MEMORIES OF ROCKY HILL

BY

THAYER BOLMER

History tells us that Rocky Hill was recognized as a village in 1701.

It was quite a little village because of its situation on the Millstone River which was much traveled by people who wanted to reach different places and friends.

About 1750 a man by the name of John Hart began to study the Millstone River with its swift current to see if a mill would be a success in Rocky Hill. Hart finally found enough courage to build a grist mill or flour mill. This proved a success and Hart added a saw mill, a place where logs could be sawed and turned into lumber to build houses and barns. Finally friends persuaded him, to build a fulling mill or a place for the treatment of cloth for clothes. Today you would be tempted to call this business center a shopping center. It was such a success that the British made every effort to destroy it and were finally successful the fall of 1776 or four months after the Declaration of Independence was signed. When Patrick Henry stirred men's hearts and minds with his words, "Give me Liberty or give me Death," in a speech delivered in the House of Burgesses of Virginia, men gathered in Independence Hall in Philadelphia prepared to sign the Declaration of Independence. John Hart was there and did not hesitate a minute to sign his name to the Declaration of Independence. You will find his name on the fifth row and the ninth name down on this now famous document. Yes, when John Hart signed his Name on July 4th, 1776 he gave his all. He died of privations in 1779. His wife died in 1777. At this time all of his thirteen children became separated. Mr. John Hart's home may have been in Hopewell but his successful business was in Rocky Hill, so his heart and mind were truly here. Rocky Hill can justly claim Hart as one of its own.