Is Port Jervis a port on the Delaware River?
What have famous people said about Port Jervis when they passed through?
Who is Port Jervis named for?
Where is Jerry's Island and what is the significance of it?
Some funny pieces written about Port Jervis
To See the Answers Follow on:
Frequently Asked Questions
About Port Jervis
Is Port Jervis a port on the Delaware River?
No, Port Jervis is not a port on the Delaware River. The section of the river that passes by the city is no deeper than about 8 or 10 feet. Rowboats, canoes and kayaks easily traverse the river here. Actually, most of it is much shallower than that, perhaps a foot or two deep. The largest boats to ever come up the Delaware were small steam boats that could get as far north as Milford, about eight miles south of Port Jervis.
The village of Port Jervis came by that name in the 1820s when it became an established port on the Delaware and Hudson Canal, a 171 mile long transportation corridor that stretched from Scranton, Pennsylvania to Kingston, New York.
What have famous people said about Port Jervis when they passed through?
There have been many famous visitors who have come through Port Jervis or lived here including Washington Irving, Stephen Crane, Zane Grey, Mickey Spillane, Ogden Nash and Sue and Dan Cohen. Others included Richard Tarbell, Benjamin Wright, John & Maurice Wurts, Governor (PA) Gifford Pinchot, Governor (NY) Hugh Carey, Vice Presidential candidate Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Roy Rodgers. We are sure that there are many more so if you have any anecdotes please send them to the mayor's office for inclusion on this page.
The Port Jervis Bride
An elderly bride of Port Jervis
Was quite understandably nervous
Since her apple-cheeked groom
With three wives in the tomb
Kept insuring her during the service
By
Ogden Nash
(1902-1971)
Provided by the Innkeepers at The Reading House, Watkins Glen, New York. This limerick was recently featured on a US Postage Stamp. It is located in the background, to the right of the portrait of Ogden Nash.
Every time I come over the Greenville mountain and see Port Jervis I realize that I am home among my people and in the place where I belong.
Richard Tarbell
Well known musician and entrepreneur
(1945-2002)
Who is Port Jervis named for?
The city of Port Jervis is named for John Bloomfield Jervis who lived from 1795-1885. He was one of the 19th century's most important engineers having built the Delaware and Hudson Canal, the Croton Aqueduct which supplied New York City with it water and perhaps most importantly the "bogie" truck that kept steam locomotives from jumping the tracks on curves.
He was from Rome, New York and was in Port Jervis in the 1820s when the D & H was being built. It is said that a group of men gathered and decided to call it Port Jervis because of its location along the route of the canal. It is also said that Jervis remembered this kindness and routed the Erie Railroad through the small village in the 1840s. Upon his death, his home at Rome became the location of the Rome Public Library.
Where is Jerry's Island and what
is the significance of it?
Jerry's Island is the only island in the City of Port Jervis (albeit in the middle of a road) that is named for a living person. The island is located along River Road and was created as part of a rerouting of the road several years ago. It was named for councilman Jerry Oney because of his approval of the roadwork in his role as chairman of the DPW committee.
The only other island in Port Jervis is Marvin's Island which is in the Delaware River at where the waterway turns 90 degrees southward. It was named for Bill Marvin, a hermit who lived there for many years until the 1936 flood when he was plucked off of a tree on the island as high waters swept his home away. After living there undisturbed he was taken to the poor house, given a bath and died several days later. His dog was shot to death as the rescuers tried to approach him.
From an unidentified late 19th century newspaper clip comes this humorous story about Port Jervis.
A not uncommon trick in Port Jervis is for a person with a bad cigar to stop a gentleman who is so fortunate as to have a good one, to solicit permission to light, and then step to one side pretending to be answering a call for one "just outside, you know," or else on handing back the "borrowed" cigar manage to substitute the inferior weed. We have seen this dodge played frequently at a prominent hotel not a hundred miles from the depot at that place.
Copyright©2007 City of Port Jervis
All Rights Reserved
Last Updated:Tuesday, February 20, 2007