Whitmer, Soloman, House

The internal improvements of Thorn township, until 1871, consisted of the common road only, but Millersport, in Fairfield county, is only a short distance from the northwest corner of the township, and is situated on the canal, and it became the place where most of the wheat was sold. Brooke & Lewis, Thorn township merchants (one from Thornville and the other from New Salem), built a warehouse on the canal a little east of Millersport, and, for several years, purchased nearly all the surplus wheat of the township, which, in the '30s, and up into the *40s, was very large, and the principal export, as the surplus corn was nearly all sold to drovers, and fed on the ground; for, until cattle were shipped East by the cars, there were large numbers from Southern Ohio, Kentucky, and Northern Indiana, driven through this township on the wav to the Eastern market. ;

Passage source: 1883 History Perry County, Ohio, published 1883.

In 1832, the Asiatic cholera raged fearfully in the central-southern part of the township, and a large number of deaths occurred. George Clum and William Friend, who lived in the cholera region, were about . the only grown male persons who did not take it; and yet, as long as the dreadful scourge raged there, these two men visited the sick, the dying, and prepared the dead for burial, neither of them sleeping in a bed for several weeks, so constant and untiring were they engaged in their sel@sacrificing ministrations. Dr. William Trevitt then resided in Thornville, distant five or six miles from the infected district. He was a skillful physician, and saved every case he reached before the patient got into a certain condition.. He kept three horses constantly bridled and saddled, and rode both day and night. Two of his horses dropped dead under the spur. He saved one of his patients after his horse fell dead, though he ran a considerable distance with his saddle-bags on his arm. If he had arrived five minutes later, it is believed, his patient would have died. After Henderson (tor that was the patient's name) got well, he went to Trevitt's office and inquired for his bill. Trevitt turned to his book, and told him the ordinary charge of only two or three dollars. Henderson asked'him what his horse was worth. Trev- : itt told him that he had paid eighty dollars for him, only a few days before. Thereupon Henderson took out his pocket-book and counted out eighty-five dollars, and offered the money to Trevitt, who declined to take any thing but his regular fee, which he took and put in his pocket. Henderson then took out change so as to leave just eighty dollars remaining, the price of the horse, which he left upon the counter, with an emphatic remark, that that money belonged to Trevitt; and not to him. The cholera raged fearfully for several weéks, and then disappeared as suddenly as it came. It was very bad in Newark, Licking county, at the same time.

Passage source: 1883 History Perry County, Ohio, published 1883.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Thorn Township - 165,003 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.