USA > New York > Rockland County > The history of Rockland County > Part 22
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SEC. 3. The said Trustees, or a majority of them, may, and hereby are empowered, from time to time, and before or after the said road shall have been constructed, repaired or improved, as aforesaid, by any writing or writings, under their hands and seals, to assign over or mortgage the said tolls to be received at both or either of the said gates, in and by separate securities, or jointly to the individuals or companies who advance the funds or perform the labor for each, or all the sums of money advanced or the amount of a just compensation for the labor performed on the said road, the costs and charges of such assignments or mortgages to be borneand paid out of such tolls, so to be assigned or mortgaged, respectively, for any time or times during the continuance of this act, which said tolls, so to be respectively assigned or mortgaged, as aforesaid, shall be pledged and applied hy the said Trustees : First, To the maintaining and keeping the said road in repair. Second, To the annual payment of the interest, not exceeding five per cent .- per annum-for such sum or sums of money borrowed or the amount of labor performed on said road (other than the annual statute labor hereinafter specified) and, lastly; if there shall be any surplus remaining in the hands of said Trustees, it shall be applied for the payment of the principle of the said sum or sums of money and amount of labor performed, as aforesaid, and that the said mortgages and as- signments may be, from time to time, assigned over by such person or persons to whom the same shall be respectively made his, her and their executors, administrators and, assigns to any other person or persons whomsoever, and that copies of all the said assignments or mortgages shall be entered at length in a book to be kept for that purpose by the Clerk of said Trustees, which book or books shall and may be examined at all reasonable times without fee or reward.
SEC. 4. The said Trustees, or a majority of them, from time to time, by writing, under their hands and seals may appoint a clerk, toll-gatherers and such other sufficient officers as shall be necessary for putting in execution this act, and shall take such securities to the people of the State of New York for the faithful execution of their respective offices as the said Trustees or a major- ity of them shall approve of, and also that the said Trustees or a majority of them shall and may from time to time remove such clerk, toll-gatherers, and other officers, or any of them, as they shall deem proper, and appoint new ones in case of death or such removals, and the said Trus- tees or a majority of them shall and may out of the said tolls, or out of the money to be borrowed on the credit thereof, make such allowances to the said clerk, toll-gatherers, or other officers as the said Trustees, or a majority of them shall deem reasonable.
SEC. 5. Ifany Trustee shall die, remove out of the County, refuse to act, or otherwise be- come incompetent to discharge the duties of such Trustee, it shall and may be lawful to and for the surviving Trustees, or a majority of them, to elect and appoint a fit person, or persons, in the place of such Trustee or Trustees dying, moving out of the County, or refusing to act, or becom- ing incompetent, and such person or persons so elected or appointed shall be joined with the other Trustees in the execution of this act to all intents and purposes in as ample a manner as the Trustees hereby appointed are empowered to act and subject to the provisions of this act, and notice in writing of any vacancy occurring in the office of such Trustee shall be given to the re- maining Trustees, and of the time and place of meeting for the election of such new Trustees shall
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be given by the clerk to the said Trustees at least ten days before such meeting, and that the said clerk shall enter such new appointment of Trustee or Trustees from time to time in the book kept by him.
SEC. 6. It shall, and may be, lawful to and for the said Trustees, or a majority of them, to improve the course of the said road, and to alter the same wherever they may deem the public good requires, particularly by straightening and avoiding the hills in the same wherever it can be con- veniently done, and to order to be discontinned so much and such parts of the old route as in the opinion of the said Trustees have become unnecessary, whose decision in the premises shall be conclusive and final, which alteration, improvement and discontinuance shall also be recorded in the book of the said Trustees to be kept by their said Clerk, and a copy thereof shall be delivered to the Town Clerk in the Town where the said alteration or discontinuance shall take place to be recorded by him in the Town records of Roads in said Town, and notice in writing of such altera- tion shall be given by the said Clerk to the owner or occupant of any enclosed or improved lands through which the said road shall be laid out or altered, but no road or alteration shall be laid out through any orchard, garden, or building contrary to the 57th Section of the 4th Article, first title, 16th Chapter of the Ist part of the Revised Statutes.
SEC. 7. It any owner or owners through whose improved or enclosed land the said road shall be laid out or altered shall refuse to have same opened or worked and improved without compensa- tion for the damages thereof, it shall be the duty of such owner within twenty days after having re- ceived notice of such alteration to have his damages assessed, in the manner prescribed in Article 4th, Title Ist, Chapter 16th, of the Ist part of Revised Statutes; which damages, together with the expense of surveying, shall be levied and paid by the Town in which the alteration is made, in the same manner as other contingent charges of said Town are paid, and it shall be lawful for the said Trustees after the expiration of the time aforesaid, to enter uponthelandsandtoopen, or cause to be opened the said road, and to construct, make and improve the same.
SEC. 8. The first meeting of the said Trustees shall be on the first Tuesday in June, next, at house of Jno. I. Yourey, in the Town of Ramapo, and they, or a majority of them may from time to time thereafter meet at such place as a majority of them shall determine.
SEC. 9. It shall be duty of the said Trustees, previous to the erection of any gate, so to con- struct, repair and improve said road, that all standing timber shall be cut down to the width of said road twenty feet, of which exclusive of the ditches to be made on each side thereof ; shall be cleared of all stumps, roots, stones or any other obstruction whatever; when practicable, and the soil of said road shall be well compacted together and faced with gravel, of a depth not less than six inches where required, so as to secure a firm and even surface, rising in the middle by a gradual arch.
SEC. IO. As soon as permission so as aforesaid shall be granted to erect a gate or gates, upon and across the said road, it shall and may be lawfulfor the Toll-gatherers to be appointed as afore- said, to collect and receive of and from all and every person nsing the said road, at each of the said gates, for any number of miles not less than ten, and so in proportion for any greater or less distance, to wit : For every wagon drawn by two horses, mules or oxen 1212 cents ; and 3 cents for every additional horse, mule or ox attached to such wagon. For every cart drawn by two horses, mules or oxen 121/2 cents ; and for every additional horse, mule or ox attached to such cart 3 cents. For every horse and rider 6 cents, for every horse led or driven 4 cents. Fur every sled or sleigh drawn by two horses, mules or oxen 6 cents ; and so in proportion if drawn by a greater or less number of horses, mules or oxen. For every chair, chaise, sulky, pleasure wagon or carriage drawn by one horse 121/2 cents. For every coach, coachee, chariot or phaeton or other four wheeled pleasure carriage 25 cents. For every score of hogs, sheep or calves 6 cents, and so in proportion for a greater or less number. For every score of horses or cattle 25 cents, and so in proportion for a greater or less number. It shall be lawful for the Trustees or a majority of them, to reduce the toll aforesaid whenever they shall deem it necessary to do so, and it shall and may be lawful for any Toll-gatherer to stop and detain, any person riding, leading or
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driving any horse or horses, cattle, sheep or hogs, sulky, chair or phaeton, chaise, wagon, sleigh or sled or other carriage of burden or pleasure, from passing through any of the said gates until they shall have respectively paid the tolls aforesaid. But no toll shall be exacted or demanded from any person or persons who are exempt from the payment of toll by the 36th Section of the 3d Article, Ist Title, 18th Chapter of the first part of the Revised Statutes ; and no more toll than is specified in the 37th Section of the same Article, for wagons of the width of tire therein respec- tively mentioned, and the said Trustees shall cause to he affixed and kept up, at or over each gate, in a conspicions and convenient place to be read, a printed list of the rates of toll which may be lawfuily demanded.
SEC. II. Whenever complaint in writing shall be made to any of the Judges of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Rockland, that the said road or any part thereof is out of repair, it shall be the duty of such Judge to whom such complaint is made to repair to such part of said road and to view the same, and if the same shall in the opinion of the said Judge be out of re- pair, then the said Judge shall give notice in writing of such defect to the Toll Gatherer or person attending the gate nearest to the place so out of repair, and shall also in his discretion in said notice, order such gate to be thrown open, and the gate so ordered to be thrown open shall imme- diately after the service of such notice aforesaid, be opened and shall remain open and no toll shall be demanded for passing the same until a certificate is received by the person keeping such gate, under the hand of two of the said Judges, that said road is in sufficient repair, and granting permission to shut such gate and receive toll.
SEC. 12. If any person shall willfully break or throw down any of the said gates, or shall ob- struct, dig up or spoil any part of said road, or any bridge or acqueduct drain or anything there- unto belonging or shall forcibly pass either of the said gates, without having paid the legal tolls, such person or persons shall, for every such offence or injury forfeit and pay the sum of twenty- five dollars, to be recovered by and in the name of the clerk of said Trustees, in an action of debt before any Justice of Peace in the County, or where the offender can be found, which said sum when received by the said clerk, shall be paid over to said Trustees, and by them expended and laid out in the improvement and repair of the said road, and if any person or persons shall, with his team, carriage, or horse, turn out of said road or pass either of said gates, or ground adjacent thereto, and again enter on said road, having passed said gate or gates to avoid payment of the toll due by this Act, such person or persons shall forfeit and pay a fine not exceeding ten dollars, to be recovered in like manner, and for the same use, with the costs of suit.
SEC. 13. If any Toll Gatherer shall unreasonably delay or hinder any traveller or passenger at either of the said gates, or shall demand and receive more toll than by this Act, is established, he shall, for every such offence, forfeit and pay five dollars, to be recovered by the person so unreasonably detained, for his own, use with costs of suit in any court having cognizance thereof.
SEC. 14. The said Trustees shall keep a just and true account of all monies borrowed, re- ceived or to be received by the several Toll Gatherers, and of all monies expended, or to be ex- pended, or labor performed, (other than the ordinary annual Statute labor hereinafter mentioned) by virtue of this Act, and shall, on or before the first day of January, in each year, transmit a copy of the said account to the Comptroller of this State, and file a copy with . the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors, of the County of Rockland, which said accounts may be examined at all reasonable times without fee or reward.
SEC. 15. Each of the said Trustees to be appointed or elected as aforesaid, shall, before he enters upon the duties of his office, take and subscribe an oath or affirmation that he will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Trustee according to the best of his ability, and each of the said Trustees shall execute to the people of this State a bond, with two.or more sufficient securities, to be approved of by two of the Judges of the County of Rockland, which approbation shall he endorsed upon the said bond in the penal sum of two thousand dollars, conditioned for the true and faithful performance of the trust reposed in him by virtue of this Act, and for the due application of all monies which may come into his hands by virtue of this Act, to the improvement of the said
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road, which said oath or affirmation and bond shall be filed in the Clerk's Office of the County of Rockland.
SEC. 16. If any of the Trustees shall not faithfully perform the trust reposed in them by virtue of this Act, the Court of Common Pleas in the County of Rockland shall cause said bond to be prosecuted, and the amount that shall be recovered upon the said bond shall be paid over to the said Trustees, to be expended upon the improvement of said road.
SEC. 17. The Commissioners of Highways of the several Towns through which said road shall pass shall divide said road into as many road districts as they shall judge convenient, and shall cause the same to be worked by the inhabitants residing on and near said road, or attached to said districts in the same manner as other road districts in the said several Towns are worked and re- paired, subject, however, to the direction of the said Trustees.
SEC. 18. Tbe said Trustees may from time to time commute with any person who resides near said road, for Toll payable on the same for one year, and may renew the same annually at the expiration of each period.
SEC. 19. The several Toll-gatherers to be appointed by virtue of this Act, shall take and sub- scribe the oath of office required by the Constitution of this State, which said oath shall be filed with the Clerk of said Trustees, and said Trustees shall have power to construct or hire suitable houses for their Toll-gatherers, and procure suitable situations for the same upon such terms as they shall deem advisable.
SEC. 20. This Act shall continue in force for the term of 21 years, or until the monies whichi shall have been borrowed, or labor performed, (except as aforesaid), upon the credit of Tolls to be received at the said gates, as aforesaid, shall have been paid off and discharged together with the interest thereon, not exceeding 5 per cent. per annum, upon [which ] the said gates shall be taken down, and said road shall thereafter be a free public highway, and the Toll-houses, if any erected, sold, and money paid to the Town Commissioners of Highways, to be applied on said road and bond of said Trustees, to be cancelled by direction of Comptroller by the Clerk of the County.
SEC. 21. The Legislature may by law remove any one or more of the said Trustees and appoint others in their stead, and the said Trustees shall annually account with the Board of Supervisors of the said County for all monies received and expended on said road, labor performed and ex- penses incurred by virtue of this Act, and shall be allowed such compensation for their services, under this Act, as the Board of Supervisors of the said County shall deem just and reasonable, to be paid out of the Tolls collected on said road.
SEC. 22. This Act shall be deemed and taken to be a Public Act, and the Legislature may at any time alter, amend, or repeal the same.
ALBANY, MAY 4, 1830.
The Turnpike from Nyack to Sufferns, while it shortened the distance between the two places some four or five miles by measurement, short- ened it more in time and ease than can be calculated. The traveller be- tween the two villages, before this new road was opened, would leave Nyack by a narrow unworked lane, following the course of the present Main street, until he reached a point east of the ice house. The lane then swept up to and along the northern base of the hill where John W. Towt, now resides, turning back to the present pike just east of the former loca- tion of the toll gate, from there it followed the course of the present pike closely till it reached the old Kings Highway, the first road running north
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and south, west of the Nyack hills. If the traveller's horse should arrive at the highway without being lamed by the roots and rocks he had stum- bled over or being exhausted by wading through the mud if it was spring time, and if the traveller's courage still held out ; he had the choice of two routes before him. One, following the highway north to Casper Hill, and then west, north of the Hackensack swamp; would bring him out at Clarksville or Mont Moor, by Isaac Pye's corner. Continuing on west, he would pass the old Dutch Church, and ride along from a half mile to a mile north of the Turnpike until he reached the vicinity of Spring Valley, when he would turn south toward the Dutch Factory. Not quite reaching it, the traveller would again turn, ride west and north, pass from a mile to a mile and a half north of Monsey Station, continue west about that distance from the Turnpike till he reached the old Kings road from Sufferns to Haverstraw, when his journey would be nearly ended.
If, on reaching the highway west of Nyack, the traveller decided on the southern route; he would ride down the highway till he reached the present Rockland Driving Park, and then turning west, would pass through Greenbush, Sickletown, and Scotland, reaching the present Turn- pike just south of Spring Valley, and southwest of the Dutch Factory. Till nearly midway between Monsey and Taulmans, he would follow the course of the pike, then abruptly turning to the south and west, he would make a long detour through the present Masonicus, and from there pur- sue a comparatively direct course to Sufferns.
During the long controversy preceding the final building of the Nyack Turnpike, the opponents of the road sent several prominent citizens, of unimpeached veracity, to measure the depth of a swamp west of Spring Valley, through which the proposed road was to run. It was a most for- bidding spot, from all accounts, covered with water and oozy mud. These prominent citizens later testified that they had endeavored to reach hard bottom, first with fence rails and then with poles, twenty or more feet in length ; that their efforts had been in vain, and that they had discovered, at the depth of a few feet, the existence of a quick-sand so active as to draw the poles and rails from their hands into the gruesome depths below. In their estimation the "Bear's Nest Swamp," as it was called, was a bottomless morass, containing, at a slight depth, frightful quicksands, which, in case an attempt was made to build a road across it, would swal- low road-bed and traveller, till the expense, thus produced, would bank- rupt the County.
The Clarksville swamp was met and conquered, but when the Com- missioners approached the "Bear's Nest," they were influenced by the
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reports concerning it, and laid out the Turnpike south of the spot. Ten years later, when the Erie Railroad was being built, it was run through the " Bear's Nest," and the somewhat curious facts were discovered, not only that the morass was but five or six feet deep, but that the bottom was hard clay on which the ties of the railroad rest. In 1871 the Alturas Company cut a road directly through the old swamp bed from Monsey to near the Dutch Factory, and thus did away with the long detour.
In 1853 the Turnpike charter was renewed, and again in 1873. In April, 1855, that clause of the original act, which prevented the collection of toll from people residing within a mile of the toll-gates, was rescinded and the collection of half tolls from such residents allowed. On April 3d, 1883, " An act, to amend Chapter 286, of the Laws of 1830," was passed by the Legislature.
SEC. I. Section four of Chapter 286 of the laws of 1830, entitled " An Act to improve the State Road from the Orange Turnpike to Nyack, in county of Roekland : " * is hereby amended so as to read as follows :
4th. The said Trustees, or a majority of them, from time to time, by writing, under their hands and seals, may appoint from their number a Clerk and Treasurer, and shall further appoint Toll- gatherers and such other sufficient officers as shall be deemed necessary by said Trustees for the purpose of this act, and shall take such security or securities to the people from the Treasurer and Toll-gatherers for the faithful execution of their respective offices, as the said Trustees, or a ma- jority of them, shall approve, and also that the said Trustees or a majority of them, shall and may, from time to time, remove such Clerk, Treasurer, Toll-gatherers, and other officers, or any of them whenever they shall deem proper, and appoint new ones in case of death or such removal ; and the said Trustees, or a majority of them, shall and may out of the said tolls, make such allowance to the sail Clerk, Treasurer, Toll-gatherers, or other officers as to the Trustees or a majority of them shall seem reasonable.
2d. Section Twelve of said act is hereby amended so as to read as follows : 12. If any person shall willfully break or throw down any of the said gates, or shall obstruct dig up, or spoil any part of said road, or any bridge, or aqueduet, drain, or anything thereunto belonging, or shall for- cibly pass either of the said gates without having paid the legal toll, such person or persons shall for every such offence or injury forfeit and pay the sum of twenty-five dollars, to be recovered by and in the name of the said Trustees in an action for debt before any justice of the Peace of the County, or where the offender can be found ; which said sum, when received, shall be paid over to the Treasurer and shall be by said Trustees expended and laid out in the improvement and repair of the said road, and if any person or persons shall with his team, carriage or horse, turn out of said road or pass either of the said gates or ground adjacent thereunto, and again enter on said road, having passed the said gate, or gates, to avoid the payment of toll due by this act such per- son or persons shall for each such offence forfeit and pay a fine not exceeding ten dollars, to be recovered in like manner, and for the same use with costs of suit ; and any tolls due from any per- son by reason of this aet shall be recovered in like manner and for the same use.
Section fourteen of said Act is hereby amended so as to read as follows : 14. The Treasurer shall collect and receive from the Toll-gatherer or toll-gatherers from time to time as he shall deem expedient all tolls collected by them and all monies received, or to be received by them, and shall keep a just and true account of the same, and of all monies expended and to be cxpended and labor performed (other than the ordinary Statute labor hereinafter mentioned) and shall make report thereof to said Trustees whenever required so to do by virtue of this Act and all money expended
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or to be expended, shall be paid by said Treasurer upon the order of the said Trustees, or a ma- jority of them, and said Treasurer shall on or before the first day of January in each year transmit a copy of the said account to the Comptroller of this State, and file a copy with the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Rockland, which said accounts may be examined at all reasonable times without fee or reward.
Section Fifteen of said Act is hereby amended so as to read as follows: 15. Each of the said Trustees to be appointed or elected, shall, before he enters upon the duties of his office, take and subscribe an oath or affirmation that he will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Trustee according to the best of his ability, which oath or affirmation shall be filed in the Clerk's Office of the County of Rockland.
The Trustees hereafter to be appointed by virtue of this Act shall be appointed for the terms of one, two, three, four and five years respectively, and at the expiration of the term of service of each Trustee respectively, the County Justices of the County of Rockland with the Supervisors of the towns of Clarkstown and Orange, shall appoint their successors each and every year for the term of five years during the term of this charter.
The Act incorporating the State road aforesaid is hereby renewed and extended for the further lerin of ten years from the expiration of the present charter.
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