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action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/goodspeedhist/public_html/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114The history of the Union Hotel continues, following the sale in 1850 by innkeeper Mahlon C. Hart and wife Maria to a partnership of real estate investors.<\/p>\n
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Let\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s take a look at what happened to the Hart family after that sale was made. First of all, Mahlon Hart\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s mother, Sarah Moore Hart, widow of Neal Hart, seems to have had innkeeping in her blood. She was renting rooms in the 1850s, as shown in this item from the Hunterdon Gazette<\/em> of Oct. 4, 1854:<\/p>\n Doctor J. A. GRAY Respectfully offers his professional services to the inhabitants of FLEMINGTON, and vicinity. Rooms at Mrs. Sarah Hart\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Dr. Gray just happened to be Sarah\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s son-in-law, who married Jane A. Hart in 1848. In 1850, the couple was living in Montgomery, Somerset County with their young children Abby and Hellan. Dr. Gray made his first appearance in the Gazette<\/em> on August 11, 1847, when he had this notice published:<\/p>\n 1847 Aug 11, Five Dollars Reward. LOST, on Wednesday, the 29th ult., the day of the Fair, a BROWN SILK PURSE, beaded, containing eight dollars in money, and a receipt from Braley & Mount of Rocky Hill. The subscriber supposes he lost the same in Flemington between M. C. Hart\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s hotel, and Farlee & Jones\u201a\u00c4\u00f4 store. Any person upon returning the purse and its contents, either to M. C. Hart, or the editor of this paper, will receive the above amount. J. ALFRED GRAY.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Finding the family of Dr. Gray was a challenge. He was not related to the Flemington area Grays. The Dr. Gray married to Jane Hart was probably the son of Joseph Gray who resided in Trenton in 1793 and in Hopewell in 1798 when he bought land from Benjamin Titus. He was still there in 1818 when he bought more property from the estate of Andrew Blackwell dec\u201a\u00c4\u00f4d.<\/p>\n John Alfred Gray (1812-1872) probably got his medical degree shortly after losing his silk purse in 1847. He did not identify himself as a doctor at that time, but his marriage announcement on May 31, 1848 did so.1<\/a><\/sup> As the notice of 1854 shows, the Gray family had moved in with Jane\u201a\u00c4\u00f4s mother, Sarah Moore Hart, who was then 74 years old. Sarah died on March 10, 1863, age 82, and was buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery in Flemington next to her husband.<\/p>\n Mahlon C. & Maria Hart sold the hotel to a partnership consisting of Charles Bartles, Alexander Bonnell & Judiah Higgins for $5200. These gentlemen certainly had no interest in running the place themselves. They expected to hold it for a short time and make a profit when they sold it. But in the meantime, they needed someone to run the tavern for them.<\/p>\n That someone was John D. Hall. Unfortunately, the Cornell Map of 1851 showed the hotel as \u201a\u00c4\u00faUnion House Hotel,\u201a\u00c4\u00f9 without naming its proprietor. Hall was identified in the 1850 census for Raritan Township as a 30-year-old tavernkeeper, which suggests he took over from Mahlon C. Hart immediately after the sale. In 1850 he was living with wife Anna, age 20, and five tenants: Bennit Vansyckle age 20, law student; Aaron V. Brown 30, merchant; Frederick Fritts 25, from Germany, laborer; Jane Bray 24, from England, no occupation; and Frederick Traphagan 36, clerk.<\/p>\nSidenote: Dr. John Alfred Gray<\/h4>\n
Back to the Hotel<\/h3>\n
John D. Hall<\/h4>\n