Worden Heritage Home Site

Worden Heritage Home Site. . The Worden Heritage Home Site reflects memories of a time when the Township of Hinckley, part of the Western Reserve, was being settled. Hiram Worden purchased 56 acres of land in this location in 1851 for a place to farm and raise his family. , After losing his first wife and two of his children, Hiram Worden married Melissa Bissell from Richfield, Ohio in 1851. He cleared the land and lived in a log cabin until he completed the homestead in 1862. Hiram and Melissa raised four children: Cora, Frank, Floyd Lincoln (called Lynn), and Nettie. Nettie Worden Rice inherited the homestead in 1903 and lived there until her death on November 9, 1945. Nettie had married three times and all three husbands came to live with her at the homestead. , Worden's Ledges, comprised of Sharon Conglomerate sandstone, is tucked back in the forest along the Worden's Ledges Loop Trail. Noble Stuart, a retired bricklayer and Nettie's last husband, made "folk art" carvings in the sandstone ledges sometime between 1944 and 1948. , The trail through the ledges is shaded by large oak, hickory, black cherry and maple trees that provide food and homes for many woodland birds and animals. The rich sandy soil below the ledges is lush with mosses, ferns and spring wildflowers like white and red trilliums. , The first carving, lying in wait like a silent guardian, is an Egyptian sphinx. Other carvings include the face of Hiram Worden, the wedding date of Hiram and Melissa Worden, the name "Nettie", the faces of the Marquis De Lafayette and George Washington, a schooner, a cross and Bible, and the face of Ty Cobb.