Location
Okabena is in Nobles County WORTHINGTON, a city in sections 23-26 of Worthington Township and the county seat, platted in the summer of 1871, was incorporated as a village March 8, 1873, and as a city in 1912. Its site had been called Okabena during the grading of the railway in 1871 for the two adjoining lakes, meaning the nesting place of herons, a Dakota name from hokah, "heron," be, "nests," and na, a diminutive suffix, as noted by Prof. A. W. Williamson. Its railroad station was named Okabena, as was the post office for the first year of operation, 1872, with Herbert W. Kimball as first postmaster. In the autumn of 1871 that name was changed to Worthington in honor of the mother of Mary Dorman Miller, wife of Dr. A. P. Miller, who was intimately associated with Ransom F. Humiston in forming the National Colony Company and founding Worthington, before noticed because Ransom Township was named for him. Mrs. Miller in 1888 wrote of the origin of this name: "My mother's maiden name was Worthington. Her father was Robert Worthington, of Chillicothe, Ohio, who was the brother of Thomas Worthington, governor of Ohio; and the now beautiful, prosperous town of Worthington, Minn., was named for the Chillicothe family." Worthington Township was organized May 20, 1872.Okabena Creek, flowing east from Worthington to Heron Lake in Jackson County, is the outlet of the West Okabena Lake, whence the site of Worthington was at first named Okabena, as before noted. From this name, given to Heron Lake on Nicollet's map in 1843, the present name of that lake was translated, while the Dakota name, referring to these lakes and the creek as "the nesting place of herons," was retained for the creek and for two lakes at Worthington, of which the east one has been drained. From: Upham, Warren. Minnesota Place Names: A Geographical Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, First edition 1920. Third Edition 2001. Print.
