Dear Sir South Brookfield, August 31, 1830. On my return home I called at your house, and learned that you would be absent some time. I have thought it my duty to inform you, that I have completed the survey of the Cayuga and Seneca, and Oswego canals, and also that part of the Erie canal from Buffalo to Canastota, and shall proceed to make out the returns of survey as soon as possible. Will you have the goodness to acknowledge the receipt of this? Your's respectfully, HENRY SEYMOUR, Esq. Utica. Dear Sir JACOB TRUMPBOUR. South Brookfield, August 31, 1830. I had intended to have called and seen you on my return home; but my business leads me through Otsego and Delaware. I have thought it my duty to inform you, that I have completed the survey of the Cayuga and Seneca, and Oswego canals, and also that part of the Erie canal from Buffalo to Canastota, and shall proceed to make out the returns of survey as soon as possible. Will you have the goodness to acknowledge the receipt of this? Your's respectfully, JACOB TRUMPBOUR. WM. C. BOUCK, Middleburgh, Schoharie co. РВО Your memorialist, finding himself wholly neglected by the acting Canal Commissioners, not only in the examination of the surveys while they were being made, (although Mr. Seymour made repeated promises that he would,) and in the examination of his maps, &c., to enable him to make fair returns of surveys, but also in omitting to reply to his letters, came to Albany about the first of February, last past, furnished with his maps and field notes, &c., and determined to settle his differences amicably with the acting Canal Commissioners if practicable, or failing therein, to appeal to the honorable the Legislature, for that justice which they so unaccountably withhold from him. Since his arrival in Albany, your memorialist has repeatedly waited on the acting Canal Commissioners, and invited them to an examination of his surveys, but all in He has also been credibly informed, that it is the intention of the acting Canal Commissioners to authorise Mr. Hutchinson to re-survey the canals which your memorialist has already surveyed, as soon as the spring shall be sufficiently advanced, regardless of their engagements. The incidental expenses attending the surveys made by your memorialist, will probably exceed fifteen hundred dollars, (besides a just compensation for his services,) including the two sums of $250 each, as previously noticed in this memorial, and for one of which sums he gave his note to Mr. Seymour, which note your memorialist has been credibly informed, has since been put into the hands of Mr. Hutchinson, with what view your memorialist cannot compre hend, unless it be to establish, if possible, the subordinate relation of your memorialist to him. Your memorialist would neglect that duty which every citizen owes his country, if he failed to apprise the Legislature that the surveys and field notes made under the direction of Mr. Hutchinson, will not attain the object for which the map is directed. That object is believed to be, to furnish an authentic and precise record of the land belonging to the State, so that the owners of adjoining lands may know where the boundary line is, and that in controversies which may arise, evidence may be easily obtained from the county clerk's office, to determine the respective rights of the State and of individuals. Your memorialist is constrained to say, from an examination of the maps and field notes made by the persons employed by Mr. Hutchinson, that they will not furnish any such evidence. The boundaries of the State property are not actually run, but are artificial lines laid down on the map, and depend upon a base line on the margin of the canal, and upon off-sets across the canal and the towing-path, leaving the outlines which constitutes the boundaries on the map, to be located without the aid of any written description of them, and without courses or distances, the buildings and other permanent mouuments along the canal are not described, nor is their position designated in reference to any point of the outlines. This has been the general plan adopted by the surveyor employed by Mr. Hutchinson; but when they came to a basin or other place, when it was impracticable to measure across the canal, they have abandoned their plan and pursued that of your memorialist. An inspection of the maps and field notes made by those surveyors, will more fully exhibit the radical defect of their plan. Your memorialist would further represent, that in making the survey herein before mentioned, he could discover no releases to the State, of land occupied for the purposes of the canal, no entries by the appraisers or Canal Commissioners, of lands appropriated for those purposes, as required by law, and in fact no evidences whatsoever, of the title to any such property being vested in the State, (except in a few instances where information has been forwarded to your memorialist by the Comptroller, to whom your memorialist was referred by the Canal Commissioners for information, they stating that there were no documents on the subject in their possession.) The statute before recited proceeds on the ground that the State has "a separate title" to the land to he surveyed and designated on the map; and as it is presumed the compilation of the map cannot vest any such title, it is obvious that its completion in the present condition of the evidence of the title of the State, instead of establishing land-marks and settling controversies, will only be a new and prolific source of future litigation. Your memorialist humbly suggests the necessity of some legislative provision to discover and preserve the evidences of the title of the State to the lands adjacent to the canals. In the absence of all written evidence on this subject, your memorialist applied to the acting Canal Commissioner, Henry Seymour, for instructions, particularly as to the width of the land on each margin of the canals, which should be designated as belonging to the State. The instructions received were generally in substance as follows: The bounds of the canal to extend from the foot of the outside slope of the banks, and where there is no embankment, the lines are to include a space of five feet on the burm side, and twelve feet on the towing path side, measured from the top of the slope on each side of the canal, always assuming a slope of two feet, or to include a space of eight feet on the burm side, and fifteen feet on the towing-path side, measured from the canal; also to include all feeders, basins and slips, made at the expense of the State, and also those made by individuals; all lands purchased by the State, and buildings, all culverts, waste-weirs and weigh-locks, and all lands flowed by water; also giving to your memorialist a discretionary power to vary the location where the circumstances of the case might appear necessary for the purposes of the canals. Under those directions, your memorialist has surveyed and mark. ed out the boundary lines on each side of the State property, and has designated the same on his maps, with their courses and distanWhen completed, they are to be accompanied by a written description of the boundaries on both sides of the lands belonging to the State, with the necessary references to buildings and other permanent monuments. ces. Your memorialist, believing that great injustice has been done him, and apprehending the entire loss of his services and expenses in the employment of the State, has been unable to discover any other mode of redress than by an application to the Legislature, and he therefore humbly prays that his case may be investigated; that provision may be made to compensate him for the services he has rendered, and the expenses he has incurred, under the authority of the Canal Commissioners, and that it may be determined whether the plan of surveying and mapping adopted by Mr. Hutchinson, or that pursued by your memorialist, is best adapted to the requirements of the law, and to attain the objects of the Legislature. And your memorialist would suggest that until the principles on which the survey should be made are definitively settled, future proceedings by the Canal Commissioners should be suspended : And as in duty bound, your memorialist will ever pray. 24th March, 1831. our. JACOB TRUMPBOUR. (D.) Memorial of Jacob Trumpbour, asking remuneration for services rendered the State, the payment for which he alleges to have been unjustly withheld from him. To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New-York, in Senate and Assembly convened. The memorial of Jacob Trumpbour respectfully sheweth: That your memorialist having been engaged in the survey of the Erie, Cayuga and Seneca, and Oswego canals, in connection with Mr. Holmes Hutchinson, under the authority of the Canal Commissioners, having accordingly performed his own part of the said survey in the seasons of 1829 and 1830. Your memorialist during the succeeding winter, attended on the acting Canal Commissioners with his surveys and maps for their examination. Some unexpected and inexplicable misunderstanding had occurred between your memorialist and the acting Canal Commissioner and the other surveyor, which prevented your memorialist from completing his returns of survey, to which he has not been instrumental, and on account of which a pretext has been afforded to the said Canal Commissioner of making no greater advances on account of his said work than five hundred dollars, and a refusal to make any further payments for his expenses and services, and left no other alternative to your memorialist than to submit the whole subject, by his memorial of the 24th March, 1831, to the last Legislature, a copy of which is hereunto annexed, and to which he would again refer for a full detail of all the circumstances attending his case, and which he adopts as a part of this memorial. Your memorialist further sheweth, that the said memorial was referred to the standing committee on canals and internal improvements, which committee, near the close of the session, moved to be discharged from the consideration thereof, and that the subject matter therein be referred to a special committee to investigate the same during the recess of the Legislature, and report thereon to the present Legislature, which prevailed, and a special committee was accordingly appointed. That on a motion for a reconsideration of said resolution, made on the last day of the session, said resolution was ordered to be laid on the table, and nothing further done therein. Your memorialist has, since the adjournment of the last Legislature, considered it his duty to lay the subject before the present acting Canal Commissioners for adjustment, who have declined doing any thing towards such an adjustment. Your memorialist further states, that since the last session he received from the said Holmes Hutchinson the following letter: Horse Heads, Tioga Co. Dec. 4, 1831. JACOB TRUMPBOUR, Esq. Dear Sir-In September last I was directed by the Canal Commissioners to proceed and finish the survey of the canals, agreeable to my engagement with the State. In consequence, however, of the lateness of the season, and being occupied with other business, I have been unable to go on with the work as intended. My objeet in writing this letter is to ascertain from you whether you intend, or have a wish to fulfil your engagement with me, by making the survey and maps of the western part of the Erie, and the Oswego and Cayuga and Seneca canals. You must be aware that this business has been dalayed by you unnecessarily, and that I hold your obligations for cash lent. Should you wish to go on and finish the survey and maps, you must first execute a contract, with security that will be acceptable to the Canal Commissioners, to complete the survey and maps in accordance with our previous understanding, to conform to my survey, and the maps to be made at Utica on the same scale and style of finish. I shall be happy to hear from you on the subject, addressed to me at Utica; and should you wish to see me, I intend being in Albany in January, and will meet you there at any time you may designate. I hope you will favor me with an early answer to this letter, for should your previous survey not be made to conform to mine, and to meet the views of the Canal Board, and should you yet decline to fulfil your engagement, I shall make arrangements to perform my contract with the State as early as the weather will permit in the spring. Sincerely yours, HOLMES HUTCHINSON. To this letter no answer was returned by your memorialist, as it assumed the fact, that he was subordinate to Mr. Hutchinson, and because it would have required an insertion of all the facts set forth in his memorial. Your memorialist conceives that he is justly entitled to a remuneration from the State for his services, particlularly as it is said large sums of money, to the amount of three thousand dollars, have been advanced to Mr. Hutchinson, fifteen hundred of which long prior to any services performed by him, and the other sum after but a small portion of his part of the survey had been made. Your memorialist further states, that he has been most industriously employed for two seasons in accomplishing the work required of him, and as he believes, and expects to demonstrate, in a manner and with an accuracy entirely conformable with the objects designed by the Legislature in authorizing the said survey; and that actuated with an ambition, although devoted to the interest of the State, he has been at a very considerable expense, besides his own labor and services, for which he has not received any compensation beyond that stated in his said memorial; and therefore prays for such an investigation in the premises, and for such relief, as the nature of his case and his services entitle him to. And your memorialist, as in duty bound, will ever pray. JACOB TRUMPBOUR. |