In the 1820s, George P. Macculloch envisioned a canal that would transport Pennsylvania coal to New York City. The plan was to construct a canal from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, near the coal fields, to Newark, Jersey City, or New York City. The Morris Canal was completed to Newark in 1831, and Port Morris become one of the major stops established along the route of the canal.
Passages that mention Port Morris, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Morris County, New Jersey1882 · page 367Read the page →
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A church, a public school, a grocery store, a post-office, a depot and a telegraph office are among the conveniences of Port Morris. The post-office was established in 1879, with Ira H. Mowery as-postmaster; he was succeeded by Thomas Reynolds.
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A history of Morris County, New Jersey1914 · page 215Read the page →
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Singer Manufacturing Company extends over the Musconetcong river into the borough, but otherwise there is no manufacturing. The Singer Company is the successor to the Musconetcong Iron Company, but the works are almost entirely in Sussex county. Port Morris, a mile to the eastward, is an important railroad point, the three communities, Netcong, Stanhope and Port Morris, forming a prosperous business section.
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A history of Morris County, New Jersey1914 · page 168Read the page →
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Port Morris, now a village of about six hundred inhabitants, is the highest point in New Jersey on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad. The plateau on which it stands is sixteen feet below Lake Hopatcong, and here the waters of the lake are drawn out to fill the Morris Canal, and in former days a vast tonnage of iron ore was floated westward, and a vastly
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History of Morris County, New Jersey1882 · page 366Read the page →
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Port Morris is the highest point in New Jersey on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. An ordinary engine can draw only fifty loaded cars from the west to this point, while the same engine will take from here 100 cars to New York. Returning it can draw only 100 empty cars. In the fall of 1869 the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Company built at Port Morris the first half of the present round-hcuse, and a machine shop
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Port Morris, 1888 to 1985
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (5), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1907
1917
