Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Parish church from east

Cassella is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Marion Township, Mercer County,

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Located at (40.4061581, -84.5521770), it lies at an elevation of 955 feet (291 m). Situated at the intersection of State Route 119 and Cassella-Montezuma Road in western Marion Township, it lies in the headwaters of Beaver Creek to the south of the city of Celina,DeLorme. ''Ohio Atlas & Gazetteer''. 7th ed. Yarmouth:

DeLorme DeLorme Publishing Company is a producer of personal satellite tracking, messaging, and navigation technology. The company's main product, ''inReach'', integrates GPS and satellite technologies. ''inReach'' provides the ability to send and rec ...

, 2004, 54. . the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Mercer County. Other nearby communities include Maria Stein, to the east, Carthagena, to the north, and St. Henry, to the west. Cassella lies in the Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches, a heavily

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

region of rural far western Ohio that centers on Maria Stein. It grew up around the

Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church is a Catholic Church, Catholic church (building), church in Cassella, Ohio, Cassella, an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Mercer County, Ohio, Mercer County, Ohio, United Sta ...

, which was founded in 1847 and built its present building in 1858. The community's name is derived from the church, which was a mission in its earliest years; the community's German settlers called it "Cappella" (i.e. "chapel"), and this name was eventually corrupted to "Cassella."Brown, Mary Ann. ''Ohio Historic Inventory Nomination: Cassella Catholic Church''.

Ohio Historical Society Ohio History Connection, formerly The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society and Ohio Historical Society, is a nonprofit organization incorporated in 1885. Headquartered at the Ohio History Center in Columbus, Ohio, Ohio History Connect ...

, February 1977. At various points in its history, the community has also been known as "Dogtown," "Frogtown," and "Marysville", and the current name has also been spelled "Cassela"; in 1963, the

United States Board on Geographic Names The United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) is a Federal government of the United States, federal body operating under the United States Secretary of the Interior. The purpose of the board is to establish and maintain uniform usage of geogr ...

ruled in favor of using "Cassella" as the official name. A

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

was established in Cassella on April 22, 1878, and served the community until its closure on June 15, 1905; after that time, the community's mail went through the post office in St. Henry. Two former parish schools are located near the church, and the community once possessed a system of public schools. One major event in Cassella's history was the near-total destruction of Nativity Church by fire in 1888; although the brick walls survived with damage, the interior was destroyed, and the walls were only repaired in 1915. Today, Cassella remains a small community centered on Nativity Catholic Church. In 1979, the church and its

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of a given religion, serving as both a home and a base for the occupant's ministry. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, p ...

were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, along with many other Catholic churches and church-related buildings in the Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches.

References

{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Ohio Unincorporated communities in Mercer County, Ohio