Lt. Walter H. Chatfield, An Unsung Cog in Valley Development
Norman Rozeff
November 2009

There are no known photographs of him. No biographical sketches or otherwise have been written about him. Others have ambitiously taken credit for his concepts, including Lon C. Hill and John Closner. Through only one document do we glean an inkling of his vision. His name is Walter H. Chatfield.

In retrospect the unfulfilled plans of this one individual stand out among all others. They may have, in fact, planted the seeds of expectation for those pioneering developers who were to follow. In 1891 this visionary was Lieutenant Walter H. Chatfield, an army officer, who was stationed in the Valley and who envisioned the sweeping possibilities inherent in the area. He was not a U.S. Military Academy, West Point graduate, but he was an engineer. After surveying Cameron, Hidalgo and Starr counties, he acquired an excellent grasp of the area’s topography. Just imagine the many days he rode across the Wild Horse Desert noting its every feature and the vegetation as it varied due to soil type, rooting depth, moisture content and water table level. He realized that low areas could be used to store diverted flood waters when the river periodically reached this stage. He recognized, too, that the resacas, the prehistoric river meanders now cut off from the Rio Grande, also offered storage possibilities and had the favorable attributes of being higher than surrounding land and abutted by the best-drained soils (Laredo silts).

With these facts in mind he formulated plans that posited a canal commencing near Penitas. This would in turn feed an immense irrigation system stretching east towards Brownsville. Dams at intervals would create lakes from which gravity flows through lateral canals would water much of the lower Valley. An estimated million acres would be encompassed.

To generate interest in the Valley, and later his vast scheme, Lt. Chatfield researched and composed a lengthy manifesto. In 1893 he had it published by E. P. Brandao of New Orleans. The oversized brochure had 44 pages of text and numerous photographs. It was impressive and comprehensive. We know this because the original was reprinted in full in 1959 by the partnership of the Harbert Davenport Memorial Fund, The Brownsville Historical Association, and the Lower Rio Grande Valley Historical Society. Initially funded out of Chatfield's own pocket the brochure’s cost was supported in part by seven pages of advertisements from Brownsville merchants and professionals. The brochure is titled "The Twin Cities – Brownsville, Texas and Matamoros, Mexico – of the Border and the Country of the Lower Rio Grande."

Among the subjects touched upon in it were a Brownsville historical retrospect, the city’s present aspect, its brilliant prospect, weather statistics, churches, schools, post office facilities, new government buildings, courts, police and fire departments, the custom house, Fort Brown, border journalism, holidays, local color, and birds and animals. Interspersed throughout were short biographical sketches of the area’s leading citizens.

Land ownership and use in Cameron, Hidalgo and Star counties were detailed. Nearly a full page was devoted to sugar plantings, some of the material being quoted from Chief Signal Officer Sgt. I. M. Cline in The Climatic Conditions of Texas.

One exuberant quote was taken from the Laredo Times. It said: "Little difficulty is experienced in raising immense crops of sugarcane which equal, if not surpass, anything which may be seen in this country. It may be looked upon as a wonder. A short distance from Brownsville acre after acre of the river bottom can be seen that yields 4,000 lbs. of sugar to the acre." He was referring to the Brulay Plantation near Southmost.

Later when Chatfield tried to organize a development company and to raise a million dollars in capital to push forward with irrigation infrastructure, he could not generate enough interest. Without a railroad to the area, investors were leery of prematurely creating a grandiose system that had no means to transport its end products. Jim Dougherty, a Brownsville resident worked with Lt. Chatfield in the failed Chatfield Irrigation Company, an outfit obviously conceived ahead of its time.

Chatfield, a Connecticut native, was born there in 1852. That would put him in his late 30s when he scouted the Valley. After being reassigned from the Valley, Chatfield remained in the army. As a captain he was stationed at Bavacoa, Cuba by 1900 after the U.S. occupied that island following the Spanish-American War. At this time his 35 year old wife Frances R. resided at Ft. McPherson, Georgia. They had been married in 1881 and apparently had no offspring. He died a Colonel, U.S. Army retired, in Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D. C., on 30 June 1922. His stone in the Arlington National Cemetery is engraved "27 US INF". His wife would be buried alongside him upon her death 20 January 1924. No living relatives were noted for them in War Department records.

While his plans did not come to fruition, the seeds had been planted and others would pick up the baton of progress and run with it. In this regard, it is interesting to note one modest ad appearing in his brochure because what it proclaimed was what it was to preach over the next decades. The ad set forth was for the (Brownsville) Daily Herald. It stated: " ' First of all the news'. Paper established in 1892 and entirely devoted to Development and Progress. Jesse O. Wheeler, editor and proprietor. $1/month or $10/year."

Surprisingly Chatfield's idea for a gravity canal across the middle of the Valley did not die. Organized in July 1914 first as the Southwest Texas Progressive League, Mission area farmer commenced what became popularly known as the "gravity canal movement." They wished to draw water from the river at Peñitas, store some in a reservoir west of Mission, then carry it in a large canal which would allow gravity flow eastward in the mid-belt of the Valley. Such a system would in part eliminate the need for secondary lift stations on the north ends of the existing canal systems. After years of lobbying the idea was squelched by the Corps of Army Engineers in the summer of 1922.

Lt. Chatfield was a visionary whose dream came true after the railroads reached the Valley and giant engineering projects brought water to heretofore parched areas. Having lived until 1922 he certainly would have known of the Valley's immense transformation. Perhaps he was even to see it in person. I, for one, hope that this did come to pass. What immense pleasure he would have derived to see the fertile productivity of the region he once knew so well.

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