The history of Hackettstown, New Jersey.
A river town that became a railroad town, a college town, and — since 1958 — the town that makes M&M's. This is its story, told in photographs, clippings, and the memories of the people who lived it.
Hackettstown grew up where the Musconetcong River meets Schooley's Mountain — named for Samuel Hackett, whose land stood at its center when the town took shape in the 1700s. The Morris Canal and then the railroad made it a crossroads; Main Street made it a community.
By 1959, when Leonard M. Fiedler opened a real estate office in a living room on Main Street, the town he served already had two centuries of stories in its buildings. This archive collects them — one photograph, one clipping, one memory at a time — from the Fiedler family's own collection and from neighbors who share theirs.
This introduction will grow as the archive does. Know a story that belongs here? Tell us.
1960s
The closing that turned Panther Ledge into Panther Valley was Len Fiedler's turning point — and his son Dan lived every chapter, from the check in the easy chair to cutting the roads in.
For much of the 20th century the Sand Bar was Hackettstown's swimming hole — until a phone call in summer 1969 closed the water for good. Lenee Fiedler was in the lifeguard chair when it rang.
1990s
Twenty-three seasons, eighteen championships — and the day a whole season was worth less than one friend's turn at bat.
Businessman Jacob Garabed gave 22 volunteer years to the board of Hackettstown's water and sewer authority. Its Hurley Drive headquarters bears his name.
