A History of Kentucky Baptists From 1769 to 1885, Including More Than 
800 Biographical Sketches, J. H. Spencer, Manuscript Revised and 
Corrected by Mrs. Burilla B. Spencer, In Two Volumes.  Printed For the 
Author.  1886.  Republished By Church History Research & Archives 1976 
Lafayette, Tennessee. Vol. 2, pp 205-206.  [Green County]

ZECHARIAH WORLEY was born and raised in Virginia, perhaps in Bedford 
county.  His father, althought a professed christian, was a distiller, 
and his son entered the still house, at the age of fifteen.  Aftrwards, 
however, the boy went to an academy, where he obtained a fair academic 
education.  He was preparing to enter Washington college, when meeting 
with J. M. Kelly, afterwards a valuable preacher in Trigg county, Ky., 
who told him he had been a short time in that institution, and that the 
young men attending it were so drunken and boisterous, that to study 
there was impracticable, young Wooley declined going to that college.  
In early life, he was set apart to the ministry, and soon displayed 
intelligent inclination to perform the abuses that had crept into the 
churches, and especially that of intemperance.  His observations in his 
father's still house had given him a strong repugnance to the use of 
intoxicating drinks.  In a little work published just before his death, 
he draws the following picture of the period at which he began his 
ministry.
	"A short time before the [temperance] reformation commenced, I 
attended a Baptist Association.  At the close of business at the first 
day, I went home with a rich old brother.  There were many old ministers 
and delegates to the Association, who also went with this brother.  When 
we entered the house, the first salutation was decanters of brandy and 
whisky, loaf sugar, nutmegs, mint, etc.  By the time dinner was over, at 
the present time, they would all have been accused of being intoxicated, 
except about four of us young preachers, who refused to drink.  The next 
day we learned that the same process had been carried on at every house 
in the neighborhood.  At that time there was not an old minister in the 
Association, who would not drink his toddy.  Many of them were men of 
talents and were well informed, for the times.  At this Association, 
some eight or ten of us, young preachers, pledged ourselves that we 
would not preach a sermon, during the following Associational year, 
without saying something against drinking spirits, as a beverage, and 
that we would never vote for any man, to fill office, who made, or sold 
ardent spirits."
	From this time, Mr. Worley was a zealous, consistent advocate of 
temperance, during a period, more than 50 years.  After preaching a 
number of years in his native State, he moved to Green co., Ky., and 
united with Mt. Gilead Church, about 1835.  He remained in this church 
about two yers, and then took membership in Mt. Olivet.  He wrote the 
cirular letter of Russells Creek Assocation, in 1837, and was a 
messenger from that body to the convention that formed the General 
Association, in October of that year.  He was a member of Russells Creek 
Association, about eight years, and served it as clerk, from 1840 to 
1842.  About the latter date, he went farther South, and probably made 
his home, for a time, with his brother, who was also a preacher, in the 
northern part of Middle Tennessee.  But he was never married, and was 
much inclined to ramble from one locality to another.  He can hardly 
be said to have had any fixed residence for the last forty years of his 
life.  He died in Western Kentucky, not far from the beginning of the 
year 1882.
	Mr. Worley's talents, though respectable, were not extraordinary; 
nor was his influence ever very extensive.  But he maintained an 
irreproachable religious character and was industrious in his holy 
calling.  He early espoused the cause of missions, and gave his 
influence to all the benevolent enterprises of his denomination, during 
a long, active, and, we trust, not unfruitful ministry.

Worley Kelly
=
Bedford-VA Trigg-KY TN

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/green/worley.z.txt