Transcription contributed by Arne H Trelvik 28 May 2003

The History of Warren County Ohio
Part IV Township Histories
Salem Township by J. J. Mounts, M. D.
(Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)

Page
667

Roachester was the first village laid out in the township. The first plat contained forty lots, owned by Mahlon and James Roach, and was recorded October 12, 1816. It became a thriving country village of 800 inhabitants, containing two or three drygoods stores and groceries, a postoffice, three hotels, cabinet, blacksmith, and wagon-making shops, and physicians and lawyers. The following were some of the leading citizens about 1840: Lewis Fairchild, merchant; James Turk, gun smith; Isaac Patterson, cabinet-maker undertaker; Drs. Thacker, Hunt, Starbuck, Leever and Roach, and Dr. James Scott, our present Representative in the Legislature; J. Phillips and S. Parker, blacksmiths; John Harford, shoemaker, and Judge Mickle, Joseph Thacker, and Captain Gilham, hotel-keepers. Roachester was then notorious for its musters. Muster days were not only devoted to instructions in the science of the drill, but to the settlement of all personal difficulties by fisticuffs; and on these occasions blood and whisky flowed freely. After the village of Morrow began to be settled, there was a general exodus of all business to the new village, and Roachester became almost deserted. The ravages of time and fire have destroyed about half of the buildings. The town now contains a population of about 100 inhabitants, two groceries and a blacksmith shop.