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No. 78. 
 
 LIBRARY of 
 
 Cape Cod 
 
 HISTORY & GENEALOGY 
 HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered By 
 
 I JAMES W. HAWES 
 
 AUGUST 1, 1912 
 on the Occasion of the 
 
 CELEBRATION OF THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 of the 
 
 I lNCORi>ORAtlON OF CHATHAM 
 
 Confined Chiefly to the Period 
 Before 1860. 
 
 YARMOUTHPORT, MASS.: 
 
 C. W. SWIFT, Publisher and Printer, 
 
 The "Register" Press, 
 
 1912. 
 
HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
 
 Delivered By 
 
 JAMES W. HAWES 
 
 AUGUST 1, 1912 
 on the Occasion of the 
 
 CELEBRATION OF THE 200TH ANNIVERSARY 
 
 of the 
 
 INCORPORATION OF CHATHAM 
 
 Confined Chiefly to the Period 
 Before 1860. 
 
 YARMOUTHPORT, MASS.: 
 
 C. W. SWIFT, Publisher and Printer, 
 
 The "Register" Press, 
 
 1912. 
 

 COPYRIGHT, 1912. 
 By CHARLES W. SWIFT. 
 
 ECI.A328045 ^_ 
 
EARLY PERIOD. 
 
 In May, 1602, the English bark "Concord," under command of Barthol- 
 omew Gosnold, rounded Monomoy Point and anchored in the bay, but 
 the first Europeans to land here were a party of Frenchmen, including 
 the famous explorer Samuel de Champlain, who spent about three 
 weeks in Stage Harbor in October, 1606, on board their little craft of 
 eighteen tons. They made considerable explorations, and their account 
 with a map of the locality has come down to us. Their relations with 
 the natives were at first friendly, but hostilities arose, which resulted 
 in the death of four white men and no doubt of many Indians. On 
 account of their misfortunes, the Frenchmen, by a contradiction in 
 account of their misfortunes, the Frenchmen called the harbor Port Un- 
 fortunate. 
 
 The next important event is the visit on a trading expedition late 
 in 1622 of Gov. Bradford of Plymouth with a party of Englishmen, who 
 obtained here eight hogsheads of corn and beans. Gov. Bradford had 
 with him as interpreter and guide the Indian Tisquantum or Squanto, 
 who had entered the Plymouth settlement in March, 1621, and had been 
 an almost indispensable aid to the Pilgrims in their relations with the 
 natives, and in teaching them how to plant corn and where to fish. 
 While here this faithful friend died and doubtless was buried. 
 
 This town was incorporated under the name of Chatham by an act 
 of the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay passed June 
 11, 1712, in the reign of Queen Anne. It was named for Chatham in 
 England, but just why that name was chosen rather than the name of 
 some other English town is not known. It had been previously known 
 by its Indian name, which the English generally wrote Mannamoiett, 
 but pronounced Monomoit, and which still remains in Monomoy, the des- 
 ignation of the beach that stretches southerly from the town. Nearly 
 fifty years before its incorporation, in 1664, in the reign of Charles II, it 
 had been settled by William Nickerson, who came down from Yar- 
 mouth (having previously lived for a time in Boston), accompanied, or 
 soon followed, by Robert, Samuel, John, William and Joseph, five of his 
 six sons, and by his three daughters, Elizabeth, Anne and Sarah, with 
 their husbands, Robert Eldred, Trustrum Hedges, and Nathaniel Covel. 
 William Nickerson was a weaver of Norwich, England. He was born 
 about 1604, and came to this country in 1637 with his wife Anne (daugh- 
 ter of Nicholas Busby) and four children, five children being born to 
 him after his arrival. He was a religious man, a man of some educa- 
 
 Especial credit must be given to William C. Smith, author of the 
 
 "History of Chatham," without whose judicious investigations carried 
 
 on through many years this account of Chatham could not have been 
 written. 
 
tion, of much natural intelligence, of force and energy, and of a will 
 strong to the point of obstinacy. He did not easily submit to the con- 
 trol of the governing powers of the Colony. He was the ancestor of all 
 the great tribe of Nickersons that draw their origin from the Cape, and 
 there are not many descendants of the other ancient families of this 
 vicinity that do not, through the marriages of his female descendants, 
 carry his blood in their veins. He died in 1689 or 1690, aged at least 
 85 years. His wife, born about 1609, had probably died a year or 
 two before. They were probably buried on the hill near their home, 
 where some graves are still visible. Descendants of Robert Eldred 
 dwell in this town today, though not all the Eldredges here are of 
 his line. Trustrum Hedges, so far as we know,, left no son. Nathaniel 
 Covel left several sons. One of his sons, Nathaniel, and a grandson, 
 James Covel, held prominent public office here, but the name has long 
 been extinct in the town. 
 
 William Nickerson built his house west of, and near the head of Ry- 
 der's Cove. His son, Samuel Nickerson, and his son-in-law, Nathaniel 
 Covel, located on the Eldredge Neck, between Crow's Pond and Ryder's 
 Cove. John Nickerson built a house between the White Pond on the 
 south and Emery's Pond on the north. Robert Eldred's house was 
 near that now occupied by John K. Kendrick. Trustrum Hedges lived 
 on the neck in West Chatham between the Oyster Pond river and 
 Buck's Creek, then known as Ragged Neck, and later as Harding's Neck. 
 William Nickerson, Jr., after 1689, built a house at Old Harbor, but 
 moved about 1700 to the Stephen Smith neighborhood. Joseph Nicker- 
 son resided on Pleasant Bay west of Crow's Pond. Nicholas Eldred, 
 son of Robert, before his death in 1702 lived south of the White Pond. 
 Between this date and 1720, among the inhabitants of the town were 
 William Nickerson, son of John, who lived in the vicinity of the pres- 
 ent Davis residence; Joseph Eldredge, son of Robert, who lived on 
 Stage Neck not far away; Jehosaphat Eldred from Yarmouth, west of 
 Crow's Pond; John Ryder, on Ryder's Cove; John Taylor, near Taylor's 
 Pond in South Chatham; Nathan Bassett, near the East Harwich meet- 
 ing house; Richard Sears, in the Village; Daniel Sears, his brother, 
 who soon after 1710 built the Sears house that stood until 1863 on the 
 site above the Soldiers' Monument; Isaac Hawes, in the Samuel D. Clif- 
 ford neighborhood; Thomas Howes, who owned land on both sides of 
 tbe road, near where the late Joshua Howes resided, and who probably 
 resided on the spot where William C. Smith now lives; Thomas Doane, 
 who owned much land between the White Pond and Oyster Pond river 
 and elsewhere in West Chatham. The oldest house now standing in 
 the town is the one on the Stage Harbor road, formerly occupied by 
 John Atwood. It was built by his grandfather, Joseph Atwood, probably 
 before 1750. The region north and west of the ©Id burying ground 
 
became the chief center of the town and so remained till about 1830. 
 The land a little west of the burying ground is high and commands a 
 fine view, while from the Great Hill not far away a marine view sel- 
 dom excelled may be obtained. 
 
 The early settlers of Chatham came chiefly from Yarmouth on the 
 west and Eastham on the north. They were mostly grandchildren, but 
 in some instances, children of the immigrant settlers of those towns. 
 From Yarmouth, besides William Nickerson and his family, came the 
 Bassett, Crowell, Hawes, Howes, Ryder, Sears, Taylor and other fam- 
 ilies. From Eastham came the Atkins, Atwood, Doane, Godfrey, 
 Harding, Smith and other families. As early as 1656 William Nicker- 
 son had bargained for land here with Mattaquason, Sachem of Monomoit, 
 but as he had done so without the consent of the Colonial authorities, 
 he became involved in a long controversy with them, which was 
 settled in 1672 by his paying 90 pounds to certain grantees of the 
 colony, and obtaining from them and from Mattaquason and John Quason, 
 his son, deeds that covered all the central portion of the town, and 
 also Stage Neck, with certain rights of pasturage. In 1679 he bought 
 from John Quason for 20 pounds the land west of that tract to the Har- 
 wich bounds. He had thus purchased not less than 4,000 acres, com- 
 prising all but the eastern portion of the town where now North Chat- 
 ham and the village lie. To this he added certain meadow land 
 bought of John Quason in 1682. His son William Nickerson purchased 
 the North Chatham region in 1689, and Samuel Smith of Eastham 
 bought in 1691 the tract east of the Mill Pond known as Tom's Neck. 
 The land in the west and southwest part of the town was reserved as 
 common land, to which the owners of other tracts had certain rights. 
 These lands were divided in 1712. 
 
 The Indians in Monomoit were chiefly in the eastern portion, which 
 had not been purchased by Nickerson. Champlain on his visit reported 
 the number as 500 or 600, but in this estimate were probably included 
 a good many from the neighborhood whom curiosity to see the white 
 men had led here. The pestilence of 1616 seems to have reduced the 
 population, for Gov. Bradford in 1622 says the Indians were few. They 
 with others on the Cape were at first under the care of Mr. Richard 
 Bourne of Mashpee, who reported 71 praying Indians here in' 1614, and 
 afterwards of the Rev. Samuel Treat of Eastham. In 1685 the number 
 of praying Indians in Monomoit was reported by Gov. Hinckley as 115, 
 and according to his estimate the Indian population would have been 
 400 or 500. Probably some of these lived outside the bounds of Chat- 
 ham. In 1698 there were 14 Indian houses at Monomoit, and an Indian 
 population of probably between 50 and 70. For the use of the Indians 
 in the vicinity, a meeting house was early erected near the East Har- 
 wich Methodist Church within the present limits of Chatham. Within 
 
 5 
 
100 years of the settlement of William Nickerson the Indian population 
 had become extinct, the Provincial census of 1765 reporting no Indians 
 in Chatham, although there were four in Eastham and 91 in Harwich. 
 Indeed in 1759, guardians were appointed for the Indians of Harwich, 
 Yarmouth and Eastham, but none for Chatham, indicating there were 
 few, if any, there then. 
 
 In 1665 Monomoit was placed under the jurisdiction of Yarmouth, but 
 this relation being found inconvenient because of the remoteness of 
 Yarmouth and for other reasons, in 1688 the settlement was placed 
 under the jurisdiction of Eastham, which then included Orleans and ad- 
 joined Monomoit. In 1679 the village was made a constablewick, with 
 power to choose a constable and a grand juryman. In 1680 it was re- 
 quired to raise two pounds towards 160 pounds levied to meet the 
 Colony expenses. In 1690 the assessed valuation of the county was 
 11,687 pounds. Monomoit's share was but 505 pounds, only Succonessett 
 (later Falmouth) being assessed at a smaller sum. In 1691 the village 
 was empowered to send a deputy to the General Court at Plymouth, 
 and it thenceforth exercised the functions of a town, though not incor- 
 porated as such. The existing town records begin in 1693. In 1692 the 
 Plymouth colony and the Colony of Massachusetts Bay were united in 
 the province of Massachusetts Bay, which later became the Common- 
 wealth of Massachusetts. 
 
 In 1674 William Nickerson began to sell tracts of his land to other 
 settlers, and about 1690 individuals began to make purchases from the 
 Indians of the lands not bought by Nickerson. Some cf the early 
 settlers soon left, but others took their places. At the time of the 
 union cf the colonies, Monomoit contained about 150 inhabitants. This 
 number increased to 300 or more, when it was reduced to about 200 the 
 year before incorporation by removals due to the lack cf a settled 
 minister, to high taxes, and to fear cf impressment. The population of 
 the entire province in 1712 was between 70,000 and 80,000. 
 
 The infant settlement bore its share in King Philip's war in 1675 and 
 1676, contributing not only in taxes, but also sending five men, William 
 Nickerson, Jr., John, Joseph and Benjamin Downing, and John Nesfield, 
 the last named being killed in battle. John Taylor of Yarmouth, who 
 afterwards settled here, also served in that war. England for many 
 years was engaged in wars with France, which involved the colonies 
 of the two countries. These wars fall into three periods, 1690 to 1697, 
 1702 to 1713, and with an interval 1744 to 1763, when the French col- 
 onies were ceded to England. This town from its position was peculiar- 
 ly exposed to attack from the ocean. It had to keep ready to repel 
 any such attack, and was also obliged to furnish its quota of men for 
 distant expeditions. In 1712 Governor Dudley, upon petition cf the in- 
 habitants, directed, because of their weakness and the danger of French 
 
 6 
 
privateers, that without his special order, "no men of the foot company 
 of the place be taken by impress for any service other than in their 
 own village". The petition refers to their exposed position in these 
 terms: "We are the most exposed to the invasion and spoil of the 
 French privateers of any town on the Cape, we having a good harbor 
 for a vessel of fifty tons to run into and to ride at anchor within mus- 
 ket shot of several of our houses fronting on Oyster Cove and near our 
 Stage Neck." At later dates however, the press gangs were active, 
 and from a petition for compensation presented to the General Court 
 in 1760, it appears that the following, most of whom were Chatham 
 men, were impressed July 10th and returned home December 24, 1759, 
 having billeted themselves for three weeks of their service: 
 George Bearse, Daniel Howes, Jr., 
 
 Abner Eldredge, Caleb Nickerson, 
 
 Jonathan Godfrey, Henry Wilson. 
 
 Thomas Harding, Archelaus Smith and 
 
 Jethro Higgins, Henry Wilson. 
 
 They received 14 shillings each for billeting and 1 pound, 11 shillings 
 and 8 pence for wages, except in the case of Abner Eldredge, who re- 
 ceived 18 shillings and 10 pence for wages. 
 
 In early times all the male inhabitants of military age were organized 
 as a militia, and exercised in arms. Those cf each town formed a 
 company, with a captain and in some cases an ensign or lieutenant. 
 As early as 1681, the inhabitants of Monomoit were ordered to choose 
 a fit man to exercise them and to provide them with fixed arms and 
 ammunition. Each year there was a general training, and this prac- 
 tice was kept up till about 1830, the training ground being northwest 
 of the old cemetery near the residence occupied for a time by John 
 Topping and later by Samuel D. Clifford. 
 
 REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD. 
 
 Before the close of the French war, the Colonies began to be stirred 
 by the action of England. In 1761 an act was passed by Parliament 
 which permitted general search warrants authorizing the customs of- 
 ficers to enter stores and dwellings to look for merchandise which it 
 was claimed had not paid duty. When the officers were resisted and 
 applied to the courts for writs of assistance, James Otis, a native of 
 Barnstable, appeared against the application and argued that such writs 
 were illegal and unconstitutional. The people of Massachusetts were 
 greatly aroused. In 1765 the Stamp Act still farther aggravated the 
 feeling against the mother country. This act authorized the sending 
 of troops to the Colonies, for which the Colonists were to find quarters 
 and necessaries. Although this act was repealed in 1766, it was fol- 
 lowed by another, the next year, which imposed other taxes equally in 
 violation of the right of no taxation without representation maintained 
 
 7 
 
by the Colonies. There followed, before the actual outbreak of hostil- 
 ities, much controversy between the Colonists and the royal officers in 
 the province. 
 
 In pursuance of the proceedings of a town meeting in Boston, held 
 on the 12th and 13th of September, 1768, the' selectmen of that town 
 addressed a letter to the other towns advising the sending of delegates 
 to a convention to meet in Boston on the 22d of that month. Upon 
 receipt of this letter a town meeting was called in Chatham, which met 
 September 26th and approved the call for a convention, but, owing to 
 the low, declining circumstances of the town, "as being a very small 
 and poor town which had of late been exposed to several distressing 
 reductions," they declined to send a delegate. The selectmen, Joseph 
 Doane, James Covel and John Hawes, were appointed a committee to 
 draw up a communication to the convention in answer to the Boston 
 letter. This committee on the 2Sth presented a report, in effect acqui- 
 escing in the views of the Boston meeting, which was unanimously 
 adopted. The convention met in Boston September 22, 1768, and was 
 in session six days. Its action was a protest against taxation by the 
 British Parliament and against a standing army and other usurpations 
 of British power. 
 
 In November, 1772, the citizens of Boston in town meeting, on motion 
 of Samuel Adams, appointed a committee of correspondence, "to state 
 the rights of the colonists, and of this province in particular, as men 
 and Christians, and as subjects; and to communicate and publish the 
 same to the several towns, and to the world, as the sense of this town, 
 with the infringements and violations thereof that have been or from 
 time to time may be made." 
 
 A letter having been received in Chatham from the Boston committee, 
 a town meeting was held December 17, 1772, when a committee of nine, 
 consisting of James Covel, Paul Sears, Seth Smith, John Hawes, 
 Barnabas Eldredge, Samuel Collins, Joseph Atwood, Thomas Hamilton, 
 and Richard Sears, was appointed to consider the grievances laid be- 
 fore them by the town of Boston and to report at an adjourned meet- 
 ing. While by law legal voters had to have certain property qualifi- 
 cations, it was agreed that at this meeting all male inhabitants over 21 
 years of age should have a vote. On the 29th of December, the com- 
 mittee, styling itself the "committee of correspondence," reported the 
 form of a letter to the selectmen of Boston, which, after careful consid- 
 eration, was approved. The letter thanked the people of Boston for 
 their action, agreed with their statement of rights and grievances, 
 expressed the hope that such measures would be taken in a constitution- 
 al way as should redress the grievances already suffered and prevent 
 those that were threatening, and indicated alarm at the governor's be- 
 ing made independent of provincial grants, and at the report that the 
 
 8 
 
judges and other officers were to be made so independent, as having a 
 direct tendency to compass their slavery. The Chatham committee felt 
 themselves at loss what measures to advise, but expressed their con- 
 fidence in the wisdom of the men of Boston, who inhabited the metrop- 
 olis and had superior means of information. The letter expressed the 
 great concern the people of the town had for their charter rights and 
 privileges, looking upon their civil and religious privileges as the sweet- 
 est and essential part of their lives, and, if these were torn from them, 
 considering the remainder as scarce worth preserving. Barry in his 
 History of Massachusetts refers to this letter from Chatham, a small 
 and exposed town, in a complimentary tone. 
 
 October 24, 1774, the town \oted to send a committee of three, con- 
 sisting of Joseph Doane, Nathan Bassett and Thomas Hamilton, to a 
 County Congress; appointed Joseph Doane and Richard Sears a commit- 
 tee to receive contributions, and confirmed the Committee of Corres- 
 pondence. The County Congress was held at Barnstable November 16th, 
 and Captain Joseph Doane from this town took an active part. 
 
 The legislature having been called by Gov. Gage to meet at Salem 
 on October 5, 1774, and the call having been countermanded by him, 
 the members met on the 7th and resolved themselves into a Provincial 
 Congress: 
 
 "to take into consideration the dangerous and alarming situation of 
 public affairs in this province, and to consult and determine on such 
 measures as they shall judge will tend to promote the true interest 
 of his majesty, and the peace, wellfare and prosperity of the prov- 
 ince." 
 
 Chatham was represented in this Congress by Capt. Joseph Doane. It 
 recommended, among other things, if I may use a modern term, a boy- 
 cott on tea. A third congress met May 31st, 1775, and Chatham was 
 again represented by Joseph Doane, then styled "Colonel". 
 
 At a town meeting December 27, 1774, a considerable number of 
 persons signed the association recommended by the Provincial Con- 
 gress not to drink or use any tea after March 1st following. 
 
 On January IS, 1775, the military company was reorganized. Lieut. 
 Benjamin Godfrey was made captain; Mr. Richard Sears lieutenant; 
 Mr. Joseph Crowell ensign, and Mr. John Emery military clerk. The 
 town clerk remarks that all this was very pleasing to the citizens. 
 Capt. Godfrey commanded a company at the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 August 13, 1776, the town raised 32 pounds for bounty for soldiers 
 who enlisted in the Northern Department, and 16 pounds, four shillings 
 for powder bought for the town's use. 
 
 December 14, 1776, the selectmen reported that they had procured 
 nine men to go to Rhode Island for three months, at a bounty of nine 
 pounds and fourteen shillings each. May 19, 1777. additional bounty was 
 
 VI 
 
voted. The town also agreed to take care of the families of soldiers. 
 
 In January, 1776, under a call for troops, a regiment had been raised 
 in Plymouth and Barnstable counties. Thomas Hamilton, of Chatham, 
 was adjutant. About the same time the Cape was divided into two 
 regiments, Chatham falling into the second, of which Joseph Doane be- 
 came colonel. Another call for troops was made the same year, Chat- 
 ham's quota being 26. In April, 1778, five men were called for from 
 the town. In 1779 there was a further call and in December, 1780, a 
 call for nine men. In the meantime there had been calls on the town 
 for clothing and provisions for the army. 
 
 February 22, 1778, the selectmen and James Ryder, lieutenant of the 
 militia company, reported that there had been raised in the town in 
 1777 ten men for three years and 20 men for eight months. Of these, 
 Sergeant Hyatt Young and Benjamin Bassett served during the war. 
 Joseph Young, son of Hyatt, was among the eight months' men. Hyatt 
 Young had served in the previous French war. A monument to him 
 and his son Joseph stands in the Universalist Cemetery. John Young, 
 who served in 1776, and enlisted for three years in 1777, was reported 
 drowned in 1778. 
 
 In September, 1778, Capt. Benjamin Godfrey's company and Capt. 
 Nathan Bassett's company of Chatham men, on an alarm to Falmouth 
 and New Bedford, served for a few days. Chatham men were also 
 on short term service in Rhode Island and at the throwing up of in- 
 trenchments at Dorchester Heights in the spring of 1776, when Gen. 
 Washington drove the British from Boston. 
 
 The Cape men were largely in service on the Coast Guard, Capt. 
 Thomas Hamilton's company, which consisted mostly of Chatham men, 
 served on the coast from July to December, 1775. Cape Cod men were 
 largely drawn upon to man the numerous privateers that preyed upon 
 the British commerce. Among others the sloop "Wolf," of which Capt. 
 Nathaniel Freeman of Harwich (now Brewster) was commissioned mas- 
 ter September 13, 1776, Joseph Doane of Chatham being lieutenant, 
 had Chatham men in her crew. She had a brief career, being soon after 
 sailing captured by a British 74 gun ship disguised as a merchantman. 
 The crew were carried to Brooklyn, N. Y., and placed in the prison 
 ships, but were exchanged at Newport, R. I., February 11, 1777. 
 
 No doubt many local incidents occurred during the Revolutionary war 
 of which there is no record. One has been preserved. June 20, 1782, 
 a British privateer sent some men into the harbor under cover of dark- 
 ness and took possession of a brigantine. They hoisted the British flag 
 on her and attempted to take her and a sloop out of the harbor under 
 protection of the guns of the privateer. But the local military company, 
 under Col. Benjamin Godfrey and Capt. Joseph Doane, assembled on 
 
 10 
 
the shore and by a well-directed fire compelled the British to abandon 
 the vessels, and they were recaptured. 
 
 WAR OF 1812. 
 
 The embargo laid at the end of 1807, which prohibited foreign com- 
 merce and placed restrictions on the coasting trade, was much felt here, 
 and in 1809 a town meeting was held, which adopted a petition to 
 Congress against it. In 1812 there was a majority against the war 
 with Great Britain, and the town meeting expressed abhorrence of any 
 alliance with France. During this war many of the young men, being 
 driven from the sea, went to Rhode Island and other inland places, to 
 work on farms. It is not likely that many men from the town took part 
 in the war. Zenas Young, whom some of us remember, was on the 
 Constitution, in 1815, in the fight when she captured the Cyane and the 
 Levant. In one of his fights he received a pike wound in boarding. 
 Levi Eldredge, a native of the town, but then resident in Maine, was 
 wounded in the battle of Lundy's Lane, July 25, 1814, and died of his 
 wounds in Buffalo, N. Y. David Godfrey was an officer on the privateer 
 Reindeer, of which Joseph Doane was lieutenant. 
 
 CIVIL WAR. 
 
 After the firing on Fort Sumter, public meetings were held in sup- 
 port of the Union, at which money was pledged and volunteers were 
 obtained. The first official action of the town was taken in town 
 meeting, July 22, 1862, when a bounty of $200 was voted to each vol- 
 unteer, and $4 a month was pledged to each member of the families of 
 enlisted men, but not to exceed $18 a month to any one family. The 
 Adjutant General of the Commonwealth reports that: 
 
 '"The quota for Chatham during the Civil war was 232 men, under 
 
 various calls. The town actually furnished 264 men. In addition 
 
 to that, six men served in the navy from Chatham and twenty-two 
 
 were assigned' and credited thereto, making a total of 292. No 
 
 doubt a number of Chatham men enlisted in other communities and 
 
 perhaps other states." 
 
 Not all the men referred to were residents of the town. Among the 
 residents were the following in Massachusetts volunteer infantry reg- 
 iments: 
 18th regiment, 3 years, Company H: 
 
 Charles H. Lyman, enlisted Aug. 24, 1861; discharged for disability 
 Jan 28, 1863. 
 26th regiment, 3 years, Company I: 
 
 Augustus H. Eldredge, who enlisted at New Orleans May 11, 1863, 
 and died there September 3d following. 
 39th regiment, 3 years, August 1862 to 1865. 
 
 Rev. Edward B. French, Chaplain. 
 
 11 
 

 COMPANY A. 
 
 Alvah Ryder, corporal; discharged for disability November 26, 1862. 
 
 Benjamin Batchelder, wagoner; transferred September 7, 1862, to the 
 Veteran Reserve Corps. 
 
 James Blauvelt, transferred July 9, 1863, to the Veteran Reserve Corps. 
 
 Joseph N. Bloomer; discharged for disability March 2, 1863. 
 
 Prince Eldridge, Jr., transferred to the navy April 21, 1864. 
 
 Daniel W. Ellis. 
 
 William A. Gould. 
 
 Nathaniel Smith, discharged for disability June 12, 1863. 
 
 Eric M. Snow, discharged for disability May 26, 1863. 
 
 43d regiment of 9 months' men, from September 20, 1862, to July 30, 
 1863. 
 
 COMPANY E. 
 
 Charles M. Upman, at first sergeant, and then 2d lieutenant; re-en- 
 listed in the 58th regiment, becoming captain; killed at Cold Harbor 
 June 3, 1864. 
 
 William H. Harley, sergeant; re-enlisted in the 58th regiment, becom- 
 ing captain; killed at Spotsylvania, Va., May 12, 1864. 
 
 John W. Atwood, sergeant. 
 
 Charles E. Atwood, corporal. 
 
 Francis Brown. 
 
 Benjamin S. Cahoon. 
 
 John W. Crowell. 
 
 Ephraim Eldredge. 
 
 Cyrus Emery. 
 
 Franklin D. Hammond, re-enlisted in the 58th regiment, becoming 2d 
 lieutenant; killed before Petersburg, Va., June 23, 1864. 
 
 James S. Hamilton. 
 
 James T. Hamilton. 
 
 Josiah J. Hamilton. 
 
 David Harding. 
 
 Samuel H. Howes, re-enlisted July 29, 1863, in Company B, 2d Heavy 
 Artillery; 1st sergeant; discharged August 23, 1865. 
 
 Charles Johnson, re-enlisted in Company A, 58th regiment. 
 
 Horatio F. Lewis. 
 
 Storrs L. Lyman. 
 
 Andrew S. Mayo. \ 
 
 Benjamin Rogers. 
 
 Francis B. Rogers. 
 
 Joshua N. Rogers. 
 
 George A. Taylor. 
 
 12 
 
58th regiment, 3 years, enlisted January, 1864; discharged July, 1865, 
 on close of the war. Names already referred to not repeated. 
 
 COMPANY A. 
 
 Nathaniel B. Smith, 1st sergeant; killed at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. 
 
 Francis Armstrong, sergeant; died same day of wounds received at 
 Cold Harbor, June 10, 1864. 
 
 Pliny Freeman, sergeant. 
 
 George W. Hamilton, sergeant. 
 
 Samuel Hawes, Jr., sergeant; discharged for disability, June 19, 1865. 
 
 Aaron W. Snow, sergeant. 
 
 Benjamin F. Bassett,* died at Washington on June 24, 1864, of wounds 
 received June 3, 1864, presumably at Cold Harbor. 
 
 Charles B. Bearse. 
 
 John Bolton, killed at Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864. 
 
 Joshua H. Chase, discharged for disability, January 27, 1865. 
 
 Zabina Dill, died in Andersonville (Ga.) prison, August 28, 1864. 
 
 Nathan Eldridge, killed at Spotsylvania, May 12, 1864. 
 
 Washington A. Eldridge. 
 
 Stephen Ellis. 
 
 Harrison F. Gould. 
 
 Josiah F. Hardy. 
 
 Samuel Harding. 
 
 Seth T. Howes, killed in battle of the Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864. 
 
 Henry W. Mallows. 
 
 Charles Mullett. 
 
 Edwin S. Nickerson, prisoner at close of war. 
 
 Benjamin F. Pease, discharged for disability, July 1, 1865. 
 
 Bridgeman T. Small. 
 
 Albert E. Snow, transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps. 
 
 Zenas M. Snow. 
 
 David G. Young, died in service at Fredericksburg, Va., May 12, 1864. 
 
 COMPANY H. 
 
 Francis S. Cahoon. 
 
 Our venerable fellow citizen, David H. Crowell, served in the navy 
 as Acting Captain on the Tuscarora on special service from Novem- 
 ber 22, 1861, till his resignation, May 16, 1863. 
 
 POLITICAL. 
 
 The town like the state had supported the Whig party, but on the 
 formation of the Republican party, its allegiance was transferred to the 
 latter. Fremont in 1856 and Lincoln in 1860 had a majority in the 
 town, and in 1861, after the commencement of the war, John A. 
 Andrew, Republican, received the entire vote cast for governor. 
 
 In the Constitutional Convention of 1820 the town was represented by 
 
 *In official report erroneously credited to Harwich. 
 
 18 
 
Capt. Joseph Young and Capt. Salathiel Nickerson. As delegate to the 
 constitutional convention of 1853, S. B. Phinney of Barnstable was 
 chosen by a vote of 103 against 97 for Freeman Nickerson of Chatham. 
 Why an out-of-town man was chosen does not appear, but it is worthy 
 of note that Barnstable sent no delegate. 
 
 CHURCH. 
 The question of religious worship could not fail to be in the mind of 
 the early settlers. They were not sufficiently numerous to support a 
 minister. The nearest church was that of Eastham, its meeting house 
 being within the present limits of Orleans. Later a church was or- 
 ganized in Harwich, the meeting house being within the present limits 
 of Brewster. During his life William Nickerson gave religious instruc- 
 tion to the inhabitants. The first resident preacher was Jonathan Vick- 
 ery, who came from Hull in 1697. He was not an ordained minister, 
 but a lay preacher. His pay was probably about 20 pounds a year 
 besides a supply of hay and wood. The first meeting house was built 
 in 1700, though not then entirely finished, and the men of the village 
 were to take turns in procuring timber and helping to frame the build- 
 ing, or pay in the next rate those who did the work. The building was 
 a small one, plain and rough, without a steeple, and without means of 
 heating. In the winter, foot-stoves and hot bricks were carried by the 
 worshippers. There were no pews, but benches on each side of the 
 center aisle faced the pulpit, those on one side being occupied by the 
 men and those on the other side of the aisle by the women. The 
 meeting house stood in the south section of the old cemetery. Mr. 
 Vickery was drowned in 1702. Various persons preached for short 
 periods until 1711. The longest service was that of the Rev. John 
 Latimer, a graduate of Harvard College in the Class of 1703, who was 
 the first educated minister in the place. He remained from 1706 to 
 1708. In 1711 the Rev. Hugh Adams, a graduate of Harvard College in 
 the Class of 1697, was employed, and remained until he was dismissed 
 in 1715. He had previously been settled for a time near Charleston, 
 S. C. His salary was 52 pounds a year and a settlement of 100 pounds, 
 payable in two years was given him. He was also given a farm south 
 of and near the meeting house, and a house was built for him at the 
 cost of 75 pounds. He soon, however, became involved in controversy 
 with some of his hearers and particularly with Ebenezer Hawes, who 
 came from Yarmouth about 1705 and remained until about 1720, when 
 he returned to Yarmouth. Hawes was a leading man of the place 
 during his residence. He kept the tavern and had perhaps been crit- 
 icised by Adams. However that may be, he uttered some language 
 respecting Mr. Adams, which the latter regarded as slanderous, and he 
 accordingly brought suit for damages in the Common Pleas Court in 
 L715. The case was tried at Barnstable early in 1716, when the verdict 
 
 14 
 
was against Adams. He appealed to the Superior Court of Judicature. 
 
 The appeal was heard at Plymouth before the celebrated Judge Samuel 
 
 Sewall, when Adams prevailed and obtained 10 shillings damages. The 
 
 papers in this suit are on file with the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial 
 
 Court in Boston. Among them is a paper in behalf of Hawes, signed 
 
 by 28 men of the town, whose names are the following: 
 
 Jonathan Godfrey. William Eldredge, Jr. 
 
 Daniel Sears. Morris Farris. 
 
 William Eldredge. John Eldredge. 
 
 Isaac Hawes (brother of Ebenezer). John Stuard. 
 
 Samuel Tucker. John Collins. 
 
 John Taylor. William Mitchel. 
 
 John Taylor, Jr. Daniel Hamilton. 
 
 John Atkins. Ebenezer Stuard. 
 
 John Smith. John Ryder. 
 
 Thomas Howes. Joseph Stuard. 
 
 Joseph Eldredge. James Eldredge. 
 
 Robert Paddock. Samuel Taylor. 
 
 Samuel Atkins. Samuel Stuard. 
 
 Richard Sears. David Smith. 
 
 Among them, as appears, are names still current in the town, and 
 others that have disappeared from among us. The name of Morris 
 Farris is perpetuated in Morris Island, on which he resided. 
 
 Up to this time there was no church organization in the town. 
 There were but seven church members and these belonged to the East- 
 ham Church, or, in one instance at least, to the Harwich Church. Be- 
 fore the emigration of 1711 there had been eleven church members. 
 
 In 1719, the Rev. Joseph Lord, a graduate of Harvard College in the 
 Class of 1691, was employed. He was a learned man, active in all the 
 religious controversies of the time. His writings were numerous and 
 many of them are preserved. The town agreed to give him a salary 
 of 80 pounds a year and the use of a house and land. It also agreed 
 that he should have a settlement of 100 pounds to be paid in four 
 years. It is a coincidence that he, as well as Mr. Adams, had been 
 settled for a time in South Carolina. Mr. Lord's location was Dor- 
 chester, not very far from Charleston. He came in 1720, established the 
 first church organization and served the town till his death in J 748. 
 He was buried in the south section of the old burying ground. In 1729 
 a new meeting house was built, which, with additions, served the pur- 
 poses of the congregation for about a century. It faced the south near- 
 ly opposite the road that leads from the old burying ground to West 
 Chatham, and after the additions consisted of a central portion and two 
 wings. At its back was the north section of the old burying ground. It 
 had no steeple and at first no pews, except one for the minister's wife. 
 
 15 
 
Ten years later, in 1739, an order was made in town meeting for space 
 to be laid out for a certain number of pews, and that they should 
 be sold for an aggregate of 100 pounds. In 1742, they were sold to 
 the following persons: 
 
 Thomas Doane. John Nickerson. 
 
 John Collins. Joshua Atkins. 
 
 Ensign William Nickerson. William Nickerson, 4th. 
 
 John Covel. Maziah Harding, and 
 
 Jonathan Godfrey. 
 
 In 1748, after the death of Mr. Lord, the Rev. Stephen Emery, a 
 graduate of Harvard College in the Class of 1730, was employed. The 
 town voted him an annual salary of 480 pounds old tenor, reckoning 
 silver at 52 shillings per ounce, or 400 pounds with wood. He was 
 also to receive a settlement of 800 pounds to be paid in two years. 
 Mr. Emery served the town until his death in 1782. His descendants 
 are in the town to this day. He was buried in the north section of 
 the old burying ground, where an inscription to his memory may still be 
 seen. 
 
 In 1773, it was voted "to repair tha meeting house and enlarge it, 
 the men's and women's seats to front the pulpit after enlarging, and to 
 take up some hindermost seats and substitute pews." In 1774 the sum 
 of 40 pounds was raised for that purpose. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Thomas Roby, a graduate of Harvard College in the 
 Class of 1779, succeeded Mr. Emery in 1783, and preached until his 
 resignation in 1795. The Rev. Ephraim Briggs, also a graduate of 
 Harvard College, Class of 1791, followed in 1796, and served until his 
 death in 1816. His salary was fixed at 85 pounds a year besides wood 
 and hay and the use of the parsonage. He also had a settlement of 
 230 pounds. In 1812 the town voted to repair the meeting house and 
 increase the number of pews. 
 
 The next incumbent (and the last one while the church remained a 
 town affair) and the last who preached in the old building, was the 
 Rev. Stetson Raymond, a graduate of Brown University in the Class 
 of 1814. He served from 1817 to 1829, when he was dismissed. His 
 salary was $650 yer year, with the use of the parsonage. The Society 
 at a meeting May 27, 1830, voted to build a new meeting house. The 
 old structure was sold and in 1831 was taken down. The new one was 
 built in the lot now occupied by the Congregational cemetery and stood 
 on rising ground some distance back of the main road. The parsonage 
 was built west of the church in a lot fenced off from the cemetery. It 
 was destroyed by fire with the church records in 1861. The new 
 church was removed to its present site in 1866. 
 
 During the early history of the town the inhabitants were nearly all 
 adherents of the Congregational church. The church was a town af- 
 
 16 
 
fair, and it was supported by taxes raised in town meeting. Very- 
 early, however, there were some Quakers in the town who objected to 
 being taxed for the support of the church, and in 1732 Paul Crowell was 
 sent to Barnstable to see if Quakers were free of ministerial taxes, with 
 what result does not appear. Somewhat later a sect arose called "Sep- 
 aratists," which had an organization in Harwich under the leadership of 
 Joshua Nickerson and some adherents in Chatham. This sect, for the 
 most part, became merged in the Baptists. The question of taxing 
 these people was raised in town meeting in 1755, and the vote was that 
 they should not be excused from church taxes. It was, however, soon 
 decided that persons belonging to other church organizations and con- 
 tributing to their support, should not be compelled to pay ministerial 
 taxes. In 1758 there was recorded in "the town book a certificate that 
 Nathaniel Bassett was a Baptist. Beginning a little before 1800 and 
 continuing for some years after, the town records contain many certif- 
 icates that various persons had become members of the Methodist, 
 Baptist or Universalist societies and contributed to their support. At 
 first the Methodists and Baptists belonged to societies in Harwich, but 
 later Chatham societies were formed. The Methodist society was 
 formed in 1816, the Universalist in 1822, and the Baptist in 1824. A 
 Methodist church and parsonage were built near the Methodist cem- 
 etery about 1812 and the present ones about 1850. In 1823 a Univer- 
 salist church was erected near the cemetery of that denomination. In 
 1850 a second one was built on the site of the Academy. This was 
 burned in 1875 and in 1879 the present one was erected. A Baptist 
 church was built in 1827 near the Baptist cemetery, which was later 
 removed to the Old Harbor read. When the Baptist society ceased to 
 exist the church was sold to the Masonic Lodge. 
 
 In 1820 the town raised $680 to pay Mr. Raymond's salary for the 
 year. In the report of the town meeting held August 9, 1824, is the 
 following entry: 
 
 "The town voted not to raise $500 for Mr. Stetson Raymond. 
 Then the hearers of Mr. Raymond voted to raise $500 for his sup- 
 port this year." 
 
 This ended the connection of the town as such with the Congrega- 
 tional church. 
 
 About 1850 a religious movement was started in Chatham, similar to 
 the Separatist movement of a century before, which to some extent 
 affected the adjoining towns. Its central idea was that the churches 
 had become too formal and worldly and had drifted away from the 
 simplicity of the gospel. The followers of this movement did not be- 
 lieve in a specially set-apart ministry, laid down no creed, and em- 
 phasized the relations of the individual with the deity. Their worship 
 consisted of exhortation, singing and prayer, in which all the members, 
 
 17 
 
including the women, were encouraged to join. Because most of the 
 members had come out from the churches, they were commonly called 
 "Comeouters." Seth Nickerson was the best-known leader. With Elisha 
 Eldridge, David Harding, Doane Kendrick and others, he headed a 
 division which (for a number of years) like the Quakers, practiced 
 avoidance of colors and extreme simplicity in dress, house-furnishings, 
 etc. Another division, more liberal in dress and outward forms, of 
 which Whitman Bassett, Jabez Crowell (of East Harwich) and James 
 Hawes were leading members, worshipped for a number of years in a 
 small meeting house in West Chatham, erected on the south side of 
 the main road, a little east of the point where the road to East Har- 
 wich branches off. Not long after 1860, with the death of the principal 
 members, the movement died out in Chatham, 
 
 TOWN HOUSE. 
 Town meetings were held in the old meeting house until it was taken 
 down, the last meeting there being held in November, 1831. In Feb- 
 ruary, 1832, the meeting was held in the Methodist meeting house. Af- 
 ter tbat they were held successively in the Baptist and Universalist 
 meeting houses until 1838. November 11, 3 838, they met in Academy 
 Hall. In January, 1851, the town meeting was held in the "New 
 Academy Hall," by which must have been meant Granville Seminary. 
 February 3, 1851, the people voted to build a town house by the following 
 November. It was erected on the site of the old Methodist church 
 near the Methodist cemetery. The first town meeting held in it met 
 November 10, 1851. In 1877 the present town hall was erected. 
 
 EDUCATION. 
 The early settlers were not uninterested in the education of their 
 children, especially the boys, but their circumstances forbade the estab- 
 lishment of schools. Parents gave instruction to their children, and, 
 no doubt, in the case of illiterate parents, neighbors capable cf doing 
 so took their children with their own. It is remarkable that the chil- 
 dren and grandchildren of the immigrants received as much education 
 as they did. As soon as it was able to do so, the town took measures 
 for the more systematic instruction of its youth. It is quite likely 
 that before 1720 a schoolmistress had been employed, which was 
 not in accordance with the Provincial requirement, for in 1722 an 
 agent was appointed to petition the General Court "to consider the 
 low estate of the town and exempt it from fine for keeping only a 
 school-dame." 
 
 In 1721, however, Samuel Stewart had been appointed schoolmaster, and 
 for his services received ten pounds. For several years thereafter 
 Daniel Legg was schoolmaster. In 1723 the year was divided into six 
 parts, school to be held at houses in various sections of the town, the 
 master boarding around. Various teachers at different times followed 
 
 18 
 
Mr. Legg. In 1768 the town was divided into four sections; Capt. 
 Joseph Doane and Seth Smith to get a teacher for the N. E. section; 
 George Godfrey and Joseph Atwood for the S. E.; John Hawes and 
 Samuel Taylor for the S. W., and Paul Crowell and Barnabas Eldredge 
 for the N. W. section. Schoolhouses were not built till after 1790. In 
 1800 the town was divided into five districts, with a schoolhouse in 
 each. Later there were 13 districts and schoolhouses. Under the dis- 
 trict system, the districts had agents chosen in district meetings, 
 loward the expenses, the town contributed a certain sum, and the rest 
 was raised by district tax proportioned among the heads of families 
 according to the number of children in each attending school. The 
 schools were wholly ungraded, and in the winter term were attended 
 by pupils of various ages from the child learning the alphabet to the 
 young man of 20, home from - sea, struggling with Bowditch's Navigator. 
 There were also private navigation schools kept by individuals for young 
 men aspiring to command on the sea. 
 
 In 1820 there were seven district schools and the town raised $40 
 for each district. In 1824 the sum of $400 was raised for schools, and 
 in 1851, $1400. 
 
 After a long struggle by a few enlightened citizens, the town adopted 
 a graded system and erected the high school in 1858, the opening of 
 which inaugurated a new era in the educational history of the town. 
 The question of a grammar school, that is, a school where Latin 
 should be taught, was quite early raised, the Provincial law requiring 
 towns of 100 families to employ a master capable of teaching "the 
 tongues." 
 
 In 1776 the town voted not to hire a grammar school teacher for the 
 present. In 1779 an agent was appointe_d "to get a schoolmaster of the 
 Gramer Tongue to keep a school in our town.'' But it does not appear 
 that one was employed. Private enterprise about 1830 provided an 
 academy witb a building on the high ground near the residence of the 
 late Seth Taylor. Joseph W. Cross, a graduate of Harvard College in 
 the Class of 1828, was the first teacher. He became a minister and 
 died in 1906 at the age of 98, then the oldest living graduate of 
 Harvard. It was his son, Joseph W. Cross, Jr., of whom some of us 
 have a grateful recollection as the first principal of the high school. 
 This academy failed for want of patronage and the building was re- 
 moved about 1850. After it closed and about 1850, Joshua G. Nicker- 
 son opened an institution on the Old Harbor road, called the "Granville 
 Seminary,' which did not long continue its educational work. 
 
 Prior to 1860, books were few except bibles and religious works. In 
 1875 The Free Pilgrim Library was established in South Chatham, which 
 now has between 900 and 1000 volumes. A library association was 
 formed in the village in 1887, which in 1889 presented its 640 volumes to 
 
 19 
 
the town. The public need was not adequately met, however, until the 
 founding of the Eldridge Library by the Hon. Marcellus Eldridge, which 
 was opened in 1896. 
 
 It should be remarked that the early backwardness of the town in 
 higher education and the comparatively small number of college grad- 
 uates it has had are to be explained by the seafaring habits of the 
 people, which kept its young men from home and from surroundings that 
 would naturally lead their thoughts towards letters and study. 
 
 Joseph Lord, son of the. Rev. Joseph Lord, graduated at Harvard Col- 
 lege in 1726, after his father settled in Chatham. 
 
 The first native of the town to receive a college education, so far 
 as I can learn, was Samuel Emery, son of the Rev. Stephen Emery, 
 born 1751. He graduated at Harvard in 1774 and received the degree 
 of A. M. from Yale College in 1781. He married Mary, daughter of 
 Nathaniel Appleton of Boston, and died in 1838. I know of no other 
 native of the town who went to college until after the lapse of about 
 ninety years. In 1865 another descendant of the Rev. Stephen Emery, 
 John A. Emery, son of John, graduated at Amherst College. He was 
 not a pupil of the High school, but was a student in the Bridgewater 
 State Normal School in 1854. He settled as a lawyer at Pittsburgh, 
 Pa., and practised his profession with credit to himself and his native 
 town until his death in 1900. Nathaniel B. Smith in 18G1 went from 
 the High School to Amherst College. He was not able to continue his 
 studies, entered mercantile life in Boston, but soon enlisted in the 
 war and fell lamented in 1864 in the battle of Cold Harbor. Galen 
 B. Danforth is referred to below. Besides those mentioned elsewhere, 
 Joshua G. Nickerson in 1845 and Freeman Nickerson in 1846 were stu- 
 dents of the Bridgewater Normal School. They were teachers for a 
 number of years. 
 
 PHYSICIANS. 
 
 In the earliest years of the town there was no resident physician. In 
 sickness the people depended upon the matrons of the village with their 
 herb gardens. Later the minister generally had some knowledge of 
 medicine and dentistry. The first physician of the town was Dr. Sam- 
 uel Lord. After him the nearest physician was Dr. Joseph Seabury cf 
 Orleans (then Eastham), who died ia 1800. His son, Dr. John Seabury, 
 settled in this town about 1815 and practised here for fifteen years, 
 when he moved away. He resided in the large house just west of the 
 parsonage. His nephew, Dr. Benjamin F. Seabury, who practised in 
 Orleans from 1837 to 1890, was much resorted to by Chatham patients, as 
 was also Dr. Samuel H. Gould, who practised in Brewster from 1844 to 
 1882. Dr. Greenleaf J. Pratt, who practised in Harwich from about 
 1815 till 1858, and Dr. Franklin Dodge, who practised there from 1838 
 till 1872, also had many Chatham patients. Dr. Daniel P. Clifford 
 
 20 
 
settled in Chatham about 1810, married Betsey Emery, granddaughter 
 of Rev Stephen Emery, and practised his profession until his death in 
 1863. He lived on the north road a little east of the East Harwich 
 meeting house. Dr Elijah W. Carpenter graduated at the Harvard 
 Medical School in 1837 and immediately came here. He married Mary 
 H., daughter of Joshua Nickerson, and successfully practised here till a 
 few years before his death in 1881. His eldest daughter married Ed- 
 ward F. Knowlton, a wealthy straw goods manufacturer who resided in 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. Their daughter Mary married Count Johannes von 
 Francken Sierstorpff, of Germany. They entertained the German Em- 
 peror on Thanksgiving Day, 1911, at their Castle Zyrowa, Silesia. So 
 a descendant of the Norwich weaver who founded this town was hostess 
 of a monarch, in some respects the most powerful of the present 
 time. She had evidently not forgotten her origin, for she set before 
 him the traditional New England dishes of the day. Dr. Nathaniel B. 
 Danforth came soon after 1840, married here in 1845, Elouisa S. Martin, 
 and died in 1864. He continued to practise until his death. His son, Galen 
 B. Danforth, was a pupil of the High School under Mr. Cross, and 
 went from there to Amherst College, where he graduated in 1867. He 
 then studied medicine in Germany and Edinburgh, and went as a medical 
 missionary to Tripoli, Syria, where he died in 1875 at the early age of 
 28 years. Dr. N. P. Brownell was another physician settled here be- 
 fore 1860. The second native of the town to become a physician was 
 Erastus Emery, son of John Emery. He was a pupil of the High School, 
 a graduate of the Harvard Medical School in 1869, practised in Truro 
 and died at an early age in 1878. The first dentist in town was the 
 late Dr. Joseph Atwood. He was followed by Dr Sylvanus H. Taylor. 
 
 LAWYERS. 
 There were no resident members of the bar here until . very recent 
 years. The drawing cf deeds and wills and the probate business were 
 done by laymen. Joseph Doane, Squire Sears and Deacon John Hawes 
 were among those in earlier years. During my boyhood and later, 
 Warren Rogers was the most active in this way. The early ministers 
 were frequently called in for this service; the Rev. Joseph Lord drew 
 many legal papers in his time. Simeon M. Small, a native of this town, 
 became a member of the bar and practised law in Yarmouth before 1860, 
 when he went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he practised until his 
 death in 1875. Before he left the Cape he had been Judge of the 
 Court of Insolvency. 
 
 CHATHAM MEN IN OTHER PLACES.* 
 Some Chatham men who have had honorable careers in other places 
 [*It has been my purpose not to mention living persons in any part 
 of this address except in a few instances that will be regarded as 
 justifiable.] 
 
 21 
 
may be named. David Sears, born in 1752, was the son of Daniel 
 Sears. After his father's death his mother in 1763 married Samuel 
 Ballard of Boston and took David with her there. He became a mer- 
 chant and died in 1816 the richest man in Boston. He is the ancestor 
 of the wealthy and prominent Sears family in Boston. His son David 
 about 1848 erected the Sears monument standing in the old burying 
 ground here. Mention may be made here of David's elder brother, Rich- 
 ard, who continued to reside in this town and was long known as Squire 
 Sears. He resided and kept a store in the old Sears House, was Jus- 
 tice of the Peace and the town's representative in the General Court 
 for many years. In 1804 he was a member of the State Senate. He 
 died in 1839 at the age of 90. His wife, a native of Framingham, died 
 in 1852 at the age of 94. 
 
 Alpheus Hardy was born in 1815, the son of Isaac Hardy. He studied 
 for a time at Phillips Andover Academy, but ill health compelled him 
 to desist. Before his majority he entered business for himself in Bos- 
 ton and became one of the most prominent men in the shipping and 
 importing business. He was president of a Boston Bank and of a Mich- 
 igan Railroad Company. Upcn the death of Joshua Sears, a native of 
 Yarmouth, Mr. Hardy became the managing trustee of his estate, then 
 the largest in Boston, and guardian of his son, Joshua Montgomery 
 Sears. He was a member of the State Senate in 1861, and a strong 
 supporter of the Union during the war. His business cares did not 
 prevent him from being a leader in religious and charitable work. He 
 was for many years a trustee of Amherst College and of the Andover 
 Theological Seminary. He was a bountiful giver. He died in 1887. His 
 brother, Isaac Hardy, in copartnership with George Ryder (a former 
 sea captain), son of Stephen Ryder of this town, was long a prominent 
 ship chandler in Boston. 
 
 The successful career of Heman and Joshua Eldridge, former sea cap- 
 tains, in Portsmouth, N. H., is well known. 
 
 David Godfrey, father of George Godfrey so well known in this town, 
 after having been a sea captain and officer on a privateer in the war of 
 1812, promoted a line of packets between Boston and New York, and 
 settled in the latter city about 1830, continuing in successful business 
 until his death in 1845. Mulford Howes, who had also been a sea cap- 
 tain and who spent his declining years in his native town, was associ- 
 ated with him. Later Isaac. B. Atwood was an active business man in 
 New York, and James A. Stetson represented the town well in New 
 York and Gloucester in the fish business. 
 
 John W. Atwood, son of John Atwood, was born in this town in 1822 
 and in 1846 was a student in the Bridgewater Normal School. 
 He was a member of the state senate in 1857 and 1859. In 1858 he 
 was a member of the House of Representatives. He served for nine 
 
 ■>■> 
 
months as sergeant in the 43rd Mass. Volunteers in 1862 and 1863. 
 Afterwards he engaged in the coal business in Jersey City, N. J., but 
 later became the successful and valued principal of one of the public 
 schools there, continuing until ill health compelled him to retire. He 
 died in 1883 and is buried in the Congregational Cemetery in this town. 
 
 Benjamin F. Hawes, son of Thomas Hawes, at the time of his early 
 death had established a large business in New York in the manufacture 
 and sale of hats. 
 
 Simeon Ryder, a son of Stephen and brother of the Stephen Ryder 
 who lived and kept a mill on the North road west of the old burying 
 ground, was at first a sea captain. He afterwards engaged in success- 
 ful business in New York and later in Alton, 111., where he died in 
 1877, aged 82. He projected the Terre Haute and Alton Railroad, was 
 the leader in its construction and became its first president. 
 
 Benjamin Godfrey, a native of this town, was also first a sea captain. 
 He afterwards engaged in business in Matamoros, Mexico, and in New 
 Orleans, where he amassed a considerable fortune. From New Orleans 
 he went to Alton, 111., where he established the wholesale house of 
 Godfrey & Gilman. He projected and built the Alton and Sangamon 
 Railroad, of which he was the president. He built and presented a 
 church to the society with which he worshipped, and he founded the 
 Monticello Female Seminary at Godfrey, a town named for him adjoin- 
 ing Alton. When on November 7, 1837, Elijah T. Lovejoy, the early 
 abolitionist and brother of Owen Lovejoy, was killed by a mob who 
 had attacked the establishment where he printed his paper, the "Ob- 
 server," it was in the storehouse of Godfrey & Gilman that Lovejoy 's 
 press was placed for safe-keeping. Mr. Godfrey died in 1862. 
 
 Samuel M. Nickerson carried the Chatham energy and business judg- 
 ment to Chicago, where he was for twenty years president cf the 
 First National Bank. 
 
 David Smith, a former sea captain, son of Stephen, established the 
 business of ice manufacture in Honolulu, and in Washington, D. C. 
 
 If the record of Chatham men who have moved away could be traced, 
 the influence that they and their descendants have had on widely dis- 
 tant communities would be found to be much greater than is imagined. 
 To illustrate this, I will give two instances that have come within my 
 knowledge. Isaac Hawes went from this town before the Revolution and 
 finally settled in Kent, in western Connecticut. Two of his grandsons, 
 Rev. Josiah Hawes and Rev. Prince Hawes, were graduates of Williams 
 College, in 1800 and 1805 respectively, and were influential preachers. 
 A third grandson, Lowman Hawes, graduated at Yale College in 1814, 
 and became a prominent lawyer in Maysville, Ky. Two sons of Levi 
 Eldredge, already spoken of as a soldier in the war of 1812, Rev. In- 
 
 •_>:5 
 
crease and Rev. Levi Eldredge, were ministers of the Christian denomina- 
 tion and preached in several states for many years. 
 
 CALAMITIES. 
 
 The town has not been free from tragic events. In the fall of 1765 
 an epidemic of smallpox broke out in this town, and between Novem- 
 ber 23, 1765, and May, 1766, thirty-seven persons died, and twenty-four 
 had the disease and recovered, so that over sixty per cent, of those 
 attacked died. The cases numbered nine per cent, of the population. 
 Among the deaths was that of Dr. Samuel Lord, already referred to as 
 the first physician settled in the town. He fell a martyr to his pro- 
 fessional duty, as so many physicians had before and have since. This 
 disease, which modern science has robbed of its terrors, was rendered 
 so fatal by lack of medical assistance and the ignorance of its proper 
 treatment then prevalent in the profession. In addition to this visita- 
 tion, many of the inhabitants during the same period were visited with 
 a grievous fever, whereof divers adult persons died and several fam- 
 ilies lay sick a long time. 
 
 In November, 1772, Captain Joseph Doane found back of the Cape, a 
 schooner having aboard dead, Captain Thomas Nickerson, Elisha New- 
 comb and William Kent, Jr. The decks were bloody and the chests open 
 and plundered. One man was found aboard alive. He stated that the 
 day before they had been attacked by a pirate, the men killed and a 
 boy carried off. The survivor had concealed himself. Search was 
 made for the pirate ship, but none was found. The survivor was tried 
 in the Admiralty Court at Boston and after two trials acquitted. The 
 mystery has never been solved. 
 
 In 1786 occurred one of the many tragedies of the sea that have 
 brought sorrow to the town. A schooner belonging to New Haven 
 bound for the Banks, was lost with her crew of Chatham men. A chest 
 and some other articles belonging to her were found and brought home 
 by fishermen. The event has been transmitted to us through some 
 verses written about the time by Isaiah Young. The men lost were 
 Captain Sylvanus Nickerson, Mr. Nathaniel Young, Mr. Christopher Ta.v- 
 lor, Seth Eldridge, Adam Wing, Joseph Buck, Nehemiah Nickerson, 
 Stephen Eldridge, Barzillai Nickerson and Seth Dunbar. 
 
 EMIGRATION. 
 
 All through the history of the town there have, of course, been re- 
 movals of individual citizens to other localities, and since 1860 they 
 have been particularly numerous, but there have been four movements 
 that may properly be termed "emigrations." The first one occurred 
 in 1711, when thirteen men with their families went to Duck Creek in 
 Delaware, and eleven men with their families went to other towns. 
 The second emigration was to a region known as the "Oblong," which 
 was a strip of land in eastern New York, along the Connecticut border, 
 
 24 
 
now mostly included in Putnam County, N. Y. This took place about 
 1740. A third emigration, about 1760, took place to Nova Scotia, and 
 a fourth, about 1800, to a region now in the State, of Maine, known 
 as the "Kennebec Country." These emigrations were shared in by other 
 town, the population has been as follows: 
 
 POPULATION. 
 According to the various censuses that have been taken of the 
 the population has been as follows: 
 
 Year. Population. Year. Population. 
 
 1765 678 1860 2,710 
 
 1776 929 1865 2,624 
 
 1790 1,140 1870 2,411 
 
 1800 1,351 1875 2,274 
 
 1810 1,334 1880 2,250 
 
 1820 1,630 1885 2,028 
 
 1830 2,130 1890 1,954 
 
 1840 2,334 1895 1,809 
 
 1850 2,439 1900 1,749 
 
 1855 2,560 1905 1,634 
 
 1910 1,564 
 
 In 1765 there were 105 houses and 127 families; in 1801 the number 
 of dwellings was 158, of which four only were of two stories. Two 
 of these four were probably those on the North road west of the old 
 burying ground, the easternmost of which was the parsonage and the 
 other a little later the dwelling of Dr. John Seabury. The other two 
 were perhaps that of Josiah Ryder north of the main road in West 
 Chatham, later owned by David Nye Nickerson, and that of Richard 
 Sears, Jr., on the site of the Eldredge Library, occupied in his lifetime 
 by Dr. Carpenter. Capt. Joseph Atwood, father of Dr. Atwood, built 
 the similar house now standing, in 1812. The three last mentioned were 
 the most expensive houses in the town at that time and much admired. 
 The population increased steadily from 1765 to 1860, except between 
 1800 and 1810 when there was a slight falling off, and, since 1860, it 
 has steadily decreased, being in 1910 less than it was in 1820. 
 
 This decrease in the population has been due in part to causes that 
 have produced here the falling off in maritime enterprises, and in part 
 to those general causes that have produced, throughout the western 
 world in the last fifty years, a general tendency of population from the 
 rural districts to the cities. But, while the population of the town has 
 decreased, its wealth has increased. The valuation returned by the 
 assessors in 1850 was $513,000; in 1860, $957,430; and in 1912, $1,335,560. 
 It is undoubtedly true that not only the necessities and comforts of 
 life are as well ministered to as ever, but that all those things that 
 tend toward intellectual development, toward the broadening of the in- 
 
 25 
 
dividual and the raising him above the level of a mere animal 
 existence, were never so generally distributed. 
 
 More than a hundred years ago the merits of the Cape as a health 
 resort were known. It has, however, only been in comparatively recent 
 years that increasing numbers of summer guests have visited Chatham 
 and found health and pleasure in its salt air and cool breezes and in 
 its wonderful facilities for boating and fishing. The benefits have not 
 all been on one side. The town has profited in its turn and much of 
 its present prosperity is due to these welcome visitors. 
 EARLY CONDITIONS. 
 
 The first occupation of the inhabitants was agriculture. They raised 
 good crops of corn and rye, and also produced 'some wheat, 
 flax and tobacco. Kay from the salt marshes was abundant. 
 A petition to the General Court drawn by the Rev. Hugh Adams, in 
 1711, states of the place, that it is fertile for all sorts of provisions 
 and for good wheat especially, it being generally the best land of any 
 town on the whole cape, and "it has the most pleasant situation and 
 incomparable conveniency for most sorts of fishery." The cattle ran 
 at large on the common lands; cattle marks were recorded in the 
 town records. Sheep raising was an important industry, the wool being- 
 required for home use. Not long after 1860 the flocks had disappeared. 
 Perhaps the last ones were kept by Samuel Hawes, grand- 
 father of Sergeant Hawes, and by Rufus Smith and Samuel D. Clif- 
 ford. Subsistence was not hard to obtain. The waters were full of fish. 
 The shores abounded in clams, quahaugs and oysters. Scallops were 
 not esteemed. Lobsters were abundant. Deer and other game roamed 
 the woods, and birds and sea fowl were plentiful. Beachplums, wild 
 grapes and cranberries and other berries abounded. The question of 
 the right of non-residents to take clams, which has agitated the people 
 in modern times, was early presented. In 1768 the town voted against 
 allowing strangers to take clams and again in 1771 measures were taken 
 against non-residents, on the ground that the destruction of the bivalve 
 was threatened. The chief use then was as bait when salted. Upon 
 the settlement of the town the region was covered with pine forests, 
 not without some oak, and in the swamps there was a considerable 
 supply of cedar. The forests, no doubt, supplied the timber for the 
 first houses, and considerable tar was made in the early years. These 
 uses, the demand for fuel and the clearings for agriculture and res- 
 idence rapidly depleted the forests. In 1802, not over 65 acres of 
 woodland were left, near the Harwich border. About 50 or 60 years ago 
 the planting of trees was commenced and much old land has been 
 restored to forest. One effect of cutting off the wood was the blowing 
 away of the light soil in places by the high winds from the sea. The 
 southerly and easterly slopes of the Great Hill suffered especially. In 
 
 2G 
 
1821 the sum of $200 was raised by the town in an attempt to stop 
 the sand from blowing off this hill, and a committee headed by Capt. 
 Joseph Young was appointed to oversee the work. Beach grass was 
 transplanted to the locality to hold the sand, and when this was rooted, 
 pines were planted. A few years before 1800 a beginning was made of 
 the digging of peat from the swamps and its preparation for fuel. In 
 the years before 1860 a considerable business was done, mostly in 
 West Chatham, in the preparation and sale of this article. But about 
 this time coal became more common, and cranberry culture invaded the 
 town and took possession of the swamps. 
 
 FISHERIES. 
 Whaling was carried on during the early history of the town. The 
 whales used then to come in near the shore, whale-boats were kept, and 
 a lookout employed to give the alarm. As early as 1690 William Nick- 
 erson, son of the founder, was appointed inspector of whales. In 1775, at 
 the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, the whale-boats were ordered 
 to be concealed. In the earliest years dead whales not unfrequently 
 came ashore. Cod and mackerel fishing and the mercantile marine be- 
 came the chief industries of the town. In 1711 a sloop belonging to 
 the village was chased by the French. As early as 1720 Chatham 
 captains were engaged in foreign voyages. The town .records show 
 that in 1723 Samuel Stewart, the schoolmaster, was at sea, probably on 
 a fishing voyage. By 1740 seafaring had become the prevalent occupa- 
 tion of the men of the town. In 1774, Chatham had 27 vessels of 
 about 30 tons each engaged in the cod fishery, employing 240 men, and 
 having an average annual catch of 12,000 quintals. The Revolutionary 
 War nearly destroyed the business, and in 1783 there were only four or 
 five vessels afloat. In 1802 about 25 vessels belonging to the town were 
 so employed. A writer in 1791 speaks of 40 vessels, but this number 
 must have included these from other towns which cured their fish here. 
 In 1837, 22 vessels of the town were employed in the cod and mackerel 
 fishery, the catch being 15,500 quintals of cod worth $46,500, and 1200 
 barrels of mackerel worth $9,600. In 1865 the catch of cod was 25,361 
 quintals, being the largest catch of any town on the Cape except Prov- 
 incetown. The last mentioned figure no doubt included the shore fish- 
 ery. The business of curing or "making" the fish, as the term was, 
 was important in the closing years of the 18th and the first half of 
 the 19th century. Numerous flakes lined the shores of the bays. In 
 1840, 240 barrels of mackerel were inspected in the town; in 1854, 
 3,000; in 1864, 6,746; and in 1874, 10,765. In the later years the catch 
 was largely in the weirs that had been established near Monomoy 
 Point and in Chatham Bay. 
 
 27 
 
No complete list of the fishing captains can be given. Among those 
 whose service was about 1850 or earlier were: 
 
 Nathan Buck, David Harding, 
 
 Hezekiah Doane, Samuel Ryder, 
 
 Kimball Eldridge, Elijah Smith and 
 
 James Taylor. 
 The following were later in service: 
 David T. Bassett, David W. Hammond, 
 
 Henry Bassett, Elisha Hammond, 
 
 Whitman Bassett, Isaac L. Hammond, 
 
 Alonzo Bearse, Zebedee Hammond, 
 
 John Burchell, Nathaniel T. Hawes, 
 
 John G. Doane, Thomas Hawes, 
 
 Amos K. Eldridge, Stephen H. Howes, 
 
 Barzillai B. Eldridge, John Ireland, 
 
 Cyrenus Eldridge, Doane Kendrick, 
 
 Elisha Eldridge, Reuben C. Kenny, 
 
 Oren Eldridge, Isaiah Long, 
 
 Samuel W. Eldridge, Hira Nickerson, 
 
 Stephen T. Eldridge, Mulford Rogers and 
 
 Benjamin F. Freeman, Charles E. Smalley. 
 
 COMMERCIAL MARINE. 
 Chatham men, as has been stated, had been employed in commercial 
 voyages before 1800, but after the war of 1812 the mercantile marine 
 of the country increased rapidly until 1860, and among the captains 
 who carried our flag into every port from Archangel on the northern 
 ocean to Sydney on the southern sea, Chatham men were conspicuous. 
 They were especially employed in the lines that ran between Boston, 
 Charleston and Savannah and in the trade between Boston and Mediter- 
 ranean ports. The vessels were largely owned here and sailed by the 
 captains on shares, although some were employed on wages. Co-opera- 
 tion was in vogue. A young man who felt himself competent to com- 
 mand a vessel would arrange for a vessel to be built for him. He 
 would take a share, his friends at home would subscribe for part in 
 16ths, 32nds or 64ths, and the remainder would be taken by the East 
 Boston shipbuilder. In connection with this business two local insur- 
 ance companies were in existence before 1860. 
 
 Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, this great interest rapidly de- 
 clined. The Alabama and other Confederate cruisers captured many Chat- 
 ham vessels or drove them to come under the British flag, and the in- 
 crease of the use of steam over sail, carrying with it, as it did in many 
 cases, the transfer of the home port from Boston to New York, aided the 
 decline. When sailing vessels were employed and the home port was 
 Boston, opportunity was afforded for considerable visits at not too 
 
 28 
 
long intervals by the crews to their families here. Vessels on their 
 way between Boston and the south would often anchor in Chatham Bay 
 ("under the Neck" it was termed) and the crews would thus have an 
 opportunity of visiting their homes. But steam craft gave too short 
 shore leave for that purpose, especially if the home port were more 
 remote than Boston. The result was the removal of families from the 
 town to the vicinity of Boston or New York. During the period of 
 marine activity small vessels were run from the town to New York, 
 New London and New Bedford. 
 
 The captains in the merchant service were numerous. It would be 
 impossible to give a full list. Among the earlier ones were: 
 
 Joshua Atkins, 
 Joseph Atwood, 
 James Crowell, 
 Samuel Davis, 
 Thomas Dodge, 
 Abner Eldridge, 
 Zephaniah Eldridge, 
 Joseph Emery, 
 Samuel Emery, 
 Edmund Flinn, 
 John Flinn, 
 William Flinn, 
 James Harding, 
 Prince Harding, 
 Seth Harding, 
 Sparrow Harding, 
 James Hawes, 
 Samuel Hawes, 
 William Howes, 
 
 Collins Kendrick, 
 Nathaniel Kendrick, 
 Paul Mayo, 
 Alexander Nickerson, 
 Joshua Nickerson, 
 Moses Nickerson, 
 Seth Nickerson, 
 Zenas Nickerson, 
 Elisha Ryder, 
 George Ryder, 
 Joseph Ryder, 
 Josiah Ryder, 
 Richard Ryder, 
 Seth Ryder, 
 Richard Sears, Jr., 
 Reuben C. Smith, 
 Christopher Taylor, 
 John Taylor, 
 Joshua Taylor, 
 
 Seth Taylor. 
 Among those whose service was chiefly between 1850 and 1870 were: 
 
 Joshua Atkins, Jr., George W. Howes, 
 
 Ira Buck, Solomon Howes, 
 
 Luther Buck, Gershom Jones, 
 
 Benjamin Clifford, Elijah Loveland, 
 
 William Clifford, Winslow Loveland, 
 
 Elijah Crosby, David E. Mayo, 
 
 Isaac Crosby, Hezekiah Mayo, 
 
 David H. Crowell, Lorenzo Mayo, 
 
 John Crowell, Alexander Nickerson, Jr., 
 
 A. Judson Doane, David N. Nickerson, 
 
 Samuel H. Doane, George Nickerson, 
 
 Alfred Eldridge, Kingsbury Nickerson, 
 
 29 
 
Gideon Eldridge, 
 
 Henry Eldridge, 
 
 Luther Eldridge, 
 
 David Gould, 
 
 Charles Hamilton, 
 
 David Hamilton, 
 
 Sylvester Hamilton, 
 
 Archelaus Harding, 
 
 David J. Harding, 
 
 Elisha Harding, 
 
 Hiram Harding, Sr. and Jr. 
 
 Joseph Harding, 
 
 Joshua Harding, 
 
 Nathan A. Harding, 
 
 Oren Harding, 
 
 Josiah Hardy, 
 
 Reuben C. Hawes, 
 
 Alfred Howes, 
 
 Daniel H. Howes, 
 
 Franklin Howes, 
 
 Solomon Nickerson, 
 Starks W. Nickerson, 
 Zenas Nickerson, Jr., 
 John Paine, 
 Christopher Smith, 
 Ephraim Smith, 
 Levi D. Smith, 
 Reuben C. Smith, Jr., 
 Richard Smith, 
 Thomas Sparrow, 
 Hiram Taylor, 
 James Taylor, 
 John Taylor, Jr., 
 Joshua Taylor, Jr., 
 Levi Taylor, 
 Moses Taylor, 
 Reuben C. Taylor, 
 Richard Taylor, 
 Simeon Taylor, 
 Charles White. 
 
 To these should be added Charles Rockwell, who became an admiral 
 in the Navy. 
 
 MANUFACTURING. 
 
 Prior to 1860 and particularly early in the 19th century, shipbuilding 
 was carried on to some extent, small vessels being turned out of the 
 works. In 1845 six vessels were built and in 1855 fifteen. The business 
 of making salt by the evaporation of sea water was early established 
 here Extensive shallow vats were built along the shores of the bays, 
 equipped with movable roofs so that they could be covered on the ap- 
 proach of rain. The water was pumped into them by windmills. The 
 last works that were operated were those of Jesse Nickerson on the 
 neck where the hotel Chatham stood. These were closed about 1886. 
 In 1802 there were six salt works in the town; in 1837, 80, producing 
 annually 27,400 bushels, worth $8,220; in 1845, 54, producing 18,000 bush- 
 els; 'and in 1855, 14, producing 3,300 bushels. The industry ceased 
 to pay and began to decline when duties on salt were lowered, when 
 the State bounty was removed, when salt springs in New York and 
 elsewhere in the country came to be developed, and when the price of 
 pine lumber necessary in the construction of the works rose to a high 
 level. General manufacturing was never carried on here to any extent. 
 About 1800, however, there was a rope walk in the northern part of 
 the town and a tannery at the Old Harbor, which was closed about 
 1830. About 1840 there was a carding machine in the neighborhood of 
 the late Reuben Young. Windmills until comparatively recent years 
 
 30 
 
were used for the grinding of grain. About 1800 there were six of these 
 in the town. Between 1850 and 1860 there were nine, two in South 
 Chatham, one kept by Eben Bearse and one by Seth Bearse, one on 
 the North road west of the old burying ground, at one time owned by 
 Joshua Crowell and later kept by Stephen Ryder, one in West Chat- 
 ham kept by Ezekiel Young, one near the Oyster Pond, one on the 
 Stage Harbor road kept by Christopher Taylor and later by Oliver El- 
 dredge and Zenas Nickerson (the last one operated in the town), one 
 near the Lights, one at the Old Harbor and one at Chathamport. 
 
 STORES. 
 
 Among the early stores, mostly for the sale of general merchandise, 
 were those of Ezra Crowell, known as "Squire Crow," John Topping 
 and Isaiah Nye, near the old meeting house; Zoeth Nickerson, on the 
 North road east of the East Harwich meeting house; Christopher Ryder 
 and Enos Kent in Chathamport; Thacher Ryder, Zenas Atkins and Cap- 
 tain Benjamin F. Freeman in North Chatham; Stephen G. Davis, who 
 about 1830 established himself in West Chatham on the Oyster Pond 
 river near where it turns to the south; Daniel Howes, who succeeded 
 Davis and afterwards moved the store to the main road; Nabby C. 
 Taylor, widow of Reuben C. Taylor, also in West Chatham; Levi and 
 Hiram T. Eldridge in South Chatham. In the village the first stores 
 were probably those of Elisha Hopkins on Stage Neck and Richard 
 Sears near the Soldiers' Monument. Others that followed were those 
 of Josiah Hardy at his wharf near the Lights, Charlotte W. Hallett and 
 her son, Solomon E. Hallett, Ziba Nickerson, Sullivan Rogers (tin, sheet 
 iron and other hardware), Edward Howard (tailor), Samuel M. Atwood 
 (market), Washington Taylor; Levi Atwood (long town clerk, clerk of 
 the Congregational Church and familiar with the history of the town), 
 south of the head of the Oyster Pond, and in the same locality the 
 lumber yard of John Emery; while north of the head of the Oyster Pond 
 was the crowded store of David Howes, where everything seemed ill- 
 arranged and in disorder, but from which no customer ever went away 
 empty-handed, no matter how out of date or unusual the article he de- 
 sired. Some of the earlier stores sold liquor and in that respect 
 served the purpose of taverns. In the vicinity of the old meeting 
 house, the Widow Knowles long kept a tavern, which was resorted to 
 at times of general training and on other public occasions. 
 
 HABITS. 
 
 In the early history of the town there was much that dif- 
 fered from present conditions. Reaping was done with the 
 sickle. The clothing and the coverings for the beds were of 
 wool or flax and chiefly made at home. The large and small spinning 
 wheel, the hatchel, cards and the loom were a necessary part of the 
 
 31 
 
household furniture. The beds were filled with straw or feathers. The 
 women made their own soap, and the tallow candles, which, with whale 
 oil, supplied the light, were of domestic manufacture. There were no 
 friction matches. The tinder, flint and steel sufficed to kindle the fire. 
 There were no clocks at first. Hour glasses were used, as well as sun- 
 dials. The houses were built fronting the south so that the shadow 
 of the chimney would indicate noon. There were no stoves. The 
 houses had large chimneys with enormous fireplaces where the family 
 in winter nights could sit on either side of the fire of green wood 
 which burned between huge fore and back logs. The crane and pot 
 hooks, the spit, the andirons and bellows were necessary apparatus. If 
 the back of the dweller when facing the fire was cold he could warm it 
 by turning it to the blaze. A feature of each house was the brick oven 
 built into the chimney, heated by building a fire in it. In it, when 
 the fire was drawn, the pies and cakes the puddings and pots of beans, 
 and the loaves of brown bread were placed on Saturdays, to be cooked 
 by the slowly diminishing heat, which lasted through the night. The 
 earlier inhabitants did not seek the main roads as sites for their houses. 
 They preferably built near ponds where good water was at hand or on 
 the shores of the bays convenient for fishing. Markets did not exist. 
 Fresh meat was obtainable in the fall when a hog or a beef animal 
 was killed for winter use. At other times a fowl, a calf or a sheep of 
 the domestic stock might be used, or the "beef cart" patronized, which 
 once or twice a week came to the door. While efforts were earlier 
 made to check the excessive use of intoxicating liquors, the idea of 
 total abstinence did not take root until about 1830 or later. Before that 
 a supply of Medford rum was a necessary part of the winter's stock and 
 on days of general training or other public occasions liquors were sup- 
 plied on the spot or at the tavern. Sunday was strictly observed. 
 Churchgoing was obligatory and could be enforced by law. The Puritan 
 Sabbath resembled that of the Jews from whom it was borrowed. It 
 began at sunset Saturday night and ended at sunset Sunday night. A 
 bride was expected to carry to her new home an outfit for housekeep- 
 ing largely made with her own hands. The men wore knee-breeches, 
 and their hair was braided in queues. The tailoring was done by 
 women. The boots and shoes were made by the cobbler of the neigh- 
 borhood. The chairs were of domestic manufacture, bottomed with flags. 
 The travel, when not on foot, was on horseback, the man in front on 
 the saddle and the woman behind on the pillion. Sometimes oxcarts 
 were used. Carriages for pleasure or comfort were late in coming. 
 At first they were two-wheeled chaises. I have been told by my elders 
 that, the first chaise in town (probably about 1800), and long the only 
 one, was owned by Squire Sears. In the early years there was little 
 money. Taxes were collected in kind and transactions were carried on 
 
 32 
 
by exchange. Some English silver was in circulation and Spanish sil- 
 ver also appeared. The first bills of credit of the province, which ap- 
 peared before 1700, became soon depreciated, and were known as the 
 "old tenor." Other issues, known as "middle" and "new tenor," fol- 
 lowed. In 1749 the value of the old tenor was fixed by law at a 
 little over one-eighth of its face value in silver, and the middle and 
 new tenor at about one-half. During the Revolution the Continental 
 paper was also rapidly depreciated, until in 1780 it was worth only one- 
 thirtieth of its face in silver, and it ultimately became worthless. Prices 
 became very high, and they attempted to regulate them by law, as 
 has so often been attempted before and since, and no doubt with a like 
 result. The town voted August 16, 1779, to appoint a committee to 
 fix prices and wages. This committee reported on the 6th of Septem- 
 ber. The meeting approved the schedule presented and voted that 
 anyone violating it should be deemed an enemy of the country and 
 treated as such. 
 
 There were few safe means of investment, and those who had money 
 hoarded it. Luxuries were not entirely wanting. Some families had 
 silver spoons and other articles brought from Boston or abroad, and 
 gold beads for the ladies were not wholly absent. A writer in 1802 
 says: "The inhabitantts are very industrious. The women are en- 
 gaged in the domestic employments and manufactures usual in other 
 parts of Massachusetts, and a number of them in curing fish at the 
 flake yards." If we substitute "cranberry bogs" for "flake yards," 
 this description would not be far astray today. 
 
 The conditions of the ancient life had their beneficial effects. Not 
 only the spirit of self help was called out, but mutual helpfulness was 
 a necessity and must have softened the harder side of humanity which 
 the stern struggle for a somewhat isolated existence would tend to 
 foster. The care of the sick appealed to all, and while there were 
 no trained nurses, the neighborhood produced men and women experi- 
 enced in watching and caring for the sick according to the light of 
 the times. House raisings, sheep shearings and huskings brought the 
 people together in social meetings with amusement and jollity, as the 
 church services did in a more serious mood. The poor were always 
 present. At first when help at home did not suffice they were 
 farmed out to those citizens who would take them for the least sum 
 per week or year, having the benefit of their services. Later the town 
 bought for an almshouse and poor farm the house and farm of James 
 Taylor in West Chatham that had belonged to his father, Samuel Tay- 
 lor. This house and its successor built by the town were managed by 
 keepers and the town's poor cared for there until 1878, when the house 
 and farm were sold and a new almshouse established next to the Baptist 
 Church. 
 
 33 
 
POSTOFFICE. 
 
 In early times letters could be transmitted only by private messenger 
 or by the casual traveler. The first postoffice in the town was opened 
 January 1, 1798, with James Hedge as postmaster. He served until 
 1801, when he was succeeded by Ezra Crowell, who held the place 
 until 1819, when he was succeeded by Theophilus Crowell, who served 
 till 1821. He was succeeded by Josiah Mayo June 8, 1822, who held the 
 place until 1861, being also from 1847 to 1873 town clerk and treas- 
 urer. In 1861 Ziba Nickerson succeeded Mayo and was postmaster for 
 20 years. Until after the appointment of Mr. Mayo the postoffice was 
 located in the northern part of the town near the old burying ground, 
 which, as we have stated, had been the chief center of the town, but, 
 after 1820, the locality now known as the "village" began to forge 
 ahead and later became the most populous part of the town. A demand 
 for the removal of the postoffice sprang up. At a town meeting held 
 March 6, 1826, the question was raised whether the postoffice should 
 be moved to another part of the town or steps should be taken to 
 have an additional postoffice. Both propositions were negatived. But 
 in 1828 a postoffice was established at North Chatham, with Isaiah 
 Nye as the first postmaster, and at this time the old postoffice had 
 no doubt been removed down town. The West Chatham postoffice was 
 established in 1856 with Daniel Howes as first postmaster. The Chat- 
 hamport and South Chatham postoffices were both established in 1862 
 with Enos Kent and Levi Eldridge, Jr., as the incumbents respectively. 
 At first the mail was received weekly, by 1815 twice a week and after 
 1820 three times, a week. In 1827, the late Samuel D. Clifford, then 
 a boy of 14, carried the mail on horseback, starting from and return- 
 ing to Yarmouth the same day. Daily mails were established in 1848. 
 The telegraph reached the town in 1855, and the office was placed in 
 charge of our veneralbe fellow citizen Ziba Nickerson. The telephone 
 first appeared in 1883. News was not obtained so promptly as now. 
 In the years preceding 1860 Boston semi-weeklies were taken chiefly 
 for their shipping news and often one paper served for two or more 
 families. Local news was chiefly obtained through the Barnstable 
 Patriot, established in 1830, and the Yarmouth Register, established in 
 1836. The Chatham Monitor first appeared in 1871. 
 
 RAILROADS AND OTHER PUBLIC MEANS OF TRAVEL. 
 
 Communication with Boston was at first a matter of considerable 
 time and discomfort. The journey could be made on horseback, or ad- 
 vantage could be taken of the casual vessels that made the voyage 
 from Chatham to that port. The fishing vessels in the fall frequently 
 took the dried fish there for sale and returned with provisions and 
 goods to supply the winter needs of the inhabitants. About 1830 
 packets were run from Brewster and Chatham to Boston. Some of us 
 
 34 
 
can remember the Chatham packets at the wharf of Josiah Hardy near 
 the Lights and the ball and flag on the former doctor's house on the 
 north road that indicated the sailing and arrival of the Brewster pack- 
 et. Much use of this was made by the Chatham people to avoid the 
 trip around the Cape. The railroad was completed to Sandwich in 
 
 1848. It was extended to Yarmouth and Hyannis in 1854. Lines of 
 stages were then run from Chatham to Yarmouth and at one time 
 there was a line also to Hyannis. In 1865 Harwich was reached by 
 the railroad and from that time on a short carriage ride was required 
 until the Chatham railroad was opened in 1887. 
 
 LIGHTHOUSES AND LIFESAVING STATIONS. 
 
 The inhabitants of Chatham were early called upon to give relief 
 to seamen wrecked upon its shores. In 1711 it is stated the village 
 "has often heretofore been a place of relief to many shipwracked ves- 
 sels and Englishmen cast ashore in storms." No public action was 
 taken looking to the succor of men cast ashore until the Humane So- 
 ciety with headquarters in Boston placed houses of refuge along the 
 coast. In 1802 one of these huts was located half way between Nauset 
 and Chatham harbors. "The meeting house of Chatham is situated 
 from it southwest. This meeting house is also without a steeple and 
 is concealed by the Great Hill, a noted landmark. The hill appears 
 with two summits which are a quarter of a mile apart." There was 
 another hut a mile north of the mouth of Chatham harbor, east of the 
 meeting house and opposite the town. Still another was on Monomoy 
 beach. 
 
 The Chatham Lights, on James Head, were established in October 
 1808, and after one of them was washec* away, they were rebuilt 255 
 feet west of the original position, in 1877". Monomoy light station was 
 established in 1823, and the house was moved 212 feet southerly in 
 
 1849. The Stage Harbor (or Harding's beach) light station was estab- 
 lished in 1880. Lifesaving stations were first established on this coast 
 in 1872, when the Monomoy station, rebuilt in 1905, was constructed. 
 The Chatham station was established in 1873 and reconstructed in 1893. 
 Monomoy Point station was built in 1874 and rebuilt in 1900. The Old 
 Harbor station was established in 1898. 
 
 EARLY NOTICES. 
 
 It "may be interesting to know what was written about us a century 
 ago. 
 
 A writer, in 1791, says: 
 
 "Southeast from Harwich is Chatham, situated in the outer elbow of 
 the Cape, having the sea on the east and on the south; Harwich on the 
 west and Eastham on the north. The land is level and cleared of wood, 
 and in many places commands a fine view of the sea. The soil in gen- 
 eral is thin, the average produce of Indian corn being 12 bushels, and of 
 
 35 
 
rye 6 bushels, to the acre. There is not a stream of running water in 
 the town. Their mills are turned by wind, as on other parts of the 
 Cape. No town is more conveniently located with respect to water con- 
 veyance, having two harbors and many coves and inlets making up into 
 every part of the town. They are well situated for carrying on the 
 cod fishery, and employ about forty vessels in that business; some of 
 them fish upon the banks of Newfoundland and others upon the shoals. 
 As the harbors of this town are in the elbow or turn of the Cape, 
 they afford a shelter for vessels of a moderate size, when passing and 
 re-passing. But the harbors being barred, renders the ingress some- 
 what difficult to those who are not well acquainted with them. The 
 depth of water is sufficient for vessels of two or three hundred tons 
 burthen. Besides the fishery carried on in vessels at sea, they have 
 plenty of cod at the mouths of their harbors, which are taken in small 
 boats. They take plenty of bass in the season for them. Their coves 
 abound with eels; they have plenty of oysters and other shell fish for 
 their own consumption." "The scarcity of wood obliges the inhabitants 
 to use it with great frugality, five cords of wood being a year's stock 
 for a small family. Pine wood is two dollars and an half, and oak 
 three dollars and an half per cord." 
 
 The same writer, speaking of Cape Cod, says: 
 
 "The winds in every direction come from the sea, and invalids by 
 visiting the Cape sometimes experience the same benefit as from go- 
 ing to sea." 
 
 Another writer, in 1802, says: 
 
 "But husbandry is pursued with little spirit, the people in general 
 passing the flower of their lives at sea, which they do not quit till they 
 are fifty years of age, leaving at home but the old men and small boys 
 to cultivate the ground." "A few of the young and middle aged men 
 are engaged in mercantile voyages and sail from Boston, but the great 
 body of them are fishermen. Twenty-five schooners, from 25 to 70 tons, 
 are employed in the cod fishery. They are partly owned in Boston 
 and other places, but principally in Chatham. About one-half of them 
 fish on the banks of Newfoundland; the rest on Nantucket shoals, the 
 shores of Nova Scotia and in the straits of Belle Isle. On board these 
 schooners are about 200 men and boys, most of them are inhabitants 
 of Chatham; and they catch one year with another 700 or 800 quintals 
 to a vessel. Besides these fishing vessels, there are belonging to the 
 town five coasters, which sail to Carolina and the West Indies." "Few 
 town's in the county are so well provided with harbors as Chatham. 
 The first and most important is on the eastern side of the town and is 
 called Old Harbor. It is formed by a narrow beach, which completely 
 guards it against the ocean. The haven on the western side of this 
 beach is extensive; but the harbor of Chatham is supposed to reach 
 
 3G 
 
not farther than Strong Island, a distance of about four miles. Above 
 that the water, which is within the limits of Harwich and Orleans, is 
 known by other names. The breadth of the harbor is about three- 
 quarters of a mile. Its entrance, a quarter of a mile wide, is formed 
 by the point of the beach and James' Head east of it on the main 
 land. - - - There are no rocks either within or near the harbor; but its 
 mouth is obstructed by bars, which extend east and southeast of the 
 point of the beach three-quarters of a mile. On each side of this 
 mouth is a breaker; one called the north, and the other, the south 
 breaker. There are also several bars in the harbor within the outer 
 bars. These bars are continually shifting." "At low water there are 
 seven feet on the outer bar, common tides rising about six feet. - - - 
 There is good holding ground in the harbor. - - - The depth at low 
 water is about 20 feet. Not only do the bars alter, but the mouth of 
 the harbor also is perpetually varying. At present it is gradually mov- 
 ing southward by the addition of sand to the point of the beach. The 
 beach has thus extended about a mile within the course of the past 
 forty years." "The principal business of the town is done near Old 
 Harbor." "The greatest part of the fuel which is consumed is brought 
 from the district of Maine; and costs at present about seven dollars a 
 cord. Five cords of wood are considered as a sufficient yearly stock 
 for a family." "Not more than half enough Indian corn for the con- 
 sumption of the inhabitants is raised; the average produce to an acre 
 is twelve bushels. Rye, the average produce of which is six bushels, is 
 raised in the same proportion. Thirty years ago a small quantity of 
 wheat was grown, but at present it is wholly neglected." "There are 
 excellent oysters in the Oyster Pond; but they are scarce and dear, 
 selling for a dollar a bushel." 
 
 Stage Harbor is also described by this writer. 
 
 In 1839 a writer states that forty years before large ships used to 
 come into the harbor, but then it was so injured by a sand bar that had 
 been forming that only small craft could enter. The same writer says 
 that while Chatham is in extent one of the smallest towns on the Cape 
 it was said to be one of the wealthiest. A large amount of shipping 
 was owned by the inhabitants in other places. 
 
 In 1846 it is said: 
 
 "The Harbor of Chatham which was formerly a good one is now near- 
 ly destroyed by the shifting of the sand bars near its mouth Where 
 the entrance to it formerly was there is a beach 25 feet high, covered 
 with beach grass, and a mile in length." "There is considerable wealth 
 in this place. A large amount of tonnage is owned here which sail 
 from other places. The value of fish cured at Chatham is very con- 
 siderable, and large quantities of salt are made." 
 
 37 
 
How different is the world of today from the world of 1712? What 
 changes have taken place? France was under the rule of the Bourbons. 
 The French Revolution and Napoleon were nearly a century in the 
 future. Italy, now unite.d and progressive, was under the heel of 
 foreign princes or consisted of fragmentary and hostile communities. 
 Germany, now a mighty, consolidated empire, was a loose confederacy 
 of small principalities under the leadership of Austria. St. Petersburg 
 had just been founded, and Peter the Great was still at his task of 
 converting Russia from Asiatic backwardness and isolation into a 
 modern European power. On this side of the ocean a feeble fringe of 
 English colonies stretched along the coast from the Savannah River to 
 Maine. Georgia was not yet settled. North of Maine all was French. 
 West of the Alleghanies the territory was claimed by the French. From 
 Texas to the Isthmus of Panama and over substantially the entire con- 
 tinent of South America the Spaniards held sway, except in Brazil, 
 which had been colonized by Portugal. Through the entire field of in- 
 dustry the means were essentially those of the ancient world. All the 
 great changes that have been wrought by steam and electricity, guided 
 by inventive genius, were yet to come. Through these two centuries, 
 through all these mighty developments, this little community has moved 
 steadily on its way, not driven from its moorings, nor on the other hand 
 producing events that will find their place in general history, but the 
 scene of the honest lives of brave, industrious and energetic men and 
 women. Without such as these the republic would not exist. 
 
 In closing this address, I must not fail to say a word for those 
 who like myself have long lived away from the old home. Those who 
 have remained here can scarcely understand our feelings as we visit 
 this scene of our childhood and youth. There rush upon us the memo- 
 ries of former days. The companions with whom we played live 
 again, though too many have gone before. The little schoolhouse is 
 peopled again. Here are the graves where rest the bones of our an- 
 cestors, and here the old house calls up the tender and hallowed mem- 
 ories of father and mother, of brother and sister. Can we ever forget? 
 How can I better answer than by quoting the lines of Burns in his 
 lament upon the death of his benefactor, Lord Glencairn? — 
 
 "The bridegroom may forget the bride 
 
 Was made his wedded wife yestreen; 
 The monarch may forget the crown 
 
 That on his head an hour has been; 
 The mother may forget the child 
 
 That smiles sae sweetly on her knee; 
 But I'll remember thee, Glencairn, 
 
 And a' thou hast done for me!" j 
 
 38 
 

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