Many friends and colleagues in New York City and in Orange County, New York, helped make this book possible. I wish to acknowledge the support and assistance of Ann Roche at the Goshen (NY) Public Library and Historical Society, the Goshen town historian Edward P. Conner, and Michelle P. Fighiomeni of the Orange County Historical Society, as well as the friendship of Sue Scher and Viktor and Alex Prizgintas from the OCHS. I also relied on the generous staff at the Port Jervis Free Library and the Middletown Thrall Library, NY.
A very special thank-you to Nancy Conod, director of the Minisink Valley Historical Society in Port Jervis, who welcomed me to the society’s regular Thursday-afternoon roundtables, was a steadfast supporter of my research, and pointed me to numerous contacts and sources. Nancy also made possible the use of images from the society’s photograph collection that appear in this book.
The Port Jervis native and chronicler Robert Eurich was an indispensable research companion and authority who guided me through the intricacies of the community’s past. Robert’s insights and exacting scholarship were shared in countless emails and conversations. From his published writing about Stephen Crane to his leadership in the Friends of Robert Lewis, he has been a valued friend and exemplary colleague.
I’d be remiss in not acknowledging the scholarship of several authors whose work has informed mine. Jacqueline Goldsby has written wisely and extensively on Stephen Crane and The Monster; and Daniel J. Dwyer, Betsy Krakowiak, Peter Osborne, and Matthew M. Osterberg have published informative illustrated books about Port Jervis and its people. Of the many good biographies of Stephen Crane available, one source deserving of special mention is The Crane Log: A Documentary Life of Stephen Crane, by Stanley Wertheim and Paul Sorrentino (1995). The work of the Hudson Valley historian A. J. Williams-Myers was instrumental in shaping my understanding of Black life in colonial and nineteenth-century New York, particularly Long Hammering: Essays on the Forging of an African-American Presence in the Hudson River Valley to the Early Twentieth Century (1994).
Several former and present Port Jervians contributed memories and shared knowledge of the town’s history, including the veteran Orange County writer and editor Tom Leek and the journalists Jessica Cohen and Sharon Seigel, as well as Eddie and Mimi Keys, Ralph Drake, Calvin DeMond, Ed Westbrook, and Margaret Spring. A special thanks to the author-historian Mike Worden, formerly of the Port Jervis Police Department, for sharing insights about the history of local law enforcement; and also to Dr. Kristopher Burrell, professor of history at CUNY Hostos Community College (Bronx), whose 2003 paper on the lynching of Robert Lewis remains an invaluable touchstone. I also extend my gratitude to Elizabeth Witherow and her students at Port Jervis High School for welcoming me into their classroom, not once but twice. The partners at Bavoso, Plotsky & Onofry Attorneys at Law in Port Jervis graciously provided a tour of the William Crane House.
Generous financial support for research and travel came from a 2019–2020 faculty research grant from the New School in New York City. For encouragement and letters of support I am immensely grateful to Garnette Cadogan, Jelani Cobb, Jan Gross, Andrew Meier, and Scott Moyers. My Brooklyn friends Daniel Turbow and Jason Dubow answered legal queries and gave editorial advice, respectively. I wish to acknowledge many supportive friends and colleagues at the New York Institute for the Humanities, where I am a fellow, as well as in the Journalism + Design Department at Eugene Lang College, where I am honored to serve on the faculty.
This project would never have seen the light of day without the timely and thoughtful support of my agent, Stephanie Steiker. Thank you also to the artist Heather Drake for design of the map, the copy editor M. P. Klier, the editorial assistant Tara Sharma, the book designer Gretchen Achilles, the cover designer Thomas Colligan, and the talented Mindy Tucker for the author photograph. I can’t say enough about the book’s two main champions at Farrar, Straus and Giroux: Deborah Ghim, a brilliant collaborator whose contributions to the evolving manuscript were essential; and Eric Chinski, who saw the book’s potential early on and whose vision shaped its focus, and whose efforts worked to greatly improve it along the way.