The Village of Fredericktown, Knox County's largest village was platted in 1807 by John Kerr, operator of the first mill there. Lucas Sullivant, a Virginian, who laid out the Village of Franklinton, later Columbus, held a tract of 4,000 acres in that area, and gave Mr. Kerr 50 acres on the condition that the latter would build a mill. The land was at that time, mostly unbroken wilderness, crossed by two Indian trails and with a small Quaker settlement to the west of the present village.

Mr. Kerr had the foresight to buy an additional 450 acres from Mr. Sullivant, and the village grew around his mill as land-hungry settlers arrived from the east during the next few years.

Lying practically on the northern frontier in Ohio during the War of 1812, Fredericktown was the site of a blockhouse during the war, and at that time had nine log cabins and one frame building. After the war, the blockhouse was used as a school and as a church. The first store was opened in 1812 by John Garrison. The first road through the village, built in 1809, was the Upper Fredericktown-Mount Vernon Road. William Y. Farquhar, who surveyed and platted the village for Mr. Kerr, became an early settler, along with his brother W. Y. Farquhar, and a cousin, Henry Roberts.