Editing Chatham Borough, New Jersey (section)

=== Early European settlement ===
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2025}}
In 1498, [[John Cabot]] explored this portion of the [[New World]]. The area was claimed as a part of the Dutch [[New Netherland]] province, where active trading in furs took advantage of the natural pass west, but, the Lenape prevented permanent settlement beyond what is now Jersey City. Although rapid exhaustion of the local [[beaver]] population soon turned the Dutch interests much farther north, contention existed between the Dutch and the British over the rights to this land and battles ensued. Passing to the rule of the British as the [[Province of New Jersey]] upon the fall of [[New Amsterdam]] in 1664, and becoming one of its [[Thirteen Colonies|original thirteen colonies]], marks the beginning of permanent European settlements on this land.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

The land that would become Chatham was part of the Province of [[East Jersey]]; the Indian rights to Chatham were purchased in 1680 from members of the Minsi and Lenni Lenape tribes. They spoke an [[Algonquian languages|Algonquian]] language. They hunted and fished in the area and farmed on the lands of their settlements. The area was well connected with established paths among their settlements, to and from bountiful resources, and to neighboring settlements. Safe passageways through the valleys, marshes, swamps, and mountains of this portion of the [[Watchung Mountains]] connected the area that would become Chatham with other settlements in the area. Except for highways built since the 1970s and a [[shunpiking|shunpike]] built to avoid tolls on the roads connecting the colonial settlements of Chatham and Bottle Hill, the roads of the area follow those time proven, long trodden trails made by the native tribes. Main Street rises from a shallow crossing of the [[Passaic River]] and, after traveling through what became the settlements of Chatham and Bottle Hill (which became [[Madison, New Jersey|Madison]]), the road follows a westward path that leads to the top of the plateau on which [[Morristown, New Jersey|Morristown]] was founded.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

In 1680, the British first purchased this Lenape land upon which John Day made the first European settlement in 1710. He chose to settle upon the western bank of the Fishawack Crossing (of the [[Passaic River]]) on the traditional Lenape [[Great Trail|Minisink Trail]]. Chatham was in the area delineated as Morris Township by the English. The landing at that location was the best place to ford the river and always had been used by the Lenape on their route to the Hudson River and south from their hunting grounds in what is now [[Sussex County, New Jersey|Sussex County]]. That traditional part of the [[Great Trail]] would become today’s [[New Jersey Route 124|Route 124]], leading to [[Madison, New Jersey|Madison]], [[Morristown, New Jersey|Morristown]], [[Mendham Borough, New Jersey|Mendham]], and [[Chester Borough, New Jersey|Chester]]. It became known as Main Street in Chatham.{{cn|date=April 2025}}