The Chatfield Family
Early Settlers in Sunfield Township

     The following are excerpts from a conversation that took place with a distinguished local historian. “I believe that the Chatfield's were Sunfield Township’s first residents and originally lived on the NE Corner of Moore Rd. and Bismark Hwy”. As discussed professor, I am interested in the Chatfield family as my grandmother’s maiden name was Chatfield. The story regarding the Chatfield's (as the first setters), goes something like this; Samuel and Roxy Hoyt arrive in 1836 in what is now Sunfield Township (but was part of Vermontville Township until Sunfield Township was established in 1842). The Hoyt’s built the house that is pictured on the first page of “Sunfield Town and County”, (I think that my grandmother somehow obtained the negative of a photo taken of an original tintype made years after the cabin was built, and gave the negative to my father as a gift). The Hoyts were also friends with Abram Chatfield, his wife Sarah and son David, as they were all from Saratoga Co. in NY State. Abram and Sarah were my grandmother’s great grandparents, (a lot of “greats”, right!). The Chatfield's arrived in 1837 and stayed with their friends the Hoyt family their first winter and then purchased land from Samuel Hoyt. In between the arrival of Hoyt and Chatfield, a fellow and his wife named Peter Kinne arrived also in 1836, but sometime later then Hoyt. The order of settlement was Hoyt #1, Kinne #2 and Chatfield #3. But Kinne and his wife both died, his wife died in 1838 and Peter in either in 1838 or later? They died without children and left no heirs, so that was the end of #2.  Apparently, Samuel Hoyt's wife Roxy hated living in the wilderness and he and she left to go back to Saratoga in about 1843. Therefore, Hoyt was no longer living in the area and Kinne was deceased so they lose out to Chatfield. In that Arron Chatfield and family at that time were the only remaining family from the first three original settlers, they then garnered the distinction of being the first "permanent" settlers of Sunfield Township which of course through the years becomes the "First Settlers" but as we know Hoyt was the first, Kinne was second and Chatfield was actually the third. (Clear!) I am thankful that my sister Marsha and I still have many/most of my dad's files. Our father, Max McWhorter, Jr., spent years organizing and annotating (i.e., pulling together) his records. Although well organized, the really neat thing about his collection is how he obtained his documents and other materials. When he was a young man, growing up during the Great Depression of the 1930's, he became known around town/the township as someone that was interested in history and when the old generation (at that time, literally the Civil War generation) were dying off and their heirs were either moving away or just scrambling to stay afloat, local people gave my dad neat old stuff, rather than just tossing it in the burn barrel!. This is what really motives me to research his collection, as frequently I stumble across some little gem and say to myself, that is so cool, where did he get that? (Tom's Fables)