Editing Chesterfield, Missouri (section)

===Incorporation as Chesterfield===
The name "Chesterfield" was given by landowner Justus Post who arrived in Missouri in 1815 and began amassing an estate in the location of the present-day city. Post had grown up in Vermont, not far from the town of [[Chesterfield, New Hampshire]], which sits on the border between New Hampshire and Vermont. Although Post eventually left Missouri and moved to Illinois, his chosen placename of "Chesterfield" stuck.<ref>{{cite web|title=Historic Families of Chesterfield|url=https://www.chesterfield.mo.us/history.html|website=Chesterfield, Missouri|publisher=City of Chesterfield, Missouri|access-date=7 Feb 2023}}</ref>

For many years, "Chesterfield" was an all-inclusive place-name for a vast, unincorporated sub-region of western St. Louis County (called "West County" by metro area residents) containing the unincorporated historical communities listed above, plus areas now [[Municipal corporation|incorporated]] as cities of their own (e.g., [[Ballwin, Missouri|Ballwin]]). Police and fire protection in the community were fragmented and sporadic, the former provided by St. Louis County. As the population grew, [[Chesterfield Mall]] and other retail and commercial real estate developments sprang up; however, many residents were concerned about the lack of quality public services, and that the municipal sales tax benefited the county instead of the community.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

An organization was formed calling itself the "Chesterfield Incorporation Study Committee." Headed by its president, John A. Nuetzel (himself a former president of the River Bend Association, a zoning watchdog group), the members "passed the hat" at neighborhood meetings, engaged legal help, drew up metes and bounds, and forced several failed public votes for incorporation. After a number of years, in 1988, The City of Chesterfield was finally established by its residents and their families, and has thrived as perhaps West County's premier residential, business, retail, and transportation center.{{citation needed|date=May 2023}}

[[File:Satellite image of Missouri River during Great Flood of 1993.jpg|thumb|Satellite image of Missouri River during Great Flood of 1993.]]