The Origins of Chattanooga, Ohio

Chattanooga, Ohio, aka Chatt, is an unincorporated village in the northwest corner of Liberty Township, Mercer County, Ohio. It is the only village in Liberty Township and the adjacent Black Creek Township.

Chattanooga, Ohio.

Chatt lies between Sections 5 and 6, in Liberty Township. Black Creek Township lies to the north and Indiana is a mile to the west. Liberty Township was organized on 1 March 1841. Henry Robinson was reportedly the first settler in the township, settling in Section 31 in 1830.

The word Chattanooga is derived from a Creek Indian word meaning “rock rising to a point” or “bend in the river.” That word is probably more relevant to the other Chattanooga, the one down south. Was our Chattanooga named after that city in Tennessee?

Chatt is a one-road town. One state highway, State Route 49, runs right through town. There are no side streets and no traffic lights, just a couple speed signs to slow down traffic down. Strable Road borders Chatt to the north and Tama Road is at the southern end of town. Today there are about 30 houses in the little town.

When did Chattanooga, Ohio, originate? When did the wilderness and farmland turn into a little village?

To try to answer that question, I looked at several sources, mainly history books and maps.

The 1853 Mercer County plat map shows the Chatt area to be tilled farmland, trees, and meadow. There was a farmhouse or two, a cabin, and a barn. In 1853 State Route 49 was called Willshire to Recovery Road, and sometimes Recovery to Willshire Road. It probably depended on what part of the road you were on and where you were going. [1]  

In 1853, the northwest corner of Section 5, what would become the east side of Chatt, was 80 acres of farmland owned by Tobias Plants. His property was described as the N ½ of the NW ¼ and his 80 acres included 10 acres of cleaved plow land, 20 young trees, and some old buildings. [1]

Old buildings? One wonders how old those buildings were if they were considered old in 1853.

1853, Section 5, Liberty Twp, Mercer Co, Ohio

The 80 acres just south of him was owned by Jacob Deitsch, the S ½ of NW ¼. Deitsch’s 80 acres included 14 acres of cleared, plow land, 15 young trees, a house, and a new barn that was up, but not yet finished. Jacob Deitsch came to the township in 1840 with two other families, Philip Deitsch and Adam Bolenbaugh [sic]. [1] Although the land was a wilderness in 1840, there were already 4 cabins in the township. [2]

Across the road, on the west side of Willshire to Recovery Road, Frederick Baker owned 5 acres in the northeast corner of Section 6, described as the NE corner of the NE ¼. His land included 3 acres of cleared plow land and old unoccupied buildings. [1]

1853, Section 6, Liberty Twp, Mercer Co, Ohio

In 1853, just to the south of Baker, Peter Fisher owned 64.72 acres, the S pt E ½ of NE ¼ 64. His 64 acres included 30 acres of cleared land, 23 acres of plow land, and 7 acres of meadow, with 30 young trees, some bearing. He had a house and a double cabin. [1] Peter Fisher was an original land purchaser in Liberty Township, purchasing 78 acres in 1838, and was the first settler in Section 6. [2]

To the west of and adjacent to Baker’s land, was J.H. Chapman’s 9 acres. Chapman’s land was uncleared and there was no road to his property. Eventually Strable Road would go by that property, extending to the State Line. [1] I am not sure if there was a road going to the east of Willshire to Recovery Road at that time.

That farmland would eventually become Chattanooga. If there was anything there, such as a trading post, I speculate that it could have been on Peter Fisher’s property. Fisher reportedly had a house and a double cabin, while there were old unoccupied buildings on the lot north of him.   

Zion Lutheran church, located on the south end of Chatt, was established in 1855. Their earliest records give the church’s location as Liberty Township, not Chattanooga. That leads me to believe there was no village of Chattanooga in 1855. The first time their church records name Chattanooga as a place was in 1882.    

Just about everyone in Liberty Township in 1860 was a farmer. There was a cooper, carpenter, saddler, minister, some laborers, and a couple school teachers scattered throughout the township, but not really among the names associated with the Chatt area. Tobias Plants, who owned the property on the north end in 1853, was a farmer.

The 1870 census indicates that Tobias Plants, still at the north of what would become Chatt, was a grocer. Was Tobias Plants the first businessman in Chatt? [3]

According to the 1876 plat map of Liberty Township, Chattanooga was still farmland, with fairly large farms. J. Deitsch still owned the 80 acres on the northeast corner. G.J. Weinman owned 80 acres to the south of him and the Lutheran Church was on the southwest corner of his property. It is unclear who owned the northwest corner lot on the west side of the street, to the north. Immediately to the south of that lot, J. Shunk owned about 15 acres, and P. Fisher owned about 50 acres south of Shunk, all along what is now State Route 49. C. Heffner owned 80 acres to the west of those properties. [4]  

1876, Sections 5 & 6, Chatt area, Liberty Twp, Mercer County, Ohio

Dr. Benjamin Franklin Edgington, an early physician at Chatt, gives some good information about the town and his time there in the late 1870s:

The Huntington Herald, 6 April 1929, p.1.

…I needed money so badly that I decided to leave there [Geneva, Indiana] and go where people would pay promptly, so I jumped on my horse and rode over into Ohio to do a little prospecting for a location. I stopped in a village called Chattanooga, tied my horse and left my pill-pokes (saddlebags) on the horse while I would look around. I hadn’t a red cent in my pocket. I was simply destitute of funds. I was a total stranger to everybody, but people could look at the pill-pokes on the saddle and guess that I was a doctor. I found there was a resident doctor in the place but he imbibed liquor so freely that people told me they were afraid to take his medicine for fear he was drunk and might not know what he was doing.

A fortunate circumstance just then came to me. A man hunted me up and showed deep concern when he said he saw my pill-pokes on the horse and wondered if he could get me to call and prescribe for a man who had taken down with a high fever. I responded promptly and found the patient had malarial fever. I likewise learned that he was the leading merchant of the town and a man with strong influence. I put up at the hotel and remained to see what might happen. The fact that I was treating the merchant spread all over the neighborhood and I was soon as busy as I could be. When the merchant recovered he gave me a fine send-off to all who came to his store. I was soon on my feet in money matters and the result was I remained at Chattanooga several years…the first Mrs. Edgington [his wife] died at Chattanooga where the family was living at the time of her fatal illness. On February 13, 1879, occurred Dr. Edgington’s second marriage… [5]

Unfortunately, Dr. Edgington did not give the exact year they lived in Chatt or when his wife died, but he married a second time in February 1879. His first wife Eliza (Bobo) died about 1878, so it appears he was in Chatt a couple years around 1878. From the doctor’s account, Chatt was an actual village with a hotel, a merchant, and a doctor. Actually, two doctors after he came to town. It is also interesting that Chattanooga provided more paying patients than Geneva.

From that account, it appears that Chatt was a thriving community by the mid-late 1870s. The timeline from the next account differs:

Sutton’s 1882 History of Van Wert and Mercer Counties indicates that there was a place with the name of Chattanooga that was basically a trading post. That 1882 history, concerning Liberty Township, Mercer County: …There are no villages of note or size in this township, but a post-office, known as Skeel’s Cross Roads, serves as one convenience to the citizens. Chattanooga, in the northern part, furnishes something of the conveniences of a trading point. [2]

Conflicting information, but I tend to go with Dr. Edgington’s account. We know that his wife died there about 1878 and she is buried in Zion Lutheran Chatt’s graveyard. We don’t know who provided the information for the 1882 history book.

Another contradiction in Sutton’s 1882 history: Samuel Francis Kelley, of Chattanooga, was born at Zanesville, Ohio, Nov. 4, 1861, and came to this place in 1880, when he opened the restaurant and saloon in which he is now engaged… [2]

If, according to that account, Chatt had a restaurant and saloon in about 1880, it would have been more than just a trading point.

In addition, Chattanooga had a postmaster in 1882. Philip Hill was appointed postmaster of Chatt on 18 September 1882.

The 1888 Liberty Township plat map shows Chattanooga as a village, complete with a Post Office. Jacob Deitsch and [?] Zillinger owned the bulk of the land on the east side of Chatt and J. Schlenker, and Fred Betzel owned the bulk of the land on the west side of Chatt. [4]

1888 Map of Chatt

Some small lots were owned by others and had businesses on them. Rebecca Landfair owned land on the northeast edge of town, the former Plants property, and there was a handle factory in that area, probably about where the elevator used to be. A little south of there was the residence of Louise Cordier [?], the P. Hill residence, a shoe shop, and the F. Hartsog [sic] residence. J. Deitsch owned the farmland behind, to the east. [4]

On the west side of the street, to the north, was Wick & Byer’s and J. Schlenker. A little farther south was the store and post office. Then a couple more buildings, and the property of M.E. Kelley. Next was a store, then the property of P. W. Deitsch, possibly his home, the Betzel residence, the Jos. Merkle residence, and the F.O. Koonz residence. It appears Chatt was a mix of businesses and homes. Behind and west of all that, from north to south was farmland owned by Welsch & Miller, J. Schlenker, and Fred Betzel. [4]

The map may not include all the businesses that were in the town.

In conclusion, appears that Chatt was probably a trading point in about 1870, when Tobias Plants called himself a grocer but area was mostly farm land. The town continued to grow and by about 1875 there was a hotel, saloon, store, and a couple doctors. The village boomed when oil was discovered in the area in the late 1800s.

And I wonder, since it appears that Chatt started after the Civil War, if perhaps it was named after Chattanooga, Tennessee, where some Liberty Township men may have fought during the Civil War.

Something to think about…

[1] 1853 Plat Map of Mercer County, Ohio, Liberty Township.

[2] History of Van Wert and Mercer Counties, Ohio, Sutton, 1882, p.422-24.

[3] 1870 U.S. Census, Liberty, Mercer, Ohio, p.149B, dwelling 124, family 112, Lobius [sic] Plants; Ancestry.com.  

[4] Mercer County Chapter OGS, Mercer County, Ohio Combined 1888, 1900 Atlases and 1876 Map of Mercer County, Ohio, (Mt. Vernon, IN : Windmill Publication, Inc., 1999).

[5] The Huntington Herald, Huntington, Indiana, 6 April 1929, p.1 & 7, “Dr. Edgington Tells of Trials and Tribulations of Old Time Physicians,” Newspapers.com: accessed 1 Dec 2015.