OTHNIEL LOOKER

Inscription

OTHNIEL LOOKER
1757-1845. REVOLUTIONARY WAR
PRIVATE, NJ MILITIA. SERVED IN
THE OHIO STATE LEGISLATURE.
BECAME FIFTH GOVERNOR OF
OHIO IN 1814. BURIED HERE.
GOV OTHNIEL LOOKER CHAP NSDAR
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2026

Othniel Looker was born in Hanover, New Jersey, in 1757 and came of age during the American Revolution. Enlisting in May 1776, he served five years as a private in the New Jersey Militia under Captain Obadiah Kitchell in Colonel Martin’s Regiment, taking part in the Battles of Long Island and White Plains. He served in the Revolutionary War as a private in the NJ Militia under Captain Obadiah Kitchell’s Company.

After the war, Looker moved to New York, where he worked as a teacher and later served in the New York State Assembly in 1803 and 1804. A land grant awarded for his military service drew him westward, and in 1804 he settled in Harrison, Ohio. His political career in the new state advanced quickly: he was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1810 and served as Speaker of the House in 1813 and 1814. When Governor Return J. Meigs Jr. resigned in 1814, Looker—then Speaker—became acting governor and thus Ohio’s fifth governor, though he was defeated when he sought election to a full term.

Looker continued in public service as an associate justice of the Court of Common Pleas in Hamilton County from 1817 to 1824. In declining health by 1844, he moved to Palestine, Illinois, to live with his daughter Rachel L. Kitchell. He died there in 1845 and was buried in the Kitchell family cemetery. Rachel, who later died in 1867, was buried next to him.