Hope Township, New Jersey

Hope Township was incorporated in 1839 from parts of Knowlton and Oxford Townships.

Beginnings 

The first settler within the limits of Hope Township was Samuel Green, who came here from Long Island sometime around the beginning of the French and Indian War. He was the surveyor for the West Jersey proprietors and owner of a large tract of land which embraced nearly the entire township. Another early settler was Samson Howell who built a saw mill and supplied the Moravians with lumber for their building at Hope. The Moravians came here in 1769 from Bethlehem PA  and purchased 1,500 acres from Samuel Green, for which they paid about $1 per acre. They founded the village of hope, lived there for about 35 years, suffered economic loss, and returned to Bethlehem in 1805 or 1806.

In 1886 the town had 2 hotels, 4 general stores, 1 drug store, 1 hardware store, a merchant tailor, blacksmith shop, shoe shop, furniture establishment, meat market, saw mill, 4 churches, public school, private school, a grist mill, several physicians and a lawyer. Population at that time was about 250.

Warren County History and Directory or The Farmers Manual and Business Mens' Guide, compiled by Weaver and Kern, Washington, NJ, Press of the Review, 1886