On July 23, 1845, Othniel Looker, Ohio's fifth governor, died in Palestine, Ill., at age 87.

Looker was the only Ohio governor to have served in the American Revolution - as a private with the New Jersey militia. He received a land grant in Ohio for his military service and moved to Hamilton County in 1804.

The people of Hamilton County elected him to the Ohio House in 1807 and to the Senate in 1810. He was speaker of the Senate when Gov. Return Jonathan Meigs Jr. resigned in 1814. As speaker, it was Looker's responsibility to finish out the governor's term. Looker ran for governor that fall, but lost to the better-known Thomas Worthington. He remained in the Senate until 1817, then became a common-pleas judge in Hamilton County. He retired to his Harrison farm in 1824 and remained there until his wife died in 1841. He lived with his son James Harvey Looker in Cincinnati until 1844, when he moved in with a daughter in Palestine.

His Harrison home was restored by the Village Historical Society.

Rebecca Goodman

E-mail rgoodman@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8361