Editing Port Ewen, New York (section)

==History==
The prospect of finding work with the Pennsylvania Coal Company attracted many to Port Ewen. Port Ewen was served by the [[West Shore Railroad]], which shipped, among other freight, high explosives produced by the Nitro Powder Company in Kingston.<ref>{{cite book | author=Traffic Service Corporation | title=The Traffic World | publisher=Traffic Service Bureau | issue=v. 16 | year=1915 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Er5OAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA286 | access-date=2024-09-11 | page=286 |chapter=High Explosives}}{{PD-notice}}</ref>

Before the opening of the [[Kingston–Port Ewen Suspension Bridge]] in 1921, those wishing to cross the [[Rondout Creek]] would have to take the ''Skillypot'', a [[chain ferry]] that ran to Sleightsburgh, noted for its sporadic service.

===Hercules Powder Company===
[[File:Trimming platinum wires at Hercules Port Ewen plant 2012 017 b2f37 gb19f642h.tiff|thumb|Trimming platinum wires at Hercules Port Ewen]]

Hercules Powder Company was formed in 1882 by [[DuPont]] and [[Laflin & Rand Powder Company]]. In 1902 by [[DuPont]] purchased Laflin & Rand which it operated as a subsidiary. In 1904 it dissolved Hercules as it continued to consolidate it holdings. However in 1912 successful antitrust litigation forced Duport to divest itself of Laflin and much of its explosive manufacturing.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38234/m1/185/|title=The Federal Reporter with Key-Number Annotations, Volume 188: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit Courts of Appeals and Circuit and District Courts of the United States, August-October, 1911.|date=September 11, 1911|website=UNT Digital Library |chapter=''US v. Du Pont'' 188 Fed 127, 146}}</ref> Laflin's patents for smokeless powder went to a revived Hercules Powder Company based in Wilmington, Delaware.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www2.dupont.com/Heritage/en_US/related_topics/laflin_rand_powder_company.html|title=Laflin & Rand Powder Company|publisher=DuPont|accessdate=2012-02-24|archive-date=2012-02-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120229045443/http://www2.dupont.com/Heritage/en_US/related_topics/laflin_rand_powder_company.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Port Ewen plant produced a range of special detonators designed for military use, as well as construction jobs that required blasts of dynamite.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://digital.sciencehistory.org/works/ht24wj96j|title=Production facilities at Hercules Port Ewen plant|website=Science History Institute Digital Collections}}</ref> In 1973, two women were injured in an explosion of blasting caps.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/24/archives/2-women-hurt-in-explosion-of-blasting-caps-in-factory.html|title="2 Women Hurt in Explosion Of Blasting Caps in Factory", ''The New York Times'', April 24, 1973|website=[[The New York Times]] }}</ref>

===Religious Establishments===
[[File:Beers Ulster County Atlas Page070.jpg|thumb|Lower image: The Catholic Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Port Ewen, as seen from the Hudson River]]

Port Ewen has been served by several religious establishments, including the Town of Esopus United Methodist Church, the Catholic Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Reformed Church of Port Ewen.

====Catholic Church of the Presentation====
A Catholic mission of [[Rondout, New York#St Mary's|St. Mary's]] in [[Rondout, New York|Rondout]] had been established in Port Ewen for the large number of boatmen who lived on the northern side of Rondout Creek in Kingston. In 1873 the mission was split off as a separate parish and placed in the charge of Rev. Michael Phelan. The Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was dedicated by Archbishop [[John McCloskey]] on June 14, 1874.<ref>{{cite book | last=Clearwater | first=A.T. | title=The History of Ulster County, New York | publisher=W. J. Van Deusen | series=New York county and regional histories and atlases | year=1907 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A9I4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA454 | access-date=2024-09-11 | page=454 |chapter=The Roman Catholic Church}}</ref> Aside from attending to missions in the nearby hamlets of Eddyville and Esopus, Phelan also traveled to southern Ulster County, where he formed the nucleus of a parish in the hamlet of [[Milton, Ulster County, New York|Milton]].

Rev. Thomas O'Hanlon became pastor of Port Ewen's Church of the Presentation in 1877. O'Hanlon built the Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart in Eddyville. He died in 1883 and was buried at the entrance of the church.<ref>{{cite book  | title=The Catholic Church in the United States of America: Undertaken to Celebrate the Golden Jubilee of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. V. 1-3 ... | publisher=Catholic editing Company  | year=1914 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KL4YAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA425 | access-date=2024-09-11 | page=425}}</ref>