1769

ARRIVAL OF MAJOR ROBERT HOOPS

Robert Patterson sold a great deal of his property in the seventeen sixties, and seems to have left by 1769, when Major Robert Hoops came and purchased the land on both sides of the Pequest. Major Hoops was a very active business man. He had a saw mill and a grist mill. He dealt in grain, and shipped flour and produce to Philadelphia by Durham boats. He did much to make the present channel through Foul Rift. During the Revolution he had a slaughter house on the current site of Warren County Courthouse Annex, from which many wagonloads of beef and pork were hauled to Morristown for Washington’s hungry army. He laid out all of the northern half of the town into streets and lots as they are at present, and called the town Mercer. Before 1800 he had parted with his holdings, mainly to Thomas Paul and Mr. Hyndshaw, and retired to Virginia.