Hainesburg, NJ

Hainesburg is a Warren County census-designated place within Knowlton Township, where the 2020 census counted 422 residents. The settlement sits beside the Paulins Kill, a waterway that powered an early stone grist mill built before the American Revolution. Fire destroyed that mill in 1908, but the river corridor still gives Hainesburg its clearest physical reference. The old name “Sodom” gave way to Hainesburg after John Haines donated money to a local school.

The village grew through a string of small industries and transportation links. Jacob Hibler built a tannery in 1840, George Adams added a sawmill in 1881, and rail service later reached a station on the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway. Historic Knowlton material also points to Hainesburg as a junction for several lines, with a school, church, stores, post office, and hotel gathered near the tracks. Children now move through Knowlton Township schools and North Warren Regional High School. Hainesburg’s story stays tied to water, mills, rail travel, and the compact crossroads that formed around them.