Chatham Township was a pilgrim colony. Many of its first settlers trace their ancestry back to families which came over on the Mayflower.

The township was set apart under the Connecticut Land survey, and was a part of the Western Reserve formed in 1786.

Chatham Townships first settlement was made by Moses Parsons in 1818. he bought a tract of several hundred acres of land on the east side of the east branch of Black River. This location encompassed what is now the intersection of Shaw and Avon Lake Roads.  In 1820 a son was born into the Parsons family and he was named Holden. Mr. Parsons named the new settlement Holden, after the first child born in the colony. It was known by that name until the political organization of the township on December 5, 1833, when it was called Chatham, after the town near London, England.