Publications

Chatham Historical Society Books and Publications

All books are available for purchase from The Library of the Chathams, 214 Main St., Chatham, NJ 07928. Ten on a Toboggan and My Town by a River are also available through Amazon and www.iuniverse.com.

Chatham Historical Society

Ten on a Toboggan and other Tales; edited by Lynn Keffer, Jaqua-Lyne Pindak, Augusta Scattergood. Published 2006, iUniverse, Inc.

Chatham is the kind of place its residents are proud to call home. The oral histories recounted in Ten on a Toboggan attest to that fact as they bring to life the experiences of a wide range of people in this vibrant community. Beginning with Barbara Berry Erwin Nelson, whose family ties to Chatham date back to the middle of the nineteenth century, and ending with a current Chatham young adult, born and bred in our hometown, this book takes a chronological look into Chatham’s social history. In preserving these memories, the Chatham Historical Society celebrates the history of our town through its stories.

My Town by a River by Liz Holler. Published 2005, iUniverse, Inc.

The first visitors to Chatham, New Jersey were the Lenni Lenape Indians who stopped in Chatham on their annual migrations from Sussex County to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. They called the Passaic River the “Fishawack.” In late August of 1781, while his troops were camped in Morristown, George Washington wrote seventeen letters from a Chatham homestead. After the Revolutionary War, Chatham’s convenient location, just a day’s journey from New York City, made it a popular overnight stop for east-west travelers. The mid-nineteenth century brought vacationers from Newark and New York City to enjoy Chatham’s “salubrious air.” Drawn to the bucolic setting, many vacationers returned to make Chatham their home. Today Chatham is a bustling commuter suburb. Its tenuous ties to a simpler time exist mainly in the memories of its citizens. A native Chathamite, Liz Holler chronicles those times. From Swimming with the Roses to The Tea Room Era, Liz’s stories depict life in a small town by the river. These vignettes, first published in the Chatham Historical Society newsletters, depict a moment in time that adds to Chatham’s rich past.

Images of America - Chatham, by John T. Cunningham; published 1997, Arcadia Publishing.

Chatham and the Passaic River have been inextricably linked for nearly 275 years, since the town’s funding under the informal name of Day’s Bridge. That name honored John Day, builder of the first span across the river, which forms the eastern edge of the town.

The nature of early generations of the town’s residents is reflected in the area’s permanent name, selected by villagers in 1773. Chatham is named for Great Britain’s William Pitt, the Early of Chatham, who was a champion of American liberties during the revolutionary era. The Passaic River inspired the gradual flourishing of early mills and factories. Small shops, hotels and a railroad brought nineteenth-century prosperity to Main Street and extended the influence of residents who commute to Newark and New York City. In Images, Cunningham chronicles this growth and the relationship between the residents and river through photographs and intriguing historic details.

CHATHAM at the Crossing of the Fishawack, by John T. Cunningham; published by Chatham Historical Society, 1967.

This is the story of one small New Jersey town, founded at the place where Lenni Lenape Indians crossed the Passaic River. Indian trail gave way to muddy road, to turnpike, to Main Street with its traffic and rows of refurbished stores. These are the stories of young men who laid aside their saws to fight the Confederates; the village blacksmiths, the local editor, the hotelkeepers and the rose growers. This book shows the simplicity of the 19th century developing into the complexity of the 20th - as it affected Main Street. Cunningham has intermingled the tragedies with the triumphs, the follies with the glories. More than 400 men and women helped compile the data, manuscripts and photographs for this book, as well as conducting research and fact checking.