During the summer of 1907 a notable work was accomplished by the
Machackemech Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, of
which Mrs. Charles F. Van Inwegen is the president, in clearing and
beautifying the grounds of the old historic Machackcmech cemetery on
East Main street next to the Catholic cemetery. Through long neglect
the cemetery had fallen into a condition of utter decay and ruin. The
ground was covered with a dense growth of weeds, briars and
underbrush, and the memorial stones, some of them dating back to a
period anterior to the Revolution, were for the most part so weather
beaten and moss-grown that their inscription was difficult to
decipher, in some cases were totally illegible. All this has been
changed, and now this hallowed ground "Where the rude forefathers of
the hamlet sleep" has been restored to order and beauty and no longer
offends by its wild and neglected appearance.
SOLDIERS MONUMENT.
A conspicuous ornament to the public square of the city (Orange
Square) is the soldiers' monument, erected in 1886 through the
liberality and public spirit of Diana Farnum, widow of H. H. Farnum,
whose gift of $10,000 defrayed the cost thereof. It commemorates the
valor and patriotism of the soldiers from Deer Park who took part in
the great struggle for the preservation of the Union in 1861-5. It
was unveiled to the public on July 4, 1886, in the presence of a
vast multitude of spectators. L. F. Carr, Esq., of Port Jervis, and
General Stewart L. Woodford, of Brooklyn, N. Y. were the orators of
the occasion. The ceremonies were in charge of Carroll Post,
G. A. R., of Port Jervis.
FLOODS IN PORT JERVIS.
The situation of Port Jervis near the confluence of the Delaware and
Neversink Rivers exposes its low-lying parts to occasional overflows
of these streams in times of heavy rainfall and more especially
during the break-up of ice at the end of the winter season.
The channel of the Delaware at this place is shallow and obstructed
by rapids and islands against which descending masses of ice become
lodged, damming back the water and producing what is known as an
ice-gorge. Such an event occurred in the latter part of February,
1875, when the channel of the river for several miles in extent was
filled with a gigantic accumulation of broken ice. For several weeks
the village was threatened with inundation and various unsuccessful
expedients were resorted to to start the ice moving. The excitement
culminated on March 17, when the "gorge" gave way, carrying with it
the iron railroad bridge across the Delaware above Sparrowbush, which
in descending the stream on top of the moving ice, struck and swept
away the Barrett suspension bridge at Port Jervis. For a short time
just before the break-up of the "gorge" the lower part of the village
as far as the Erie tracks was flooded with water.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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