Jockey Hollow is the name of an area in southern Morris County, New Jersey, which was farmed in the 18th century by the Wick, Guerin, and Kemble families.
[3] During the Revolutionary War, Henry Wick possessed the largest portion of this area—his farm comprised 1400 acres of timber and open field.
The Wick farm and his neighbors' property were considered the ideal location for a winter camp due to the distance from British forces in New York and the amount of timber needed for shelter and firewood for a large army, and the availability of houses for officers, mainly generals and their staff, to quarter.
A kitchen garden next to the Wick House is maintained by the Northern New Jersey unit of Herb Society of America.
[5] Due to the bad conditions of the dirt roads in the winter and spring, dependence on horsepower, distance from the enemy in New York plus the natural walls of protection provided by the present-day Watchung Mountains, this was a secure area to camp the army.
[6] Twelve men often shared one of over one thousand simple huts built in Jockey Hollow to house the Army.
There is a 1932 marker to the "Jockey Hollow Hospital" just across the road from those replica huts—subsequent archeology done after Morristown National Historical Park was established found no evidence of graves there.
On the evening of January 1781, the Pennsylvania Line, then encamped in Jockey Hollow under the command of General Anthony Wayne mutinied.