By John Rhodes
Special to The Chatham Voice
If you look closely at the included photo, bottom right corner, you will notice a portion of a two-and-one-half-floor brick building which was known as the Chatham Arms Hotel. It was located at the southeast junction of King Street West and Forsyth Street. It was an old building, one of the first brick structures in Chatham, and dated from the early 1840s.
I have included the photo because the hotel factors into the biography of the Shackleton family who were prominent, locally, in the early days of Chatham.
Dr. John William Shackleton was born in England, Hull I think, on Feb. 18, 1811 and was in Chatham by the late 1840s. He died on 29 April, 1855 and is listed as being interred in Old Ward A of Maple Leaf Cemetery and there is a stone to attest. However, the cemetery was not established until nearly 15 years after his death, but there is a simple explanation for the discretion.
In 1880 the Erie and Huron Railway laid their tracks (north-south) through the middle of the Old St. Paul’s Anglican Cemetery which was located at the far east end of Stanley Avenue, forcing the removal of the pre-existing graves. Dr Shackleton’s bones would have been disinterred at this point and moved.
His widow, Mary Ann Parr Shackleton, is said to have taken over the old Chatham Arms Hotel and operated it for a time after her husband’s death. The ancient hotel survived until 1939 when it was torn down and replaced by the new Sherman’s Department Store which later became Irving Kopstein’s Star Furniture. The store burned down several years ago and the site is now a parking lot.
Among the children of Dr. and Mrs. Shackleton was John William Shacklteon Jr. ( July 12, 1850, Chatham-Dec. 24, 1932, Windsor. He is buried in Old Ward A, Maple Leaf Cemetery ).
The younger Mr. Shackleton was a greatly accomplished man; he was a civil engineer, real estate developer and small business person.
During the late 1870s, he created a map of Kent County that I have used in my research many times. I remember once being asked about the location of Appledore; my imminent response was ” Where the … ” checking the Shackleton map, I discovered that it is in what is now the former Chatham Township, a couple of miles east of Eberts.
The included photo has several stories to tell; I’ll show it to you again.
