Find A Grave Memorial# 11235729
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!Grocer
An honored citizen of Biggs who has been able to serve his community in the double capacity of merchant and public officer, providing one of the best general merchandise stores in the state and giving the town the benefit of his experience, his ability and his connections in the commercial and the political world, is Charles Edwin CHATFIELD, senior member of Chatfield and Smith, a firm doing business in the first story of the Odd Fellows’ Building, at the northwest corner of B and Second Streets. He was born at Portland, Ore., January 3, 1866, the son of R. E. CHATFIELD, who was a native of England and came to America as a young man.
C. E. Chatfield was a mere boy of ten when he came to Biggs, arriving here with his mother, who was then a widow and known as Mrs. Anna R. Chatfield. He has one brother, Walter CHATFIELD, a clerk in an automobile concern at San Francisco. The mother resides in Chico at the home of his half-sister. After attending the public schools at Sacramento, Virginia City and Carson City, Nev., and at Biggs, C. E. Chatfield began to work, at the age of fifteen, for the general merchandise store of S. Davidson, and two years later went to D. L. Butler and Company, successors to the late G. K. Smith, the pioneer merchant and banker of Biggs. Butler and Company, however, failed, about two years after young Chatfield entered their employ, and were succeeded by Griffith and Stose, with whom our subject continued for ten year until they, also, failed. Then, with Walter M. Smith, son of the late G. K. Smith, and a former Biggs boy, he succeeded to the business, and the firm has today the only general store in the city of Biggs.
Some years ago Chatfield and Smith bought out the stock of the Perkins and Wise Company at Oroville, ran the business a short time and sold it again. (This merchandise company was the successor to the George C. Perkins Pioneer Store at Oroville, founded by no less a person that the former Governor of the state who was later USA Senator.) Mr. Chatfield gives his entire attention to the business, his partner, Mr. Smith, living at Oroville and having other business interests.
In January, 1891, Mr. Chatfield was married to Miss Anna R. Brown, a sister of Assemblyman Brown, of Gridley, and a daughter of the late Capt. P. G. Brown, the stockman, and Mary E. Brown, both of whom are deceased and who were well-known in Biggs. Before her marriage Miss Brown was a teacher. They have three children: Rey Edwin, Vera M. and Ruth B. The first-named is a graduate of the University of California, class of ’14. He works in a store and farms rice successfully, while Vera and Ruth are both students at the State University.
C. E. Chatfield is a director in the Moran Company, a meat-packing institution of San Francisco, and he owns a sixty-acre ranch east of the town. In 1901, he built a residence in Biggs and still has his home there. He helped to build the Colonia Hotel, which was put up by the cooperation of the business men of Biggs after the fire. He is a Mason and a member of the Blue Lodge at Biggs and the Knights Templar of Oroville; and he also belongs to the Foresters at Biggs. He is now a member of the city board of trustees, takes an active interest in public welfare, and has a firm grasp on the business details of the city government.
