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Chatfield
appears on detailed county maps with 3 cemeteries.
The name Chatfield
appears as well as Old Chatfield and New Chatfield.
History in a Pecan shell
Basic timeline of Chatfield history - excerpted
from The Handbook of Texas Online:
1838: a trading post was established
and named after the proprietor, Champion Chatfield
1849: Robert Hodge arrived
and acquired more than 1,280 acres.
1850s: The community had a private school,
a horse-powered gin, cotton and wool mills, a flour mill, a machine shop, a cemetery,
and several churches
1867: A post office was granted
1885: The Chatfield
population reached 250
1887: Private school was replaced by public school.
1890s: Chatfield peaks with a population of 500. The town has daily stage
service to Rice, Texas
1939: The population is 300
1951: School closes and population decreases to
100 in 1954
Decline continues although Chatfield continues to have their own
post office. |
Chatfield
Texas Forum
I am a distant relative of Kathleen Hodge, who wrote the letter dated April 19,
2007. I have tried to email her, but her address has changed. It would be appreciated
if you could include my email address here - in hopes that she might contact me.
I'd also like to hear from anyone with a Hodge Family connection. Thank you. -
Roberta Hodge (great-granddaughter of Dr. John David Hodge of Cleburne) roberta_h2003@yahoo.com
, April 02, 2009
Subject:
Chatfield
Dear TE, I have a little more information about Chatfield. That
very old plantation house in Chatfield is Hodge Oaks and it was built by my Great,
great great grandfather, Captain Robert Hodge. He had the title of Captain because
he owned three river boats in Kentucky before he settled in Chatfield. He was
also a Captain in the Civil War. The pasture next door was not to my family’s
knowledge, a battleground, although, it did house an extensive spread of slave
quarters, smoke houses, gardens, etc. Just down the road before you get into Chatfield,
there is a historical site where I believe a calvary patrol was camped at the
end of the Civil War. Captain Hodge’s picture still hangs in Pioneer Village in
Corsicana and there is a re-enactment held there every year. Thank you - Kathleen
Hodge, April 19, 2007
Letter
from a Chatfield Resident
My name is Robert Erisman IV and I live in Chatfield
next to Rice and I have a little information about Rice
History.
A woman who goes to my church, who is very old, told me [about]
that the old Cotton Gin that mean kids mess around in and destroy things in. Well,
[she said] that some man who she knew who was the owner back in 1915 or something
like that was working in there and the machine stopped and so he tried to fix
it and it started back up and killed him or cut his arm off. I'll try and find
out more information about that accident.
Also in Chatfield there is
a very old house that the generals would sometimes stay in during the Civil War
and the pasture next to it is where a battle was fought that had to do with the
civil war. Some of the Civil War took place there you could say. And next to my
house there is another house but not quite as old as the other one and there is
a reenactment of the Civil War every year... Thank you for your time. -
Robert Erisman IV
Chatfield
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