209 Lake Ave
Fairmont, MN, USA

Orville P. and Sarah Chubb House

The Orville P. and Sarah Chubb House is a historic house in Fairmont, Minnesota, United States. Built in 1867, the Chubb House is the oldest residence standing in Fairmont, and the only surviving house known to have been built with brick from Fairmont's first brickyard. It was the home of prominent homesteader Orville Chubb, who was the community's first physician. The house is an example of a property associated with the early Yankee American development of southern Minnesota town sites. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 for having local significance in the theme of exploration/settlement. It was nominated for its connections to the founding of Fairmont and for representing the Yankee settlement of southern Minnesota towns.

Description
The house is a Greek Revival design, with brick made from clay quarried near Buffalo Lake. It originally contained three rooms, but another room was added in 1930 and another section was added in 1935. The second floor contains two bedrooms, a small child's room, and a bathroom. The house was acquired in 1992 by the Martin County Preservation Association. It is the oldest brick house still standing in Fairmont.

The Chubb House is one of southwestern Minnesota's few extant examples of the Greek Revival style. The small, 1+1⁄2-story house was constructed of reddish-brown brick made locally in the first kiln erected at Fairmont. The basement was constructed of large fieldstones and lake boulders held together with mortar. The mortar was scored around each rock on both the inside and outside of the foundation.

History
Orville Paterson Chubb was born in Michigan in 1830, attended Cincinnati Medical College, and married Sarah E. Gorton. When the American Civil War started, he enlisted in the Army and served in the Fifth Michigan Regiment in its medical corps. After the war ended, he came to Martin County in fall 1865 to seek land available to retired Civil War soldiers. Representing himself and other officers, he purchased the townsite where Fairmont was eventually plotted. In 1866 Chubb moved to Minnesota with his wife Sarah and daughter Lottie. He and other town founders planned the town of Fairmont and began building homes and businesses.

A few months after their move to Fairmont, in an effort to stimulate the development of the town site, Chubb and fellow Michigan officer Colonel Lounsberry established a brickyard on the southwestern side of Buffalo Lake, about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the Chubb House. Because the clay was believed to contain too much lime to make durable brick, the brickyard was short-lived. The Chubb House was the first brick house to be built in the county and is the only building still standing which was made from brick from the Chubb-Lounsberry kiln.

The Chubb House was constructed by John R. Dalton, an Irish-born mason who had homesteaded in Martin County in 1866. The house was built at a time when most other structures in the county were log or wood-frame. The house was built on Lake Avenue just north of Fort Fairmont and just south of the home of Chubb's sister and brother-in-law, Alta Chubb Cadwell and Alpha D. Cadwell. Chubb named the street between the two houses Lottie Street in honor of his daughter.

Dr. Chubb was disillusioned with medical practice after the Civil War, but since there were no other physicians in Fairmont, he practiced medicine until Dr. Winslow Hunt arrived in 1871. Chubb is credited with playing a significant role in the building of the Fairmont community. As co-owner of the town site, he was active in designing its physical layout and drew plans for Fairmont's first cemetery and county fairgrounds. As Fairmont's only physician until 1871 he held a professional and social position that was crucial in the community. Sarah E. Gorton Chubb, who had been born in Michigan in October 1831, was also a leader in the community, although few of her contributions have been recorded. She was an active member of the local Congregational church.

In 1875, the Chubbs left Minnesota so their daughter Lottie could attend school in Nebraska. They sold their house to George S. Livermore. The Chubbs returned to Fairmont, but in 1880 their daughter died, and in 1882, Sarah died. Dr. Chubb remarried and moved to California. He died in 1894 and is buried in Fairmont.

Under its second owner, George S. Livermore, the Chubb House served as one of the first hotels in the young village of Fairmont. Livermore was also a prominent early merchant who bought livestock and ran a meat market. He became one of Martin County's most-respected and wealthiest citizens. He was still living in the house in 1897 and died in 1904. It was probably Livermore who added the southern addition to the house. The third owner of the house, David Wade, was born in Martin County in 1867 and attended Fairmont schools. He was a leading businessman for sixty-eight years. Wade added a wood-frame rear kitchen extension and a Classical Revival-style entrance to the house.

In 1992 the house was threatened with demolition to make room for a parking lot. The Martin County Preservation Association was formed to save the house. The Association purchased the house for $35,000 and refurbished it.

National Register of Historic Places - Orville P. and Sarah Chubb House

Statement of Significance:

The Orville P. and Sarah Chubb House is eligible for the National Register under Criterion A, significance to the broad patterns of our history, in the area of Exploration and Settlement. Built in 1867, the house is significant as the oldest residence standing in Fairmont and as a property associated with the platting of the Fairmont townsite during the town's early settlement period which ended in 1878 with the arrival of railroad service. It was the home of a prominent settler to Fairmont who was the community's first physician and is the only house in Fairmont known to have been built with brick from Fairmont's first brickyard. In addition, the house is an excellent example of a property associated with the early Yankee American settlement of southern Minnesota townsites. The house is associated with the historic context entitled "Railroads and Agricultural Development, 1870-1940," one of the statewide historic contexts which has been established by the State Historic Preservation Office. Martin County, located on Minnesota's border with Iowa/ is a relatively flat, treeless region with three chains of interconnecting lakes running north and south through the county. Fairmont, originally called "Fair Mount", was named by early settlers for its elevation above the central chain of lakes and for its views of the surrounding countryside.

Until the mid-19th century, the land that comprises Martin County was occupied by members of two Native American groups, the Winnebago and the Dakota. During the early 19th century, the Dakota in the area traded with agents of the American Fur Company at sites such as Stone Lake in Cedar Township and on the southern shore of Bright Lake in Tenhassen Township. Most of the Dakota were forced from the county and onto reservations along the Minnesota River after the 1851 treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota opened large portions of the state, including Martin County, to Euro-American settlement. The Winnebago moved into the area in the 1850s from southern Wisconsin. They lived for a few years in villages at the present-day sites of East Chain, Ceylon, Fairmont, Fox Lake, and Martin Lake in Martin County before being forced in 1855 to move to a reservation near Mankato.

Traders with the American Fur Company were among the first Euro-Americans to visit the Fairmont area. Following the signing of the 1851 treaties, the federal government surveyed Martin County in 1854 and 1855. The first Euro-American to settle in the county was Martin Colvin who settled in what is now Silver Lake Township as early as February of 1856. Several families moved into the county the following spring and summer. Land near Fairmont was first occupied in 1857 when E. Banks Hall and William H. Budd built log cabins on the shores of the lakes which now bear their names. A post office was established at Fairmont in 1858 and in January of 1861 the first crude county courthouse was built, although it did not consistently house county offices until 1865.

Settlement of the county proceeded very slowly through the late 1850s and early 1860s, hampered by lack of rail service and the fear of attack from Dakota Indians. In March of 1857 during the so-called Spirit Lake Massacre, about one dozen Dakota men retaliated against Euro-American encroachment by attacking farmsteads near northern Iowa's Spirit Lakes (about 45 miles southwest of Fairmont), and later, settlers in Jackson County (about 30 miles west of Fairmont). About 40 Euro-Americans were killed. When news of the attacks at Spirit Lake reached Martin County, nearly all the settlers fled, reportedly leaving a population of only four men in the county in April of 1857. Five years later, in August of 1862, escalating problems between Euro-Americans and the Dakota climaxed again in the outbreak of the U.S. Government-Dakota Conflict. Nearly 500 Euro-Americans and an unknown number of Dakota were killed in the state during several months of incidents. Much of southwestern Minnesota, including the village of Fairmont, was abandoned. Settlers returned slowly to reclaim their cabins and farms under the protection of a system of military forts which were built in 1862 from northeastern Iowa to northwestern Minnesota. One of these stockades, Fort Fairmont, was built in 1862 on the eastern side of Lake Sisseton, just south of the site of the Chubb House. This log stockade became the first temporary home of Dr. O. P. Chubb and family. In fact, it was in the stockade that the Chubb's second child, Montier, was born.

Settlement of the Fairmont area was further slowed by the diversion of resources and men to the Civil War. Minnesota sent its first troops to the war in the spring of 1861. In October of 1863 the soldiers which were stationed at Fort Fairmont left for the South, and by 1864 most of Martin County's young men had joined the 24,000 Minnesotans who eventually served.

By the winter of 1865 Fairmont still consisted of a small cluster of log structures. Finally, during the summer of 1865 settlement activity in the county increased. The Homestead Law of 1862, congressional land grants to Minnesota railroad companies, and the establishment of post-war "soldiers' claims" both spread the perception that the supply of free land was diminishing and enabled homesteaders and soldiers to file claims. Soldiers' claims allowed Civil War veterans to receive land for homesteads providing they moved onto their land within six months of their dismissal from service. About 2,000 soldiers reportedly traveled to Martin County to lay claim to land, but when the war was over the number who settled in the county and proved their claims was far fewer. Soldiers began to come to Martin County during the summer of 1865, and more arrived in the spring of 1866.

Most of the early settlers to the Fairmont area were "Yankee" or "Old Stock" Americans. Many of these settlers had either been born in New England states such as Conneticut£?and Massachusetts, or were the sons and daughters of original YanJcee settlers who had moved to western New York in the early 1800s and then subsequently moved to southern Michigan and southern Wisconsin during the 1820s-1850s. These Yankee settlers moved into southern Minnesota beginning about 1850. Geographer John C. Hudson, in a study of the Yankee American settlement of the Midwest, places Martin County on the western edge of a settlement region which was dominated by persons born in New York. The lands west of Martin County in southern Minnesota and the eastern Dakotas were dominated by Michigan- and Wisconsin-born Yankees who were the children of settlers who had been born in New York (Hudson 1986, 198). Hudson indicates that features such as the physical layout of townsites, specific agricultural practices, and other cultural characteristics distinguish these Yankees from other Eastern settlers who were born in Mid-Atlantic states and who settled farther south in Iowa. The surnames of early settlers to Fairmont including Britts, Budd, Carrington, Chubb, Fowler, Parks, Smith, Tanner, Tuttle, Tweed, and Ward, are indicative of the area's Yankee background, as is a listing of the Fairmont area's first church congregations which includes Baptists, Methodists, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians, but not Catholics or Lutherans. By 1874 there were 699 people in Fairmont Township, 621 who were native-born and 78 who were foreign-born. In 1880 most of the 5,249 people living in the county were native-born, and there were only 178 Germans and 234 Scandinavians, numbers much lower than those seen in other parts of Minnesota.

The settlers to Fairmont were drawn to the area by its rich potential farmland and by the promise of eventual railroad links which would make the export of wheat and other farm products profitable. Although the first railroad line to Fairmont was not built until 1878, the eventual linking of Martin County to the state's rail system had been envisioned since the first railroad lines had been built in Minnesota in the early 1860s. Settlers in Martin County had been lobbying for railroad service since at least the mid-1860s, and were encouraged when the railroad reached Winnebago City, about 18 miles northeast of Fairmont, in 1870. Seven years later, with no railroad tracks in sight, local residents formed the Martin County Railroad Company in February of 1877 after a series of public meetings. The line between Winnebago City and Fairmont was surveyed and graded in 1877 under the auspices of this company, which was reorganized in 1878. Finally, in 1878, the Southern Minnesota Railroad (later the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul) reached Fairmont from Winnebago, and continued westward to Jackson. After rail lines were constructed, the county experienced tremendous growth, with its population increasing from 3,738 in 1875 to 16,936 by 1900. The Village of Fairmont was incorporated the year that the railroad arrived.

In anticipation of the construction of railroads through southern Minnesota, the Fairmont townsite had been platted and replated under several successive owners between 1857 and 1867. The first townsite survey was conducted in October of 1857 by the Des Moines and Watonwan Land Company which had surveyed several other speculative townsites in the vicinity. The company never acquired clear title to the land and only one claim shanty was ever built on the site. The land was sold in 1859 to B. C. Hinkle who surveyed a new townsite in 1860 and filed the plat that spring. He sold the townsite to Moses Clark of Wisconsin in 1863. In January of 1864 Clark sold the townsite to a Wisconsin resident, Thomas Eggleston, who reportedly never saw Fairmont. In December of 1864 Aaron Smith became the new owner of the land and again platted a townsite. Finally, in 1865, two years before the Chubb House was built, a group of Civil War officers from the 5th Michigan Regiment who were filing soldiers' claims in the area and who were represented by Orville P. Chubb, purchased the townsite from Smith. The Chubb group had the townsite replated in 1867-1868 and the present-day city of Fairmont was born.

Dr. O. P. Chubb was a doctor who had enlisted as a private and was soon promoted to the position of surgeon. Chubb was born in June of 1830 in southern Michigan. He was educated in Michigan and studied medicine at the Cincinnati Medical College from which he graduated. He married Sarah E.

Gorton and began practicing medicine in Tuscola County, Michigan, before enlisting in the war. Chubb served until the end of the war with the 5th Michigan Regiment and was retired from active duty with the rank of major.

In April of 1865 Chubb arrived in Martin County to file claims for himself and his fellow officers. He chose land for himself near Timber Lake and, representing the entire group of officers, purchased the still-undeveloped Fairmont townsite from Aaron Smith. After filing the claims, he returned to army service until the end of the war. Chubb returned to Martin County with his wife Sarah and daughter Lottie in March of 1866. The family lived for several months in the Fort Fairmont stockade where their son was born.

A few months after their move to Fairmont, to stimulate the development of the townsite, Chubb and fellow Michigan officer Colonel Lounsberry established a brickyard on the southwestern side of Buffalo Lake, about two miles north of the Chubb House. Because the clay was believed to contain too much lime to make durable brick, the brickyard was short-lived. According to William H. Budd, who was hired by Chubb and Lounsberry to make some of the molds for the bricks, there were only three structures built of the local brick—the Chubb House, the basement of Lounsberry's house, and the basement of the school (Budd 1897, rpt. 1974, 60). The Chubb House was the first brick house to be built in the county and is the only building still standing which was made from brick from the Chubb-Lounsberry kiln.

The Chubb House was constructed in 1867 by John R. Dalton, an Irish-born mason who had homesteaded in Martin County in 1866. The house was built at a time when most other structures in the county were log or woodframe. The house was built on Lake Avenue just north of Fort Fairmont and just south of the home of Chubb's sister and brother-in-law, Alta Chubb Cadwell and Alpha D. Cadwell. Chubb named the street between the two houses Lottie Street in honor of his daughter.

Dr. Chubb was the first physician in Fairmont. In addition to the brick kiln, Chubb was involved in several other business ventures in the nascent village. In 1868, he formed a partnership with a Mr. Howell and began the first drug store in Fairmont. The drug store was one of approximately six stores which stood in Fairmont at the end of 1868. In 1870, Chubb invested in a steam-powered sawmill in Tenhassen, a few miles south of Fairmont. The mill was moved from Shelbyville and was owned by Dillon, Chubb and Company. Chubb also owned a grist mill at Center Creek in partnership with Alpha D. Cadwell. This grist mill produced the first flour in Martin County. In 1872, Chubb purchased and later resold a local newspaper.

Chubb is credited with playing a significant role in the building of the Fairmont community. As co-owner of the townsite, he was reportedly active in designing its physical layout and drew plans for Fairmont's first cemetery and county fairgrounds. As Fairmont's only physician until 1871 he held a professional and social position which was crucial in the community. In the spring of 1867 Dr. Chubb was appointed by the county commissioners to receive and distribute seed to the destitute after the severe winter of 1866-1867. In 1868 he was elected treasurer of the Martin County Board of Commissioners. In 1869 he helped finance the construction of a large bridge between Lake Sisseton and Lake George which replaced a ferry on one of the main thoroughfares into and out of Fairmont. In 1869 Chubb was one of the 30 charter members of the Martin County Agricultural Society and in the same year he was appointed postmaster. He served as postmaster until March of 1870 and again from 1872-1874.

Sarah E. Gorton Chubb, who had been born in Michigan in October of 1831, was also a leader in the community, although few of her contributions have been recorded. She was an active member of the local Congregational church. According to her obituary, she "entered into all the projects of building up a community of sound principles and morality, with an active zeal, and her unvarying cheerfulness and social nature were marked features of her daily life" (Martin County Sentinel, Sept. 29, 1882).

In 1875 the Chubbs moved to Omaha, Nebraska, so that Lottie could attend college. They moved back to Fairmont in 1880 when Lottie became ill. Upon their return, Dr. Chubb purchased and improved several townsite lots in the northwestern part of Fairmont. That year Lottie died at the age of, 23 and was buried in Lakeside Cemetery. Sarah Chubb died on September 21, 1882. Chubb then married Amanda Gorton Palmer, Sarah Chubb's sister. The Chubbs moved to California in 1883 because of Dr. Chubb's failing health. He died in 1894 at the age of 64. Chubb's body, which was brought to Fairmont by train, was met at the station by delegations of early settlers and the local chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic. Chubb was buried at Lakeside Cemetery.

Under its second owner, George S. Livermore, the Chubb House served as one of the first hotels in the young village of Fairmont. Livermore, who had been born in Spencer, Massachusetts, in 1821, had homesteaded in Wisconsin, and then moved to Fairmont during the summer of 1870. He bought the house in 1870 and established a hotel there. In 1870 the Livermore House was one of two hotels in Fairmont and in 1874 it was one of three hotels in the town. When the Village of Fairmont was incorporated in 1878, G. S. Livermore was one of its first trustees. Livermore was also a prominent early merchant who was a livestock buyer and ran a meat market. He became one of Martin County's most respected and wealthiest citizens (Martin County Sentinel, Oct. 28 and Nov. 4, 1904). He was still living in the house in 1897 and died in

1904. It was probably Livermore who added the southern addition to the house.
 
The third owner of the house/ David Wade was born in Martin County in 1867 and attended Fairmont schools. He was a leading businessman for 68 years. Wade served as the first cashier of Fairmont National Bank from 1907-1919 and secretary of the Fairmont Building Loan Association from 1919-1942. He was deputy clerk of court of Martin County from 1886-1891 and secretary of the Fairmont Telephone Company from 1881-1907. He died in 1950.

Still standing on the shore of Lake Sisseton in good condition, the Chubb House is the oldest residence standing in Fairmont and the only remaining structure built from Fairmont's first brickyard. The house is associated with the settlement of Fairmont and the activities of Orville P. Chubb, one of the founders of the townsite. During a reconnaissance-level survey of Martin County which was conducted for the State Historic Preservation Office in 1986, only the Chubb House and a log cabin which had been moved into Fairmont from rural Martin County were identified as dating from Fairmont's pre-railroad early settlement period.

William H. Budd, a well-respected early settler who had come to Martin County in 1856 and held virtually every public office in the community, ended his 1897 history of Martin County with an eloquent plea for the preservation of the structures associated with the founding of the community. Undoubtedly the Chubb House, reported by Budd to be "the oldest residence in the town," was among the structures which he was seeking to preserve (Budd 1897, rpt. 1974, 73, 98).