WORCESTER. WORTHINGTON. 673 Society, medical director of the Massachu- setts Mutual Aid Society, and medical examiner of numerous secret societies. He is surgeon of the board of examiners for pensions. He served as city physician for Fitchburg in 1879, '80, '81, '84, '85, and '86 ; has been a member of the school board, and is now president of the common council, the school committee and the board of overseers of the poor of Fitchburg. Dr. Woodworth's father died when he was but fourteen years of age, which made it necessary for him to gain not only his own livelihood, but to lend a helping hand to the other members of the family. His has been an eminently successful career, characterized by hard work and energetic struggle, and he is now reaping a well- earned reward for his intelligent and con- scientious labor. WORCESTER, WILLIAM E. C, son of James and Prudence (Blood) Worcester, was born February 24, 1826, in Damaris- cotta, Lincoln county, Maine, where his family, who were residents of Charlestown, Mass., were at the time temporarily stop- ping. They soon returned to Charlestown, where Mr. Worcester lived until twenty- one years of age. His education was ob- tained in the public schools of that town and in the academy at Reading. In 1S49 he took up his residence in Hud- son (then Feltonville), where he has since lived, with the exception of a few years in Marlborough. As early as 1846 he chose the vocation of sign and fancy painting. He carried on the same business in Hudson until 1854, when he took the superintend- ence of the factory of F. Brigham & Co , until 186 1, when he took charge of Boyd & Corey's shoe factory in Marlborough. Early in the war of the rebellion he en- listed in company I, 5th regiment, Massa- chusetts volunteers, and was elected cap- tain and promoted to major before leaving the State. In 1864 he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the same regiment. He did service in North Carolina with the nine months' men, and again at Baltimore with the three months' troops. When he returned to Hudson he resumed his business of painting. He has been an active worker in the Republican ranks for many years. He was appointed postmaster of Hudson, October 14, 1884, by President Arthur, and still holds the office, being re- appointed by President Cleveland, Decem- ber 18, 1888. Mr. Worcester was married in Charles- town, June 17, 1847, to Harriette L. S., daughter of Gershom Teel, of Charlestown. Of this union were four children, of whom Edward Franklin Worcester is the only liv- ing child. WORTHINGTON, ERASTUS, the son of Erastus and Sally Ellis Worthington, and the youngest of a family of three sons, was born in Dedham, Norfolk county, No- vember 25, 1828. His father was a native of Belchertown, and a graduate of Williams College in the class of 1804. He practiced law in Dedham for many years, and in 1825, having been active in the formation of the Norfolk Mutual Fire Insurance Company, he became its first secretary, which office he held until 1840. He was a member of the General Court in 18 14 and '15. He was the author of " An Essay on the Estab- lishment of a Chancery Jurisdiction in Massachusetts," published in 1S10, and of the " History of Dedham," published in 1827. He died June 27, 1842. Mr. Worthington received his early edu- cation in the public schools of Dedham, and was prepared for college at an acad- emy in Attleborough. He entered Brown University in 1846, where he was graduated in the class of 1850. Soon after his graduation he went to Milwaukee, W r is., and entered the office of his brother, Ellis Worthington, who was there established in practice as a lawyer. Mr. Worthington remained here for nearly one year, and returned in the autumn of 185 1 to enter the Harvard law school at Cambridge. After remaining one term at the law school, he was employed during the winter of i85i-'52 as an assistant teacher of the Dedham high school, and at the same time pursued his legal studies in the office of Ezra Wilkinson, in Dedham. In September, 1852, he again returned to the Harvard law school, where he remained during the next two terms, and received the degree of LL. B. in 1853. He was ad- mitted to the bar in Dedham at the Feb- ruary term of the supreme judicial court in 1854 Mr. Worthington began his professional practice in Boston, and after a few months formed a co-partnership with the Hon. David A. Simmons, of Roxbury. In 1856 he was offered the position of register of the court of insolvency, then first established, and he was elected to this office by the people of the county in that year. In 1857, this court having been consolidated with the probate court, the office of regis- ter of insolvency was abolished, and Mr. Worthington then opened a law office in Dedham. He was commissioned by Gov- ernor Banks as a trial justice in 1858, which
