IN MEMORY OF THE PIONEERS OF CHATHAM ----------- WILLIAM NICKERSON --------------- HE CAME FROM NORWICH ENGLAND IN 1637 HE ACQUIRED FROM THE INDIANS BY A SERIES OF PURCHASES PRIOR TO THE YEAR 1683 THE GREATER PART OF THE PRESENT TOWNSHIP THEN KNOWN AS MONOMOYICK HE AND HIS SONS AND SONS-IN-LAW ROBERT NICKERSON JOSEPH NICKERSON SAMUEL NICKERSON ROBERT ELDREDGE JOHN NICKERSON TRISTRAM HEDGES WILLIAM NICKERSON NATHANIEL COVELL WERE WITH THEIR FAMILIES THE FIRST SETTLERS THEY WERE SOON FOLLOWED BY EDWARD COTTLE TEAGUE JONES THOMAS CROWELL CALEB LUMBERT JOHN DOWNING JOHN SAVAGE WILLIAM GRIFFITH HUGH STUART LATER CAME JOHN ATKINS EBENEZER HAWES SAMUEL ATKINS ISAAC HAWES THOMAS ATKINS THOMAS HOWES NATHAN BASSETT RICHARD KNOWLES BENJAMIN BEARSE ELISHA MAYO WILLIAM CAHOON JUDAH MAYO JOHN COLLINS WILLIAM MITCHELL JOHN CROWELL ROBERT PADDOCK PAUL CROWELL BENJAMIN PHILLIPS THOMAS DOANE JOHN RYDER JEHOSHAPHAT ELDREDGE DANIEL SEARS JOHN ELLIS RICHARD SEARS MORRIS FARRIS EDWARD SMALL GEORGE GODFREY JOHN SMITH JONATHAN GODFREY JOHN TAYLOR MOSES GODFREY NATHANIEL TOMLON DANIEL HAMILTON SAMUEL TUCKER JOSEPH HARDING JONATHAN VICKERY HE WHO HAS NO FEELINGS OF VENERATION FOR HIS PREDECESSORS SHOULD EXPECT NONE FROM THOSE WHO FOLLOW HIM Presented to the Town of Chatham by William Emery Nickerson of Boston a Descendant in the Ninth Generation from the First William Nickerson A.D. 1924 (Monument erected by William Emery Nickerson in 1924 in front of the Eldredge Public Library in Chatham) Source: "VITAL RECORDS, TOWN OF CHATHAM, MASSACHUSETTS 1696-1850" - Compiled by Shiela M. Dann Westgate and Anna Lowell Tomlinson. Published by The Chatham Historical society, Inc. Chatham, Massachusetts, 1991. (PREFACE: ....For further research, we recommend the "Vital Records of Yarmouth, Massachusetts To The Year 1850"; "Vital Records of Eastham, Mass. and Orleans, Mass."; and "Vital Records, Town of Harwich, Massachustts, 1694-1850.".......Manuscript by Rachel B. Napier, typed in 1977.) Another book is "A HISTORY OF CHATHAM, MASSACHUSTTS" - Formerly the Constablewick or Village of Monomoit, with Maps and Illustrations and Numerous Genealogical Notes, by William C. Smith. Fourth Edition, 1992, Published by The Chatham Historical Society, Inc. Chatham, Massachusetts. (FOREWORD:...other publications published by the Society...."Vital Records- town of Chatham, Massachusetts 1696-1850"; "Days to Remember" by Joshua Atkins Nickerson; "The Narrow Land" by Elizabeth Reyard; "Chatham Since The American Revolution" by Ernest John Knapton)