Cole County History: James P. McWorkman — doctor, newspaperman, politician, farmer

Courtesy of Nancy Thompson: Volunteers are restoring and repairing decades of vandalism at the Dulle Farm Cemetery that sits on a Missouri River bluff west of Jefferson City.
Courtesy of Nancy Thompson: Volunteers are restoring and repairing decades of vandalism at the Dulle Farm Cemetery that sits on a Missouri River bluff west of Jefferson City.

James P. McWorkman was an early settler in the Elston neighborhood of Cole County. He had several diverse occupations during his lifetime - some simultaneously. He was a doctor, newspaperman, politician and farmer.

He was born in 1819 in Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio, the son of Daniel and Elizabeth (McPherson) McWorkman. His father was sheriff of Logan County and a member of the Ohio Senate. Dr. McWorkman graduated from the Ohio Medical College in Cincinnati.

In 1838, he married Juliette Hanford, daughter of Henry and Harriet (Chamberlin) Hanford and a native of Springfield, Ohio. Henry Hanford was a farmer and outspoken abolitionist who reportedly despised professional politicians.

The McWorkmans moved to Lebanon, Indiana, where he practiced medicine until 1857. At the same time, he owned and edited a local newspaper, the Boone County Pioneer, from 1854-57. He served as superintendent of the Indiana Institution for the Blind and resigned in 1861.

They migrated to Central Missouri, where he bought 40 acres of land west of Jefferson City on the Missouri River from Alvaro and Maria Louise Jameson. The $10,000 purchase included everything except a half-acre burying ground situated on a bluff above the property.

McWorkman took up farming and owned several large tracts of land in this area, continuing to buy and sell property throughout the 1870s and early 1880s.

He built a stately home on a hilltop mound overlooking the valley and river. A stream ran east of the home site, across the property and into the Missouri River. When Lewis and Clark mapped the area in 1804, they named the tributary Zancor Creek. Today, it's known as McWorkman Creek.

According to the Peoples' Tribune, Nov. 30, 1870, McWorkman and Fordyce imported some purebred Chester White hogs. On Sept. 20, 1871, he received a second premium award at the Cole County Fair for the fastest saddle horse, mare or gelding, pacing or racking. T. B. Price was awarded first premium.

There was a Missouri River steamboat landing on his property. In later years, when a railroad switch was built at this location, the community became known as McKinney.

In 1872, McWorkman was elected to the 27th General Assembly as a representative of Cole County. When Gov. Phelps appointed him superintendent of the School for the Blind in July 1873, he kept his Cole County farm and moved to St. Louis, still maintaining his position in the House of Representatives. He received a great deal of criticism and pressure to relinquish his elected office, but he steadfastly refused. He still considered Cole County his primary residence.

Juliette died in St. Louis in August 1873 after an extended illness and was buried in the small cemetery on their Cole County farm. The burial ground, called Goode's Cemetery at that time, is now known as the Dulle Farm Cemetery.

In July 1874, McWorkman married Harriet Rebecca Long, who was 25 years his junior. Her father, John Fenton Long, was an influential judge in St. Louis and reportedly a personal friend of Ulysses S. Grant. James and Harriet had two children, Susan Coralie and James McPherson McWorkman.

McWorkman resigned his position with the School for the Blind around 1881 and returned with his wife, Rebecca, to Cole County, where he became a full-time farmer. He died in March 1885 and was buried next to his first wife, Juliette. According to Goodspeed's History of Cole County, McWorkman's expressed request was: "When I die, it is my wish that I be plainly buried in the little graveyard on my farm in Cole County, where lie the remains of my former wife, and there let me rest."

Today, the burial ground shows obvious signs of vandalism, dating back many decades. Stones are broken and scattered about. Several have disappeared, possibly pushed over the bluff. James and Juliette McWorkman's tombstones were among those missing.

During a recent restoration, tombstones were repaired and reset, and new markers purchased for the McWorkmans' graves.

Rebecca McWorkman died at her daughter's home in Kansas in 1909 and was interred with her family at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

Daughter Susan married William Tennie McKinney in 1898 and moved to Hutchinson County, Kansas. Son James married Della Cicardi, who died in 1904. He married Mable C. Wilhite in 1923, and they made their home in Decatur, Illinois.

Today, the McWorkman farm, owned by the state of Missouri, is part of the mothballed Church Farm Correctional Center.

Nancy Arnold Thompson is a retired medical administrator and former member of the Cemetery Resources Board for the City of Jefferson. Her hobby is cemetery preservation and restoration.