The Hoen farms in 1765

Øvre Hoen belonged in 1765 to merchant Jens Hofgaard, who lived at Bragernes. His manager, Peder Gregersen, lived on the farm together with his wife Guri Gutormsdatter and their three children. Below the farm are seven households, which must have been householders of various kinds. Some of these have probably worked at the Hoenssagene, but there were also three old husbandman's widows.

At Nedre Hoen lived Niels Clausen Winther, who had quite recently taken over the farm from his uncle, Peter Nicolai Winther. He lived there with his wife Dorthe, his sister Angel and several servants.

The soldier Jens Olssen also lived on the farm, and there were eight householders. Several of them may have worked at the sawmills or had day labor in connection with farming or salmon fishing.

The Winther family at Hoen

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Winther was a family that descended from old Norwegian nobility that can be traced back to the Middle Ages and that had connections to various farms on Eiker, including Hoen, all the way back to the 14th century. The name was again linked to Nedre Hoen in 1685, when a marriage was concluded between Annechen Clausdatter Winther and Niels Christophersen Hoen, who was parish priest at Eiker. Several of their descendants used Winther as their family name, including the eldest son Claus Nielsen Winther, who became a theologian and parish priest in Stavanger. Øvre Hoen was taken over by his younger brother, Captain Peter Nicolai Winther, but in 1764 the nephew, Niels Clausen Winther, moved back to Eiker and settled at Hoen. He was the owner until 1777, when Nedre Hoen was sold to the brothers Niels and Otto Omsted and farmer Borger Christophersen Woldstad. It is possible that the famous glass cutter Villas Vinter at Nøstetangen was connected to the Winther family at Hoen, but this connection is unclear.

The Hofgaard family at Hoen

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Merchant Jens Hofgaard became the owner of Øvre Hoen in 1751, as heir to his father-in-law Otto von Cappelen. It happened after a long-running legal dispute between Niels Christensen and Otto von Cappelen, who both claimed to have bought the farm from the previous owner, Christopher Winther. Hofgaard, who was one of Drammen's largest timber merchants, also became the owner of the sawmills under Hoen, and he increased the yield at these sawmills by transferring quantities from other sawmills in the district, while at the same time he had several large dams built to regulate the flow of water in the river. He is also known for having built the kerrat which is depicted on the famous Hoenspokalen.

Both the timber business and the Øvre Hoen farm were taken over in 1775 by Jens Hofgaard's sons, Gabriel and Andreas, who started the firm "Gabr. & Andr. Hofgaard". When this company was dissolved in 1787, Øvre Hoen with the saws fell to Gabriel Hofgaard, and his descendants were owners until 1825.