The Worthington Nims Homestead in Groton Township

According to the book Pioneers’ Progress: The First 25 Years of Lyme Township and Strongs Ridge, by Adeline Wright(written for the Historic Lyme Church Association), Worthington Nims was one of three brothers who came from Massachusetts to the Strong Ridge area of Lyme Township in Erie County, Ohio in the Spring of 1826. By that fall their father Asa Nims moved to Ohio as well. 

On September 21, 1827, Worthington Nims traveled back to his Massachusetts to marry Betsy Barnard. The newlyweds’ trip back to Ohio took a total of seventeen days, several of them spent traveling on the Erie Canal. During their first winter in Ohio, Mr. and Mrs. Worthington Nims lived in a covered wagon, between the log houses of other Nims families. 

On the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1877, a Bellevue newspaper wrote about the couple: “By industry and wise management on the part of both, Mr. and Mrs. Nims are rightly regarded as wealthy farmers.” The etching of the Nims residence which is pictured above appeared on page 36 of the Combination Atlas Map of Erie County, published in 1874 by Stewart & Page. A home, several outbuildings, and livestock and equipment can be seen in the drawing. 

You can view a copy of the 1874 historical atlas at the Sandusky Library, where you also can find histories of several Ohio towns and counties, including three titles about the history of Lyme Township.