Editing Chatham Borough, New Jersey (section)

=== Establishment ===
[[Image:PostcardOldMillChathamNJ1911.jpg|thumb|right|The Old Mill at Chatham, N. J. depicted on a 1911 postcard]]
Before long, the village became known as '''''John Day's Bridge''''' because of a bridge he built across the river at the shallow landing. By 1750, the village had a [[blacksmith]] shop as well as a flour [[Mill (grinding)|mill]], a [[grist]] mill, and a lumber [[Factory|mill]].{{cn|date=April 2025}}

In 1773, the village was renamed to '''''"Chatham"''''' to honor a member of the British Parliament, [[William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham|William Pitt]], the first [[Earl of Chatham]], who was an outspoken advocate of the rights of the colonists in America.<ref name=Thinking/><ref>Hutchinson, Viola L. [http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/356/nj_place_names_origin.pdf#page=10 ''The Origin of New Jersey Place Names''], New Jersey Public Library Commission, May 1945. Accessed August 28, 2015.</ref><ref>[[Henry Gannett|Gannett, Henry]]. [https://books.google.com/books?id=9V1IAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA77 ''The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States''], p. 77. [[United States Government Printing Office]], 1905. Accessed August 28, 2015.</ref>

New Jersey was one of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] that revolted against British rule in the [[American Revolutionary War]]. The [[s:New Jersey Constitution of 1776|New Jersey Constitution of 1776]] was passed on July 2, 1776, two days before the [[Second Continental Congress]] declared American Independence from [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]. It was an act of the New Jersey Provincial Congress, which made itself into the state legislature. To reassure neutrals, it provided that it would become void if the state of New Jersey reached reconciliation with Great Britain.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

The citizens of Chatham were active participants in the Revolutionary War and nearby [[Morristown National Historical Park|Morristown]] became the military center of the revolution. [[George Washington]] twice established his winter headquarters in Morristown and revolutionary troops were active regularly in the entire area. The Lenape assisted the colonists, supplying the revolutionary army with warriors and scouts in exchange for food supplies and the promise of a role at the head of a future Native American state. The [[Treaty of Easton]] signed by the Lenape and the British in 1766 had required that the Lenape move to Pennsylvania. Wanting to recoup rights lost thereby to the British, the Lenape were the first tribe to enter into a treaty with the emerging government of the United States.<ref>[http://members.tripod.com/~lenapelady/deltreaty1778.html Treaty of 1778, America's First Indian Treaty], accessed December 31, 2006.</ref> In 1781, General Rochambeau built a large bakery operation at Chatham as a subterfuge that could be interpreted as his plan to stay in Chatham for an extended amount of time, in order to distract from the fact that his troops were marching south toward Yorktown.<ref>Selig, Robert A. [https://www.njht.org/dca/njht/publ/Volume%20I.pdf#page=142 ''The Washington - Rochambeau Revolutionary Route In The State Of New Jersey, 1781 - 1783 An Historical and Architectural Survey Volume I''], [[New Jersey Historic Trust]], 2006. Accessed July 12, 2020. "The establishment of large bakery operations could be interpreted as a sign that the army was going to stay in a given location for a while. In the context of the 1781, the bake ovens in Chatham, though necessary to feed the army on the march, also served an important function in the scheme of confirming in Clinton in the conviction that New York was the intended target of the campaign."</ref>

<!--  Commented out: [[Image:Morristown Map 1776.jpg|right|thumb|375px|Location of [[Morristown, New Jersey|Morristown]] in relation to [[New York City|New York]], showing the importance of the river crossing at Chatham and [[Hobart Gap]] through the [[Watchung Mountains]], a blue arrow indicates American forces and a red arrow indicates British forces; the blue arrow ends at the crossing of the river|{{ifdc|1=Morristown Map 1776.jpg|log=June 12, 2009}}]] -->
The [[Watchung Mountains|Watchung mountain range]] was a strategic asset in the war, acting as a natural barrier to the British troops and providing a vantage point for Washington to monitor their troop movements. The Minisink Trail and the village bridge provided a route for essential supplies across the river and through the mountain range. The [[Hobart Gap]] was vital as the only pass through the Watchung Mountains.<ref>[http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/exhibits/revwar/morr/morroverview.html Why Morristown?], [[National Park Service]]. Accessed January 2, 2007. A blue arrow indicates American forces and a red arrow indicates British forces.</ref>

Washington wrote 17 letters while he stayed at a homestead in Chatham. The community was the site of several skirmishes, as residents and the rebel army held off British advances, preventing them from attacking Washington's supplies at Morristown.{{cn|date=April 2025}}

In 1779, a [[printing press]] was established in the village of Chatham by [[Shepard Kollock]]. From his workshop, he published [[book]]s,<ref>[http://www.constantreader.org/printers/kollock.html Shepard Kollock's Work]{{Dead link|date=November 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, accessed December 31, 2006.</ref> [[pamphlet]]s, and the ''[[New Jersey Journal]]'' (the third [[newspaper]] published in New Jersey)<ref>{{cite web |author= Staff |url= https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/18th/newjersey.html|title= Eighteenth-Century American Newspapers in the Library of Congress (New Jersey) |work=Serial & Government Publications Division - Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room |publisher= [[Library of Congress]] |date= May 8, 2009 |access-date= May 18, 2013}}</ref> conducting lively debates about the efforts for independence and boosting the morale of the troops and their families with information derived directly from Washington's headquarters in nearby Morristown. Kollock's newspaper was published until 1992 as the ''Elizabeth Daily Journal'' (having relocated to there in 1787) and was the fourth oldest newspaper published continuously in the United States.<ref>Staff. [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PBPB&p_theme=pbpb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAF85130C5B9627&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "NEW JERSEY LOSES OLDEST PAPER"], ''[[The Palm Beach Post]]'', January 3, 1992. Accessed March 21, 2012. "The Daily Journal, the state's oldest newspaper, will close Friday after losing money for two years. Publisher Richard J. Vezza wouldn't say how much money the 212-year-old newspaper had lost. Most of its 84 employees will be laid off."</ref>