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 The Supreme Court of Minnesota. In 184 1 he served as chairman of a com mittee to investigate the affairs of the Erie Railway, a corporation which had received State assistance in the form of a loan of S3,cxx),ooo. At the completion of his duties on this committee, Mr. Chatfield returned to private life and the practice of his profession. In 1845 he was again elected to the Assembly, where during the ses sion of 1846 he served

upon a committee, of which Samuel J. Tilden was chairman, charged with the duty of devising a plan for the settlement of the difficulties between landlords and tenants which had given rise to the " anti-rent " riots. This report was an important event in the history of the anti-rent troubles. During the same session Mr. Chatfield served as chair man of the Judiciary Committeeand Speak er, to fill a temporary vacancy caused by the extended absence of the regular Speaker. CHARLES E. At the close of the ses sion he was appointed one of a committee to investigate the alleged frauds in connection with the enlargement and repairs of the various canals of the State. For the greater part of a year he devoted him self to the arduous duties which devolved up on this committee. Mr. Chatfield was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1846. At this time perhaps no young man in political life in that State stood higher or had more brilliant prospects; but the ten years of public service had left but little time for the accumulation of money, and the ne cessity of providing a competence for his 16

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family induced a removal to the new West. He settled at what is now Kenosha, Wiscon sin, and was soon elected county judge, which office he held but for a short time. In 1853 Judge Chatfield, while in attend ance upon the Supreme Court at Washing ton, met Gen. H. H. Sibley, then delegate from Minnesota. Sibley's glowing descrip tion of the new land tilled him with a de sire to locate within its bounds, and as the Federal offices were then being filled by President Pierce, Mr. Chatfield was, upon the recommen dation of General Sib ley, appointed one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the Territory. His commission was dated April 7, and in June following the new Justice removed to Mendota, and en tered upon the duties of his office. Judge Chatfield held the first court in almost every county then organized west of the Missis sippi River. FLANDRAU His journeys from county to county were made upon horseback, and along the " Indian trail," then the only highway through the greater part of the huge judicial district. On one of these journeys his eye was at tracted by the wonderful beauty of the prairie bordering on " Roberts Creek " adjoining the "Big Woods," and he resolved to make the spot his future home. A town was soon after surveyed, and named Belle Plaine. A stock company was formed, and for some time it seemed that the projectors of the new town would realize the fortune their enter prise deserved. But the crisis of 1857