The hotel belonging to M.E. Kelley, of Chattanooga, this county, was destroyed by fire on Monday last. Loss about $1,500. Not insured. The storeroom of Gabe Worthner, on adjoining building was also burned at the same time. Loss about $1,500. This building was insured by McAfee & Snyder’s Agency for $1,500. [1]
Chatt Hotel fire, 7 Apr 1887, Western Standard, Celina, Ohio
This would have been a major fire in the village of Chatt. There were probably not many buildings in the village back then and fires were a constant threat. Over the years fires destroyed parts of the business sections in local towns like Willshire, Rockford, and Celina. And now we see that Chatt also had a major fire.
There were not many people living in Chatt at that time. The best source of information for that time period is the 1880 census, which gives the inhabitants of Chattanooga, Ohio. It is a pretty short list, about a page and a half census pages. Chatt never grew much over the years and is properly called a village, smaller than a town and usually in a more rural community. Even the 1880 census calls Chatt a village.
Ten families. 67 people. That was the village of Chatt in 1880:
John Schlenker, dry goods merchant
Jacob Deitsch, farmer
Henry J. Cordier, physician & surgeon, a boarder in the Jacob Deitsch household
F.W. Schroer, grocery keeper
A.A. Ayres, dry goods merchant
Gabriel Wurthner, shoemaker
Joseph Markle [sic], blacksmith
C.L. Knerr, laborer
Frederick Hartsog, retired farmer
Samuel Kelly, keeping grocery
John Baker, farmer [2]
1880 Census, p.471A, Village of Chattanooga, Ohio
1880 Census, p.471B, Village of Chattanooga, Ohio
1880 Census, p.472A, Village of Chattanooga, Ohio
In the 1880 census we see Gabriel Wurthner, 33, shoemaker, who lost his storeroom in the 1887 fire. [3] Wurthner was a German immigrant with a wife and five children. His storeroom in Chatt was insured, and sometime after the fire he left Chatt and resumed his shoe-making business in Dayton. By 1900 he and his family resided in Dayton, where he was a shoemaker. [4] You can’t blame him. Business opportunities would have been much greater in a larger town. Gabriel Wurthner died in Dayton in 1908 and is buried in Woodland Cemetery there. [5]
What about M.E. Kelly, the hotel owner? The only Kelly living in Chatt in 1880 census was Samuel Kelly, 29, a grocer. I do not know if he was related to the M.E. Kelly who lost his hotel in the 1887 fire. I wish the article had given a first name for Kelly.
The other names mentioned in the article were the insurers, McAfee & Snyder Insurance Agency. John P. McAfee, 29, was enumerated in Celina in 1880, occupation insurance agent. [6] McAfee was born in Zanesville in 1850 and lived in Celina for a few years, where he also worked as a bank cashier and in the hardware business. By 1900 McAfee and his family had moved to Toledo. He died at the home of his daughter in Cleveland in 1914 and is buried in Celina’s North Grove Cemetery. [7]
I do not know who McAfee’s Snyder associate was.
Little by little, piece by piece, another tiny bit of Chattanooga, Ohio, history. A thriving little community in 1880, with a hotel, dry goods store, grocery, blacksmith, shoemaker, and physician.
[1] The Western Standard, Celina, Ohio, 7 April 1887 (Thursday).
[2] 1880 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Liberty, ED 188, p.471A, 471B, 472A, Village of Chattanooga; Ancestry.com.
[3] 1880 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Liberty, ED 188, p.471B, dwelling 12, family 13, Gabriel Wurthner; Ancestry.com.
[4] 1900 U.S. Census, Ohio, Montgomery, Dayton, Ward 6, ED 60, p.5, dwelling 104, family 112, Gabriel Wuetner [sic]; Ancestry.com.
[5] Gabriel Wuerthner obituary, The Dayton Herald, Dayton, Ohio, 7 Jan 1908; Ancestry.com.
[6] 1880 U.S. Census, Ohio, Mercer, Celina, ED 187, p.456C, dwelling 200, family 245, J. McAfee; Ancestry.com.
[7] “The Grim Reaper,” John McAfee obituary, The Celina Democrat, Celina, Ohio, 13 Nov 1914, Ancestry.com.
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