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A Town by Any Other Name: Worstville, Ohio

Era: 20th Century (1920–2000)
Date: July 29, 1987
Source: By George Cole, Paulding Progress, Wednesday, July 29, 1987, p. 10B. Reprinted in Paulding Pathways, Paulding County Chapter OGS, Aug. 1995, Vol. 9 #3, p. 74.
Rights & source note: Newspaper reprint via a local genealogical society newsletter; rights status not otherwise confirmed.
Tags: worstvilleghost townsnickel plate railroadpaulding pathwayspayne

Worstville — “practically a ghost town” by 1987, with only 35-40 residents — grew up alongside the Nickel Plate Railroad (built 1881) a few miles southwest of Paulding, near Payne and Briceton. At its peak in the late 19th/early 20th century it had a Methodist church, school, hotel, grocery store, post office, depot, and (per the Center for Ghost Town Research in Ohio) some saloons, though interviewed residents recalled no knowledge of any. Its main industry was making barrel staves.

Charlie Cline, 81 at the time of the article and still farming at Worstville’s south edge, recalled one dramatic night as a young boy: his father loaded him and his brother into a buggy to watch a grain elevator burn down (there was no nearby fire department at the time); it was later rebuilt.

See the full PDF for the complete article. Cross-reference: this archive’s existing Ohio Ghost Towns, No. 19: Paulding County covers other vanished Paulding County settlements.