10. Charles Joseph Chatfield & Velma Avis Turnbull

by Catherine Sevenau on May 11, 2011

1. Charles Joseph “Charley” Chatfield Charley, the first of the ten Chatfield children, was born November 18, 1895 in Fruita, Colorado, where his dad cattle ranched.

Jan 1913: From diary of Charles Joseph Chatfield (age 17), Sanders, Rosebud Co., Montana:

  • Jan 1:  Warm and clear. Bailing hay at Rumseys.
  • Jan 2:  Warm and clear. Bailed hay all day. Rained some in evening.
  • Jan 3:  Cold and snowy. About four inches of snow.
  • Jan 4:  Cold and blowing. Came home from Rumseys.
  • Jan 5:  Cold and still. Went to Sanders. Got a bbl of water. (note: bbl = barrel)
  • Jan 6:  Cold and blowing, Got a load of hay and load of wood.
  • Jan 7:  Cold, but a little warmer than yesterday. About six inches of snow.
  • Jan 8:  Cold and stormy. Got a load of hay and load of wood.
  • Jan 9:  Went to Sanders. A little warmer.
  • Jan 10:  A little colder. Took a load of hay JC. Lyons ditch camp. Went to a dance at Hysham.
  • Jan 11:  A little warmer. Hauled a load to the car at Sanders.
  • Jan 12:  Colder and snowing. Hauled three loads of hay to car.
  • Jan 13:  Warmer again. Hauled six loads of hay to car. Went to store.
  • Jan 14:  Warm and thawing. Hauled three loads of hay and finished car.
  • Jan 15:  Warm and clear. Got a load of wood and a load of hay.
  • Jan 16:  Warm and snow. Went to Rumseys. Killed a rabbit.
  • Jan 17:  Warm and clear. Got the bailer set and fixed. Shot prairie chicken.
  • Jan 18:  War and clear. Bailed hay all day and finished.
  • Jan 19:  Cold and blowing. Came home. Frosted my fingers.
  • Jan 20:  Cold and stormy. Chopped wood all day.
  • Jan 21:  Warm and thawing. Went after bailer to Rumseys.
  • Jan 22:  Warm and clear. Got back as far as J. Lyons and stayed overnight.
  • Jan 23:  Got home today. Warm and clear.
  • Jan 24:  Warm and clear. Went to a masquerade ball at Hysham.
  • Jan 25:  Warm and clear. Got a load of wood. Chopped wood.
  • Jan 26:  Warm and clear. Snow nearly all gone.
  • Jan 27:  Warm and clear. Went to Sanders and to Beeman Ranch.
  • Jan 28:  Warm and clear. Went to Hysham. Cashed a check for $50.20.
  • Jan 29:  Warm and clear. Mama went to Forsythe. Chopped wood.
  • Jan 30:  Warm and clear. Mama came back from Forsythe. Snowed in evening.
  • Jan 31:  Warm and clear. Got a load of hay. Snowed a little.

 

Charley served first in the National Guard, and then in 1918 in the army during World War I, serving in France. (CO.H. 160th Infantry 40th Division. A.E.F.)

Apr 19, 1919: San Jose Mercury News, San Jose, Santa Clara Co., California:

Mr. & Mrs. Isaac W. Chatfield are entertaining their grandson, Sergeant Charles J. Chatfield of Chicago who is visiting with them while on his return to his home after having seen service overseas. Sergeant Chatfield was one of the men to serve in the crisis with Mexico, and after being discharged again re-enlisted in March of 1917, and saw service in the replacement and depot divisions in France, having left Bordeaux March 13 and being discharged at Camp Kearny on April 15. Note: Chico, not Chicago

160th INFANTRY REGIMENT (SEVENTH CALIFORNIA)

Originally designated the 7th California, the 160th Infantry Regiment traces their lineage back to the early days of California statehood when the call went out and 17,000 men volunteered for service in the Civil War. During the Spanish American War, California citizen soldiers again responded to the call. In 1898, they were mustered into federal service and trained at the Presidio of San Francisco. In 1916, California National Guard Infantry served with General “Black Jack” Pershing during the Mexican Border Campaign.

When the United States entered World War I, California citizens were again ready to serve and became the first units actually organized into the 160th Regiment, as the first regiment of the 40th Division. As replacements for other U.S. Army divisions, soldiers of the 160th fought in the battles of St. Michael and the Meuse-Argonne. During the Battle of the Argonne Forest, over one hundred men of the 160th Infantry served with the 307th Infantry, later famous as “The Lost Battalion”.

Online source: California State Military Museum, History of Southern California’s 160th Infantry Regiment, by Major Russell Smith

Camp Kearny was established July 18, 1917. It was one of 32 new camps created in May 1917, each designed to house 40,000 troops with 1200 buildings and tents on 10,000 acres. Most of Camp Kearny’s soldiers lived in tents, as more than 65,000 men trooped through the camp on their way to World War I battlegrounds. After the war, the camp was used as a demobilization center. Camp Kearny was located 11-1/2 miles north of San Diego on 12,721 acres and gave its name to the surrounding mesa.

Online source: California State Military Museum, Historic California Posts: Camp Kearney (San Diego County)

Returning home from the war, he went to work with his dad in rice farming, later worked at the Chico Mattress Factory, and then for Chico Ice & Cold Storage where his brother Arden worked.

Charley kept a diary for most of his life. This is the most interesting time in the five years worth I read, the month of September, 1920:

  • Wed 1.  Awful hot. Worked 11 1/2 hrs. Got paid for last week. Went to show with Lura.
  • Thur 2.  Awful hot. Worked 13 hrs. Went to town for supper.
  • Fri 3.  Pretty hot. Worked 11 1/2 hrs. Got gears torn out in my car and fixed, cost $16.45.
  • Sat 4.  Pretty hot. Worked 10 1/2 hrs. Got a shave & hair cut. Went to dance in Durham.
  • Sun 5.  Pretty hot. Went to church and to church twice with Lura to her church. Went to Richardson Springs.
  • Mon 6.  Colder. Run around Chico all day. Went to a show in Chico. Back to Gridley to a show with Lura.
  • Tues 7.  Pretty cold and windy. Worked 11 1/2 hrs. Went up town to supper.
  • Wed 8.  Awful cold all day. Worked 12 1/2 hrs. Up town for supper.
  • Thur 9.  Pretty cold. Worked 9 3/4 hrs. Went to show with Lura in Gridley.
  • Fri 10.  A little warmer. Worked 11 hrs. Went up town for supper.
  • Sat 11.  Pretty warm. Worked 10 hrs. Went to Chico with Lura to a show and supper with her.
  • Sun 12.  Pretty warm. Went to Church in morning and in evening with Lura and to a show and riding with her.
  • Mon 13. Warm and clear. Worked all day or 11 1/2 hrs.
  • Tues 14. Pretty warm. Worked 10 1/2 hrs. Went to town.
  • Wed 15. Awful warm. Worked 8 hrs and quit. Went to Chico & to church with Lura.
  • Thur 16. Pretty warm. Worked all day at home on my car.
  • Fri 17.  Awful hot, Took Lura home from school and went to church with her. Asked her if she would be my wife and she said yes.
  • Sat 18.  Pretty warm. Run around all day. Leo came up and bought him a car. Went to a show and a dance in Durham.
  • Sun 19.  Cooler. Went to church in morning and out to Lura’s in afternoon and to church with her in evening.
  • Mon 20.  Pretty hot. Worked all day in prunes but no money in it. Quit. Went to a show.
  • Tues 21.  Pretty warm. Laid around all day. Went to a show,
  • Wed 22.  Colder. Took Lura home from school.
  • Thur 23.  Cold and windy. Laid around all day. Got my batteries back.
  • Fri 24.  Warmer. Took Lura home from school and went to a social with her.
  • Sat 25.  Warmer and clear. Laid around all day. Went to a show with Lura.
  • Sun 26.  Warm but cloudy. Went to church in morning and in evening with Lura. Went riding and to a show with her.
  • Mon 27.  Pretty warm. Went out to Chico Rice to go to work but have to come back Wed. Went to a show and took Lura home from school.
  • Tues 28. Awful warm. Went to a show and out to Lura’s, took her home from school. Laid around all day.
  • Wed 29. Pretty hot. Left for Chico Rice to go to work. Worked all day.
  • Thur 30. Pretty hot. Worked all day. Howard’s wife came home from Los Angeles.

 

Diary of Gordon Gregory Chatfield (age 16) (brother of Charley) starting Dec 1, 1921:

  • Dec 1:  Chilly and cloudy. Went to school.
  • Dec 2:  Cold and clear. Got a lecture from Miss Farthingham.
  • Dec 3:  Cold and clear.

Note: This was the full extent of Gordon’s diary. Thank goodness.

Charley’s diary reads much the same Sep 1920 through Jan of 1924: It was pretty cold, pretty warm, or awfully hot—and he was still courting Lura. There were two years prior of daily entries of “delivered ice today” when he was working for Chico Ice & Cold Storage or “laid around all day” when he wasn’t. If you want to know what the Chico weather was on any given date for the five years up to 1924, I can look it up. I have no diaries after that date. Velma wouldn’t part with them after Charley’s death as she said they were too personal, but gave the rest to my brother, along with a 100+plus reels of his 8 millimeter home movies.

Lura must have gotten bored with Charley as she was seen around Chico with another fella. Roy informed Charley, for his own good. They had a huge knock-down drag-out fight at the Boucher house, fist, flailing, furniture flying, and Grandma fussing to stop them. Charlie didn’t believe Roy. Until he saw for himself.

He finally got over Lura and seven years later, in 1927, Charles Joseph Chatfield married Velma Avis Turnbull. For years he worked for Union Ice Company, both in Oroville and Chico, (as did his brothers Howard, Roy and Arden, and his two sisters’ husbands, George Day and Carl Clemens—my father), lived in Lodi (where they owned a restaurant and ran a fruit stand) through the 30’s and early 40’s, then moved to South San Francisco where he was an electric welder for United States Steel. In 1976 they retired to Paradise, Butte County, California.

They didn’t have any children but nieces and nephews visited and at times lived with them. Some have fond memories, some don’t.

Charley and Velma were notorious penny–pinchers, accounting on a hand-written ledger every cent spent. Velma even noted how much the parking meter cost. When he questioned her expense on a daily entry she assured her husband she sat in the car for the six minutes and waited for the meter to expire.

Charley and Velma traveled the west visiting America’s dams, herculean monuments to this country’s ingenuity and hubris, Velma instructing Charley how to use the camera (“push the red button, Charley, push the red button…”), Charley taking reel after reel of color 8-millimeter movies of the panoramic views, all with no people in them. At seventeen, Charley worked on the Cody Dam in Wyoming; along with the weather, dams were his lifelong interest. The Chatfield Dam on the South Platte River in Colorado is named after his grandfather, I.W. Chatfield.

He belonged to a camera club where members viewed one another’s home movies, and he had over a hundred reels of black and white film of dams throughout the United States—and one reel of the family.

In Aug of 1986—while watching a televised baseball game—my Uncle Charley jumped up in the middle of a play and had a heart attack. At the age of ninety, he died where we would all like to end up—in Paradise.

Aug 5, 1986: Chico Enterprise Record, Chico, Butte Co., California:

Charles Chatfield

PARADISE (E-R) — Graveside services for Charles Joseph Chatfield, 90, of Paradise will be held at 10:00 a.m. Wednesday in Glen Oaks Memorial Park in Chico. He died Saturday in a ridge hospital.

Chatfield was born Nov 18, 1895, In Fruita, Colo., to Charles and Nellie Chatfield. He was educated in Colorado and Wyoming and graduated from high school in Montana. He came to Chico in 1913.

He entered the Army in 1916 and fought in the Mexican American War and in World War I. He came home in 1919.

Chatfield married his wife, Velma, in 1927, and they lived in Oroville for five years before moving to San Francisco and living there from 1935 to 1974. They retired to Paradise in 1974.

He worked for Westinghouse Electric Co. as a welder for 27 years.

A brother and a sister died previously. Survivors include his wife, Velma of Paradise; and a sister, Ina Fouch of Yuba City.

The Rev. Leonard Brown of Chico will officiate at the service, with members of VFW Post 1555 providing military honors. Contributions may be made to the Hospice of the ridge in care of the Brusie Funeral Home in Chico.