwell he carried on a farm situated on an island in the Holston River.

By the time they decided to go to Indiana in 1817, they had several children, both boys and girls. On February 27, 1819, the family was granted certificates to travel to the Silver Creek Monthly Meeting in Wayne (now Union) County, Indiana. Joel died in Indiana on December 4, 1854 and Elizabeth on July 30, 1866 in Salem, near the town of Liberty, Union County, Indiana. Both are buried at the Salem Friends Burying Ground near Cottage Grove in Union County.

"Joel Haworth, moved from Tennessee to Union County, Indiana, and bought a large tract of government land at $1.25 per acre in gold. When he died in 1854 he owned 1500 acres of land, 1000 acres of that land within Union County, Indiana."
[Source: A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written & compiled by William E. Connelley, 1918]

In July 2003 I made a trip to Indiana in search of my maternal ancestors. While there I discovered the obituary notice of my great great great grandmother, Mary S. Haworth. She had married my great great great grandfather, Mark Elliott at Silver Creek-Salem Friends Meeting (Quaker) in 1835 in Union County, Indiana. Her obituary stated that her parents, Joel and Elizabeth Haworth were "noted anti-slavery Friends."
This raised my curiosity and I decided to uncover what I could about the lives of Mary Haworth’s parents. I drove to the town of Liberty where I visited the Union County Public Library. The staff there are accustomed to genealogy enthusiasts like me and within minutes I was given more books to peruse that I could shake a stick at! There I found a story that mentioned Joel Haworth giving refuge to nine runaways (fugitives) in his home around 1840. From his home the following night the runaways were taken to the safe house of the famous Quaker abolitionist, Levi Coffin, who lived about 25 miles to the north. I immediately felt a connection with this man and I felt an urgent need to visit the place where he and his wife were laid to rest. Thanks to the directions given to me by the friendly librarian, it was not at all difficult to find the Salem Friends Cemetery, which is located SE of the town of Liberty out in the countryside.

Across the road from the Salem Cemetery stands the Salem Friends Church. It is a small, clean, white frame structure that can, by my estimate, accommodate no more than fifty Friends at Meeting for Worship. The cemetery is very old and probably contains more gravestones erected in the 1800's than in the 1900's. Before long I discovered the gravestones of Joel Haworth and his wife Elizabeth. Sadly, Joel’s gravestone had fallen, but fortunately was not broken and it was in good shape. Having brought some garden tools with me I began the task of up righting the stone in the hot midday summer sun of Indiana. What I thought would be an exhausting task turned out to be fairly easy. When done my heart was glad as I gazed upon the gravestones of a couple who had demonstrated much love, courage and compassion in their lives. Here were a man and a woman, who were so convinced of their faith and beliefs that they went to great risk, yes, even to overtly break the law to actively demonstrate their brotherly love to those runaways who were in such great need at the time. I stood there before their graves and I sobbed. I had no other way of thanking them for their courage and love. If only I might someday find such courage and faith within myself!

I discovered a story of Joel Haworth's activity in the Underground Railroad in an excerpt on the life of John Beard published in the 1884 Beers Atlas of Union County, Indiana. The incident is described as follows in that atlas:
"He (John Beard) at one time assisted, with his father, in the escape of some fugitives, who had permission to attend a "quilting" at a point opposite the city of Cincinnati (Covington, KY). It had been previously planned that they were to be met at Cincinnati by the Beards, and conveyed to a place of safety until they could make good their escape. John Beard met them at Cincinnati with a team, from whence he conveyed them to the house of Joel Haworth, in Union County, during the first night, and on the night following to the house of Levi Coffin, in Wayne County, from which place they were sent to Canada. This circumstance occurred about the year 1840, and the number of fugitives was nine."

A large body of Indiana Friends met at a convention of Friends at Newport, Wayne County, Indiana 2nd month 6th, 1843 (February 6th) for the purpose of establishing the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends "upon the true principles, and in accordance with the discipline and usages of the Society of Friends." This group of Quaker men and women were at odds with the larger body of Friends in Indiana over the issue of slavery. Anti-Slavery Friends were stanch abolitionists who actively worked for the immediate elimination of slavery, including taking an active part in the illegal nad dangerous business of the Underground Railroad. Grandfather Joel Haworth and Grandmother Elizabeth (Maxwell) Haworth were present that that meeting and continued to devote themselves to Anti-Slavery Friends until the eventual reunification with the whole body of the Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends in 1857.

Joel Haworth offered his home as a station on the Underground Railroad for a number of years. In Levi Coffin's "Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, the Reputed President of the Underground Railroad" published in 1876 Joel's activity of giving safe harbor to runaway slaves was noted on page 364 in a chapter devoted entirely to the escape of a woman named Ellen and her husband Louis. This event occurred in the year 1847 or later. On that page it states: "It was thought safer for Louis and Ellen to go out of the city (Cincinnati), and a few evenings afterward they were conveyed to the house of Joel Haworth, a well-known abolitionist, living in Union County, Indiana. Here they remained several weeks, awaiting results."

OBITUARY
"DIED-At his residence in Union Co., Indiana, on the 4th day of the 12th month, 1854, JOEL HAWORTH, of Flux and chronic affection of the bowels, aged 68 years, 7 months, and 16 days.
The deceased was confined to his bed in his last illness, three weeks. During a considerable portion of this time, his sufferings were very great, all of which was borne in much patience, calmness and christian fortitude. He seemed to be strongly impressed from near the commencement of his sickness that he would not recover, of which he spoke during several interviews with his family, saying that he felt a calmness to cover his mind that was not usual. Though at times he thought he would like to live a while longer, that he might have been able to have been with his dear companion and friends in the attendance of religious meetings. He was an affectionate husband and tender father, and ever had a sympathetic feeling for suffering humanity of whatever complexion or clime. In his death the Religious Society of Friends has lost a devoted member, his family a guardian protector, and the community in which he had lived for more than a third of a century, a member whose place will be hard to fill."

More About Joel Haworth:
Burial: Unknown, Salem Friends Burying Ground, Salem, Union County, Indiana.

More About Joel Haworth and Elizabeth Maxwell:
Marriage: April 11, 1811, Grassy Valley Meetinghouse, Jefferson County, Tennessee.

Children of Joel Haworth and Elizabeth Maxwell are:

+Mary S. Haworth, b. December 02, 1813, Jefferson County, Tennessee, d. February 23, 1902, Sterling, Rice County, Kansas.