27/11/2025
Following up on my earlier post about the Coghlan and McGuiness families, Faye Myers has done some wonderfully in-depth research that really brings their stories to life. James Coghlan owned Coghlan's Hotel, and after it was destroyed by fire the Union Hotel was built in its place, later becoming the Australia Hotel.
Faye says:
"As usual, a photo of a headstone along with Lost Shepparton’s commentary piqued my interest. Was there more to this story? I went looking on the internet using Trove, Ancestry and curiosity. Red herrings like mis-spellings of surnames and using the symbol ‘ instead of c in the spelling of McGuiness in Trove tripped me up.
The story centres around a hotel and five deaths too early in life, with a single headstone telling of much sadness.
James Coghlan was born in Ireland in 1842. His parents were drawn to Victoria by the goldrush and immigrated, with their numerous children, in the early 1850’s. They lived and worked near Daylesford where their youngest child, Daniel was born. As young men, James and Daniel came to Shepparton ‘in the early days’ of the town and they worked as carpenters. After some time they built a hotel on the corner of Fryers and Maude St, called it Coghlan’s Hotel and they both worked there. Daniel moved on to other work while James continued to run the hotel.
In 1878 James married Margaret Kenny and their first son, James Martin, was born that year. Two years later another son, William Luke was born.
And two years later James was desperately ill with ‘a severe attack of inflammation of the lungs’ - possibly pneumonia. On the day before he died he made a will, leaving ⅓ each to his wife and 2 sons. If one son was to die before the youngest reached the age of 21, the other brother was to inherit his share. It was a valuable estate.
The hotel was leased out, possibly to Margaret.
Margaret, a widow with 2 little children, remarried in 1883 - to John McGuiness. At some stage they both continued to run the pub.
In 1884 their child John Joseph Peter was born, but sadly, he later died aged 1 year, 7 months.
About 1887 James’ brother, Daniel, was the proprietor of the Terminus Hotel in Shepparton, calling it Coghlan’s Terminus Hotel. Advertisements appeared in the Shepp paper for both Coghlan’s Hotel and Coghlan’s Terminus Hotel.
Margaret’s eldest son, young 9 year old James Martin Coughlan disappeared in 1887, presumed drowned in the river.
Yet another sadness came in 1889 when Margaret’s second husband, John McGuiness, died and then she died in 1891. (Two weeks after Margaret’s death, her brother-in-law Daniel also died, aged 38.)
With his mother’s death, 12 year old William Luke Coghlan was an orphan.
James’ valuable estate was finally wound up.
At the end of the year, the hotel was sold to Michael Kenny from Kialla (no known relation to Margaret) and it continued to be known as Coghlan’s Hotel.
Michael owned it for 5 years before putting it up for sale. The hotel was to be auctioned on the 19th February, 1898 but 3 days earlier, in the middle of the night, fire broke out and destroyed the building. Fortunately no lives were lost, but it was a great financial loss to Michael.
Seven months later the new owners had built a new hotel and were ready for trade - it was a new hotel with a new beginning. They named it the Union Hotel, later to be renamed the Australia Hotel.
Interestingly, Lost Shepparton posted a photo of the Union Hotel in June this year.
Last, and not least, William Luke Coghlan lived until he was 79. He also became a hotelier, and with his wife they did very well in the business.
As his headstone says, James Coghlan, “Gone but not forgotten”. His hotel continued to bear his name for 15 years after his death.""
Photo of Coghlan's hotel from the Shepparton Heritage Centre and is around 1876.
Photo of the Union Hotel was shared by Jeanette earlier this year. ~JM
