At the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, the wounded were taken away from the scene of the fighting to neighboring houses to be treated. In the Adams Sentinel, an article states that a Union brigadier general wounded in the battle has been brought to this house. A staff office, Lieutenant Josiah M. Favill, recalled the following: “General Samuel K. Zook, was mortally wounded on July 2….Surgeon Wood after examining the would told us it was fatal…being no shelter…we took the general on a stretch and carried him to a small house some distance in the rear on the Baltimore road, close to a bridge crossing a small creek”.

John B. Linn, who was visiting the battlefield from July 6-11, said he spoke to the gate-keeper Hoke and learned that General Zook had been wounded through the breast and brought to the house the evening of July 2. On July 3rd, Zook was moved to another house further away and died at five pm.

The stone house called “Hoke’s Gate” served as a toll house for the Gettysburg-Petersburg turnpike. Various charges were required to be paid to the gate-keeper for transporting animals or goods to the markets in Baltimore.