The Worden Heritage Home Site preserves memories of the settlement of Hinckley Township in the Western Reserve. Hiram Worden bought 56 acres here in 1851 to farm and raise his family, and after losing his first wife and two children he married Melissa Bissell of Richfield, Ohio, that same year. He cleared the land, lived in a log cabin, and completed the homestead in 1862. Hiram and Melissa raised four children: Cora, Frank, Floyd Lincoln, called Lynn, and Nettie. Nettie Worden Rice inherited the homestead in 1903 and lived there until her death on November 9, 1945; married three times, she had all three husbands come to live with her there. In the nearby forest, Worden's Ledges, formed of Sharon Conglomerate sandstone, lie along the Worden's Ledges Loop Trail. Between 1944 and 1948, Noble Stuart, a retired bricklayer and Nettie's last husband, created folk art carvings in the sandstone, including an Egyptian sphinx, the face of Hiram Worden, the wedding date of Hiram and Melissa Worden, the name "Nettie," the faces of the Marquis De Lafayette and George Washington, a schooner, a cross and Bible, and the face of Ty Cobb. The ledges trail passes beneath large oak, hickory, black cherry, and maple trees, and the rich sandy soil below supports mosses, ferns, and spring wildflowers such as white and red trilliums.
