WORTHAM, TEXAS. Wortham, an incorporated city, is at the
junction of State Highway 14 and Farm Road 27, sixteen miles
west of Fairfield in extreme western Freestone County. The town
is situated on a grant given in 1834 by Mexico to Robert B.
Longbotham, an immigrant from England who settled there in 1839.
In 1871, when the Houston and Texas Central Railway was planned
through the area, Longbotham sold the right of way for five
dollars. A townsite was purchased from Longbotham by a group of
investors, who platted a town named Tehuacana. When a post
office was established in November 1871, however, the name was
changed to Long Bottom, a corruption of the original owner's
name. In 1874 the settlement was renamed Wortham in honor of
Col. Rice Wortham, a merchant who had been instrumental in
convincing the railroad to build through the area. In 1885
Wortham was a small market center for area cotton farmers with
several churches, steam grist and corn mills, cotton gins, a
general store, and about thirty inhabitants