Stoneham was incorporated as a town in 1725, nearly a century after the first settlers arrived there. In the first part of Stevens’ History of Stoneham, the author traces the contours of the town’s evolution from a Puritan settlement to a nineteenth-century industrial town. Genealogists will take greater interest in the biographical sketches of the nearly 100 Stoneham pioneers and prominent men which make up the second half of the work.