Worth
Worth names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Worth WILLIAM JENKINS, an American military officer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
WILLIAM JENKINS, an American military officer; born in Hudson, Columbia co., N. Y., March 1, 1794. He received but a scanty education, and on the breaking out of the War of 1812 he entered the army as a private soldier. He was appointed 2d lieutenant of infantry in 1813, was aide-de-camp to General Lewis the same year, and General Scott in 1814; and the same year received the brevets of captain and major for gallant conduct at the battle of Chippewa, July 5, and at that of Lundy's Lane, July 25, at which latter he was severely wounded. He was promoted major in 1832, and colonel in 1838. In 1841, he assumed the command of the Florida war, which he brought to a successful termination after several severe conflicts. At the outbreak of the Mexican War, he joined the command of General Taylor, and distinguished himself at the storming of Monterey, for which he received the brevet of Major-General, and a sword from Congress. He also distinguished himself at Cerro Gordo, Puebla, Churubusco, the capture of Vera Cruz, Molino del Rey, and in the storming the San Cosmo gate of Mexico. At the close of the war he was placed in command of the Southwest. He was presented with a sword by the States of New York and Louisiana, and by his native county, besides a vote of thanks from Florida. He died in San Antonio, Tex., May 17, 1849. A monument was erected to his memory by the city of New York, where his remains are interred.
Worth a village in Alsace
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a village in Alsace, at the confluence of the Sauerbach and Sulzbach rivers. It is celebrated as the place where the French on Aug. 6, 1870, met their first great defeat at the hands of the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The biographical facts Collier's set out in 1921 still stand: William Jenkins Worth rose from private in 1812 to major-general by brevet, and died at San Antonio in 1849 — of cholera, during the epidemic then sweeping Texas. What the entry does not mention is the outpost founded on the Trinity River the year he died and named in his honour; Fort Worth is now a city of roughly a million people, among the dozen largest in the United States, and far better known than the soldier behind the name. His granite obelisk still stands where Broadway meets Fifth Avenue at Madison Square, one of the very few monuments in Manhattan that is also a grave. The Alsatian village of Wörth, where the French were beaten on 6 August 1870, remains French — restored in 1919, two years before Collier's wrote — and keeps a museum to the battle, which historians more often now call Fröschwiller.
Written for this edition, 2026.