Chatfield Loses County Courthouse, Gains Its First Municipal Park

Chatfield Loses County Courthouse, Gains Its First Municipal Park. . , Chatfield's founders intended the town to be the seat of government for the newly created Fillmore County, established by act of the Territorial Legislature on March 5, 1853. At the time it was created, Fillmore County encompassed all of the modern-day counties of Fillmore, Houston, Olmsted, and Winona. The parcel labeled "Public Square" on the original plat map prepared for the Chatfield Land Company in 1854 was set aside for the county courthouse and jail. However, these buildings were never built, Chatfield was the county seat for less than two years, and after the courthouse was permanently relocated in Preston in 1856 the public square remained open space., "The U.S. legal system contains almost no regulations governing the platting of towns. Motivated individuals could plat a town site at any time and on any place they legally owned. No standards specified sizes or designs, although the plat needed legal property descriptions, streets, and blocks of lots. Accordingly, in this laisses-faire [sic] system, risk was borne by the speculators, who drew up a plat, registered the plat with the county registrar of deeds, and by the sometimes gullible people who purchased the lots" -David Lanegran, Minnesota on the Map: A Historical Atlas., , When the town was laid out, the block bounded by Main, Twiford, Third and Fourth Streets was nothing more than two acres of "hazel-brush land with a few scattered trees" and for several years the open space was used for pasturing livestock. The first park-like improvements were made in the late 1860s, when the village planted a row of sugar maple trees spaced 40 feet apart around the perimeter; however, by the turn of the century these trees had "almost entirely disappeared because of neglect and abuse," and the park was reforested with a grove of soft maple trees interspersed with open grassy areas. City Park underwent a succession of improvements during the 1920s and '30s, including grading, paved sidewalks, playground equipment, and electric lighting for the bandstand, creating the place of leisure, beauty and contemplation that is enjoyed by residents and visitors today., , The fountain in the center of City Park is one of the best known sights in Chatfield. Influenced by the "City Beautiful" movement at the beginning of the twentieth century, the water feature was created in 1914 at the behest of the Civil League of Chatfield (later known as the Women's Community Club), an organization devoted to promoting the welfare of the community through beautification of its public spaces. The fountain was originally supplied by water that was piped into the park from the city's spring-fed reservoir on Old Territorial Road. The iconic statue of the preening water bird, nicknamed "Tuper's Goose" (after local businessman Frank Tuber, who may have donated the original) was undoubtedly ordered from an ornamental ironwork trade catalog, water fountain statuary in the shape of wading birds was widely popular during the late Victorian era, a period characterized by a profusion of landscape garden and municipal park building throughout the United States. Unfortunately, after a few years the original fountain fell into disrepair and the statue was destroyed by vandals, the current "goose" is a replica.