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by the website editor M.
Balston (with sources listed below)
The history of Port Morris, New Jersey is intertwined with the histories of
Landing, Lake Hopatcong, Netcong/Stanhope, Roxbury Township and Morris
County. In this short overview we will focus on Port Morris, while understanding
how these communities were interrelated.
THE
COLONIAL PERIOD
1740 -- On December 24, 1740 Roxbury was incorporated as the
fourth township in Morris County. Over the years some of the original land area
became independent communities such as Mount Olive and Netcong. Roxbury Township
is now comprised of Succasunna (formerly Suckasunny), Ledgewood (formerly
Drakesville), Kenvil (formerly McCainesville), Port Morris, Landing and
Lower Berkshire Valley. Roxbury Township is just under 22 square miles in size.
THE CANAL COMES TO TOWN
1822 - -While fishing at Lake Hopatcong, George P. Macculloch
dreamed up the idea of what was to become the Morris Canal. The canal was
chartered in 1824 and would be an inexpensive way of moving large quantities of
coal, timber, iron ore and other goods across New Jersey. It was the first
American canal to climb hills. The Morris Canal would run for 103 miles joining
the Delaware River at Phillipsburg with the Hudson River, a mule-drawn barge
trip that took about 5 days. Parts of the Canal became usable in 1827, the full
length in 1830. Little hamlets
sprung up along it's route to service the crews and teams of mules that pulled
the boats, Port Morris was one of these, with nearby Ledgewood on the east, and
Stanhope on the west, being others.
1845 -- An agreement was made between the Sussex Iron Company in
Stanhope and the Morris Canal and Banking Company to manage the water resources
of the Musconetcong River. This resulted in the construction of the dam at
Netcong/Stanhope that formed a water reservoir, originally known as Stanhope
Reservoir, the present day Lake Musconetcong. This provided a source of water
power for various industries in Stanhope as well as forming the lake that graces
Port Morris.
1850's -- The tracks of the Morris and Essex Railroad (taken over
by the Lackawanna in 1868) are laid through the area around 1853, but no station
is built in Landing. Passengers going to Landing/Lake Hopatcong left the train
at the Drakesville (now Ledgewood) crossing, and were carried by horse drawn
carts over the bumpy roads up to the Lake.
1857 -- The Morris and Essex Railroad announce increased service
on their Newark to Hackettstown Line, with an official stop in Port Morris.
1860 -- The Canal Locks are enlarged to allow new, larger boats
carrying 70 tons, a big jump from the 30 tons boats the canal started with.
These boats are enormous, hinged in the middle, forming 2 enclosures. This
was an attempt to stay competitive with the surging Rail Industry.
1866 -- The most prosperous year of the Morris Canal as it carried
almost a million tons of freight. Among the commodities carried were lumber,
coal, and iron ore. The canal's business will now dwindle as the faster
railroads start to lure away the canal's customers.
1867 -- Port Morris has just two houses. Nathan Davis (b. 1818)
buys land alongside the Railway and laid out a number of building lots. A train
yard now starts to form, and in 1869 the oldest part of the Roundhouse was built
by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company, a company newly
enlarged by it's takeover of the Morris & Essex Railroad.
1873 -- The DL & W builds a row of 12 houses for it's workers
south of the railroad tracks. These houses, along with the Roundhouse, would
firm up the position of Port Morris as a major Railway hub in these early years.
Eight of these houses still (2004) stand in their original location on Kings
Highway.
We recently
received an e-mail that adds info about this section of Port Morris:
Great web site. I was home for a wedding and was doing an internet
search and found your site. I skimmed through most of it. I have some
info which I think should be included in the Port Morris history.
I grew up on Kings Hwy which most people don’t know even exists. I
lived at the second to last house on the dead end 1.1 mi long street. I
left after joining the Marine Corps and my parents sold the house a few
years after. The eight remaining houses that are at the end of the
street were originally part of a group of 12. The houses were known as
the 12 apostles. These houses were built in the late 1800’s for the
support of the railroad. Each of the houses was built to house a family.
There was also a church that was moved to Port Morris at some time, from
my understanding. If you go down Kings Hwy (all the way to the end) you
can still see the foundations of the houses that burned down and the
church that was moved. The church was at the very end behind what we
called the turnaround. There are 2 other foundations at the beginning of
the eight remaining houses that was a 'bmx' [bicycle] track when I was
growing up and one other one next to the eighth house. All of the eight
houses have a true rock foundation. The frames of the houses are held
together by wooden pegs. The house I grew up in was the second to last
house which was [the home for] the original lead conductor for the train
system. His house was built with an additional room over the kitchen in
the rear of the house. All the other houses originally had a sloping
roof over the kitchen.
Kings Hwy also had a spring house which supplied water to the round
house for a hydraulic for jacking up the trains. You can still see the
remnants of both. The jack is on the railroad tracks and the remnants of
the springhouse are at the top of the last hill before getting to the
last eight houses.
I hope this is of interest, Jason Jaworski, October 2005
(Editor: Thanks so
much Jason for adding to our Community web site!) |
1875 -- On March 29,
1875 the Port Morris Post Office was established with Ira Mowery as Postmaster.
Also in 1875 a Methodist Sunday School was organized for the children of the
Railway Workers, numbering 20 students who met in a small building built onto
the rear of the Railway Roundhouse. By October, Sunday afternoon services of the
newly organized Port Morris Methodist Church began. Services were initially held
in the same room used for Public School during the week. Not until 1892 would
the Methodists construct their own building. During this time, many residents
attended the Presbyterian or Methodist Churches in Stanhope or the Baptist or
Catholic Churches in Netcong. For many at this time, Church affiliation was determined by
national origin, with the Scots and English attending the Presbyterian or
Methodist Church, Italians attending the Catholic Church, with the Baptist
Church attracting an ethnic mix of those who embraced an evangelical Christian
faith.
1880 -- During 1880 the amount of Iron Ore carried by the Morris
Canal was 108,000 tons. With a boat normally carrying seventy tons, over 1,540
boat loads were needed to move this cargo. When you consider that the Canal did
not "run" on Sunday and during the coldest part of the winter (frozen
water), those 1,540 boat loads had to be moved over a span of less than 270
days, an average of over 6 boats of Iron Ore per day, beside all the other
commodity boatloads. This was the last "big" year for Canal shipping.
Things changed greatly in 1881 when much of the Canal Iron Ore business was lost
when the Central Railroad of New Jersey took over the Ogden Mine Railroad and
connected it to the Central's High Bridge Branch in 1881. Commercial shipping on
the Canal would dwindle during the next 2 decades, the quicker railroads having
taken much of the business. Port Morris would shift over these decades from
being 'Canal-centered' to being 'Railway-centered'.
THE RAILROAD TAKES
OVER
1880's -- Hundreds of Port Morris residents work in the Railway
Industry as employees of the "Morris and Essex Railroad", which was
later acquired by the "Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad". A
detailed 1887 map of Port Morris (above) shows a large Railway
"Roundhouse". These two decades were a time of expansion and
population growth for Port Morris, with an increasing number of stores, a Post
Office and a school. In the early 1880's the New Jersey Central Railroad
built a Passenger Station at Drakesville (modern day Ledgewood). Horse
drawn carriages would then take people up the bumpy road to the lake. By
1887 the Landing/Lake Hopatcong Railway Station on the Lackawanna Line was
built.
1891 -- A four room Schoolhouse with a large basement was
constructed on Center St. Over 60 students attended the first year.
1890's -- In 1892, a separate church building for the Methodist
Church was built on the south side of the tracks, near the row of houses on
Kings Highway, on land donated by the Railroad. Before long it was evident that
most parishioners lived in the main part of town north of the tracks, and
crossing a busy and soot filled rail yard in your "Sunday best" was
far from ideal. In 1900 the railway gave permission to move the church building
across the track yard of the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Railroad and
across the Morris Canal. It was early winter and a freeze had formed a layer of
ice on the Canal pond, over which the heavy building would be moved for 400
feet. In the midst of the days of moving, it warmed up and the water level of
the pond suddenly rose over a foot, threatening to send the building to the pond
bottom. A sudden cold snap firmed up the pond and saved the church, a sign, it
was thought, of Divine Providence, an understandable lapse into Calvinism by the
good Methodists. Once "safely on the other side", the building was
remodeled and added to, with the dedication taking place on October 27,
1901.
An 1895 Atlas listed the population of Port Morris as 233, but that probably
failed to count the many transient Railway workers that lived in town.
This era also saw the blossoming of Lake Hopatcong as the Summer Resort of
choice by both the wealthy and the newly middle-class. People came to enjoy the
cool "mountain air" afforded by the one thousand foot elevation of the
Lake, a welcome summertime relief from the sweltering cities. Many would come up
for the weekend and stay in one of the Hotels or rooming houses that sprang up
around the Lake. Most everyone traveled to the Lake via Train, disembarking
either at the Central Railway of New Jersey Station at Nolans Point or at
the Landing Station of the Lackawanna Railroad. From there they most often
traveled to their Lakeside destination via Steamboat!! The roads around the Lake
were poor, and besides, the Steamboats were part of the attraction of the Lake!
The great increase in Lackawanna rail traffic benefited Port Morris.
1908 -- The "New"
Landing Bridge is completed. Built of stone and masonry, it continues to stand
to this day. Trolley service came to Landing at this time. The Morris County
Traction Company Trolleys come from Morristown, through Dover and up to the
Lake. The tracks pass over the new bridge and run up Mt. Arlington Blvd. to the
picnic & bathing park at Bertrand Island.
1910 -- The "Lackawanna Cut-off" is constructed across
New Jersey in 1910, it is a Railway Engineering marvel, running on a level plane
from an area north of Port Morris to the Delaware River. Instead of following
the contours of the land, it uses massive amounts of fill, rock cuts and long
bridges to traverse valleys, creating a level road to the Delaware River,
cutting many hours off the trip for the many trains coming in from the
Anthracite fields of Pennsylvania, as well as passenger trains. Many immigrants
from Italy had moved to the area to take advantage of the employment provided by
this massive project. The two large arch bridges which still stand and cross
Center Street in Port Morris are the starting point. Many new brick homes are
constructed in Port Morris at this time, housing the conductors and other
personal working on the increasingly busy Railroad. By this time commercial boat
traffic on the canal had all but ceased, and weekend recreational boaters on the
Canal became a common sight.
1922 -- The original 1891 Schoolhouse was partially destroyed by
fire in January. With a growing population in Port Morris, it was reconstructed
as a larger Elementary School on the same site with 8
classrooms, the Washington School.
1924 -- The formal shutting down of the Morris Canal, and the
'filling in' of the Canal bed. It's now "Canal Street". During the 1920's the
rail yard expanded to it's largest size, with a semi-circle Roundhouse of 23
stalls equipped with a 90-foot turntable bridge to handle the mammoth Steam
Locomotives. During this period, the nickname "Smokey City" was often applied to
Port Morris, due to the frequent Steam Engine traffic in the train yard with
their belching smoke stacks.
1930's -- With the Economic Depression of the 30's, people no
longer "weekend" at Lake Hopatcong in large numbers. The number of
Railway riders drops, and Port Morris is hard hit by this. Money becomes tight.
In March 1934 a Port Morris girl wrote a letter to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt
requesting help:
"Do you realize that Easter is coming? Do
you realize how many hearts are broken on this account?
Do you realize how hard its going to be for most people? Like me, for
instance, I am a young girl of fifteen and I need a coat so bad. I have no
money, nor any means of getting any. My father has been out of work for two
years.
My mother gets 'fits' when I ask her to buy me something new. Poor mother, I
sympathize with her because it has been very hard on her, this depression, and
having no money at all but debts piling up on us. I want to tell you
something: We were once the richest people in our town but now, we are the
lowest, considered the worst people of Port Morris.
For Easter some friends of mine are thinking of getting new outfits and I just
have to listen to them. How I wish I could have at least a coat." (Written by A.C., March 20, 1934, Roosevelt Archives)
THE MODERN ERA
1940's-1950's -- The post war building boom comes to Landing, with
many homes built and older summer homes converted to year round use. During the
immediate post war years, all Landing children attended the Elementary School in
Port Morris. During this time there were a number of retail stores in Port
Morris, including several grocery stores, a beauty salon. a shoemaker, a
florist, as well as several automotive repair facilities. The Rail Yard
continued to bustle along, with many Railway employees making their home here,
although the amount of rail traffic through Port Morris steadily declined after
World War 2. During this time the old Steam Engines were being retired, with
Diesels taking their place.
We recently
received an e-mail that adds info about this time in Port Morris:
Hi, I just came across your great web site. My father,
Joseph Maline was born in the house on 234 Center St., Port Morris in
1927. His mother was Teresa DeMarino and his father was Michael Maline
(who died in 1929 I think in a sand pit accident in Kenvil along with
another Port Morris resident, I think a Henderson). My dad's uncles and
aunts were the DeMarinos, Louis, Roosevelt , Pat, Sylvia, Nancy, Nick.
He worked for the DL&W, Erie Lackawanna and Conrail railroads as a
freight agent, ticket agent and various other positions. He was a
volunteer fireman with the Roxbury #2 in Port Morris. He used to fish
with Vic Valentino, and knew most of the guys from Port Morris. He used
to hunt small game. He got a puppy one time from Joe Perfetti, but the
pup was gun shy, so he was our family pet.
I was born in 1950 and grew up in Port Morris, until we moved away in
1964. It was great fun growing up during the 1950's and living in
Port Morris, where just about everybody was related or knew everyone. I
remember having coal delivered to our house, getting our first TV, and
walking to Joe Perfetti's store and DeMarino store to get bread,
candies, and papers, and I remember Till the milkman delivering milk
right to our door and putting it in the milk box on the front porch. The
kids would always ask him for a piece of ice! Fishing and swimming in
the Musconetcong River in the back of the house and all the kids jumping
off the dock into the Deep Hole. We would fish at the Fire Lane on
opening day of fishing. I attended Port Morris school, then the
Roosevelt School. Remember the barber shop next to the school. I
remember getting our mail at the post office/house from Dot DeMarino,
our box # was 93! We would go to Bertrand's Island especially on Nickel
Nights. I remember going up to the Roundhouse to get water in milk cans
whenever the well would run dry. I can remember when sometimes some of
the hobos that rode the trains, would come to our house and knock on the
door and my mom would give them something to eat. I remember the
outhouse (which was used for storage then)! Trick or Treating on
Halloween was always fun and safe. You knew and trusted everyone. It was
just great fun being a kid back then. No computers, Ipods, cell phones,
or CD's. We kids knew how to have fun and used our imagination. We had
record players and old 45's! Played things like hopscotch and hide and
seek.
I really enjoyed all your old photos and stories, especially from Sal
Valentino. He did a great job of recalling the good ole days.
Two questions: I have a pin from my grandmother with the letters PMSC
and the date '36 hanging from a chain off the letters. I think it stands
for Port Morris Social Club 1936. But I can't find anything about such a
group. I was wondering if she was a member in 1936 and if there were
records or photos. Does anyone know if such a social club existed in
1936?
Also, does anyone know anything about a sand pit accident in the Kenvil
area during 1929 (I'm not sure of the name of the company), several
people who lived in Port Morris and worked at the sand pit were
suffocated in this accident. I cannot find anything about this accident
either.
You can e-mail me at msladybambam@wmconnect.com.
I will be sure to check your site on a regular basis and travel down
memory lane. Beverly Maline (May 10, 2006)
(Editor: Thanks so
much Beverly for adding to our Community web site. We've posted your
letter on our Letters
page as well, along with some info on the answers you're seeking) |
1960's-present -- In 1961 a new Post Office for Landing was
built on Lakeside Blvd. and in 1969 Nixon Elementary School in Landing was
completed. With the completion of the new Landing school, Port Morris
schoolchildren started moving over to Landing, and the old Elementary school in Port
Morris saw its last class in June 1971. All this served to diminish the separate
identity of Port Morris as it became subsumed into Landing in the minds of some. The opening of the large Landing
Shopping center contributed to the eventual closure of most of the remaining
Port Morris retail stores, with Joe's Market, a grocery and one of the last
retail stores, closing in 1983. Several service businesses remain, along with a
Vegetable Stand/Garden Center. Through the 1990's the Port Morris train yard had
a series of renovations to become a Coach Yard for New Jersey Transit Commuter
Trains. At present, Port Morris has about 1,000 residents.
Even with all the changes, some remnants of the Port Morris of years ago
remain, including several buildings along Center Street in Port Morris which were
stores years ago, the elementary school, now converted to apartments, and
the grand old homes that hearken back to the Railroad glory days of Port Morris.
©2003, 20009
LandingNewJersey.com and M. Balston. Please do not reproduce or use on
another website without permission.
This page can only begin to cover the
rich history of the Landing/Port Morris area. We recommend a visit to
The Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum at the State Park, open Sunday afternoons in the
Spring and Fall.
NEW !! Click for a Personal account by Sal
Valentino of growing up in Port Morris
Information for this page came from a
variety of sources, including:
Beck, Henry C. "TALES AND TOWNS OF NORTHERN NEW JERSEY".
1964. Rutgers University Press.
Hosking, Annie S. & Meeker, Harriet "THE HISTORY OF ROXBURY
TOWNSHIP" Vol. I & II Roxbury Township Historical
Society
Lewis Publishing, "Biographical History of Morris County New
Jersey".
1914
Munsell, W.W. "History of
Morris County, New Jersey", 1882
Murray, Stuart A.P. "HISTORY OF HOPATCONG BOROUGH" ,
1976 Hopatcong Bicentennial Committee
Seraly, Ruthann & Lyman, Frances; "OLD HOMES OF ROXBURY TOWNSHIP",
Roxbury Township Historical Society
Thompson, Mary Wolfe. "THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN WOLFE", 1961,
privately published
The Lake Hopatcong
Historical Museum, PO Box 668, Landing, New Jersey
07850
"THE LAKE HOPATCONG BREEZE" - September, 1979.
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