The first fully developed European settlement in the area was established by Dutch and English colonists c.1690, and a land grant of was formalized on October 14, 1697. The settlement was originally known as
Mahackamack, after a
Lenape word. It was raided and burned in 1779 during the
American Revolutionary War, by British and Mohawk forces under the command of
Mohawk leader
Joseph Brant before the
Battle of Minisink. Over the next two decades, residents rebuilt the settlement. They developed more roadways to better connect Mahackamack with the eastern parts of Orange County. After the
Delaware and Hudson Canal was opened in 1828, providing transportation of coal from northeastern Pennsylvania to New York and New England via the
Hudson River, trade attracted money and further development to the area. A village was incorporated on May 11, 1853. A second railroad, the Port Jervis and Monticello Railroad, later leased to the
New York, Ontario and Western Railway (O&W), opened in 1868, running northeast out of the city, and eventually connecting to
Kingston, New York,
Weehawken, New Jersey and eastern connections. A shift in transportation accelerated after World War II with the federal subsidy of the
Interstate Highway System and increased competition from trucking companies. One of the first
Class I railroads to shut down was the O&W, on March 29, 1957, leaving Port Jervis totally reliant on the Erie. A few years later, in 1960, the Erie, also on a shaky financial footing, merged with
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad to become the
Erie Lackawanna. Railroad restructuring continued and in 1976, the Erie Lackawana became part of
Conrail, along with a number of other struggling railroads, such as the
Penn Central. A grand jury indicted nine people for assault and rioting rather than Lewis's lynching. Some literary critics argue that this event influenced
Stephen Crane's 1898 novella
The Monster. Crane lived in Port Jervis from 1878 until 1883 and frequently visited the area from 1891 to 1897. In the mid-1920s some residents in the area formed a
Ku Klux Klan chapter, in the period of the KKK's early 20th-century revival. They burned crosses on Point Peter, the mountain peak that overlooks the city. to
Matamoras, Pennsylvania on the far right and
New Jersey's
High Point on the
Kittatinny Ridge on the far left
Geological history The city's location at the confluence of the Delaware and Neversink rivers has made it subject to occasional flooding. There was flooding during the 1955
Hurricane Diane, and a flood-related rumor started a panic in the population. This incident was studied and a 1958 report issued by the
National Research Council: "The Effects of a Threatening Rumor on a Disaster-Stricken Community". In addition to the rivers having flooded during periods of heavy rainfall, at times ice jams have effectively dammed the Delaware, also causing flooding. In 1875 ice floes destroyed the bridge to
Matamoras, Pennsylvania. ==Geography==