PORT JERVIS FREE LIBRARY.
In 1892 was organized the Port Jervis Free Library, with W. L. Cuddeback, W. H. Nearpass, Maria B. Van Etten, Minnie C. Brox and E. H. Gordon, trustees. This board has continued in charge of the library until the present time except that, in 1896, Mrs. Brox resigned and was succeeded by Mrs. M. I. Coonrod. In 1901 a gift of $20,000 was received from Mr. Carnegie for the construction of a library building, which was subsequently increased to $30,000, and with this fund a large, handsome, commodious building was constructed on Pike street hill on a site given by Peter E. Farnum. The building is constructed of light colored pressed brick with native blue stone trimmings. It will house 40,000 volumes. The number at present on the shelves is 15,000; added during the year 1907 by purchase, 1,062; the number lent for home use during the current year, 33,706. It is rich in encyclopedias and valuable works of reference, including the Congressional Record and Globe, and reports of the departments of the Federal and State governments. The valuable collection of books and documents of the Minisink Valley Historical Society is also housed in this building, a separate room on the second floor having been set apart for the accommodation thereof. This building contains two spacious, well equipped reading rooms, in which may be found all the leading reviews, magazines, and weekly periodicals, with complete files of many of them handsomely bound and ranged about the walls for convenient reference.
The present librarian is Miss Elizabeth G. Thorne; assistants, Miss Charlotte Nearpass and Miss Anna G. Wells.
SEWERS.
Port Jervis has an excellent system of public sewers, established in 1891 at a cost of about $85,000, for which the bonds of the village were issued. The original sewer commissioners were Francis Marvin, L. E. Carr, George Schoonover, W. A. Drake, M. D. Graham, with Ed. Whitner, clerk. Its establishment has resulted in a lowering of the death rate and a notable diminution in zymotic diseases within the city limits.
CHURCHES.
Port Jervis has eight churches, which in the order of their establishment are as follows: The Reformed Church of Deer Park, founded August 23, 1737, under the name of the Reformed Dutch Church of Machackemech; Drew Methodist Episcopal Church and the Baptist Church, both founded in 1838; First Presbyterian, incorporated July 15, 1851; Grace Episcopal Church, incorporated September 3, 1853; the Church of the Immaculate Conception, incorporated January 10, 1860; German Lutheran Protestant, Port Jervis, incorporated January 1, 1861; the Second Reformed Church, whose house of worship on West Main street (in Germantown), was dedicated November 29, 1896, with Rev. David T. Harris as pastor; the Church of Sacred Heart (in Germantown), whose handsome church edifice of brick was dedicated in November, 1899, with Rev. B. J. Duffy, ordained in Rome, as first pastor.
The colored people also have a church organization known as the Wickham A. U. M. P. Church, in honor of the late Dr. D. T. Wickham, the principal contributor to their church building.
ST. MARY'S HOME.
A religious, educational and charitable institution of great merit and usefulness is St. Mary's Home, founded in 1871 by the late Rev. Father Nelan, its object being to provide a home for orphan children and to train and instruct them for a useful place in society. For over twenty years this institution has been in charge of Sister Theophelia, a woman whose motherly instincts and marked administrative abilities peculiarly fit her for this highly important work.