German emigrant Casper Shafer settled this area circa 1742. By 1750, he had built this stone house and later fortified it with a stockade during the French and Indian War. His first grist mill, built in 1743, stood upstream, and in 1764 he replaced it with a larger structure at the present site. This profitable enterprise shipped goods by flatboat down the Paulinskill and Delaware Rivers to Philadelphia. The mill, rebuilt in 1844 after a fire, was the last operating grist mill in New Jersey. A strong supporter of American independence, Shafer was one of three delegates from Sussex County to serve in New Jersey's first legislative assemblies from 1776 to 1779.