New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-04-21
cents yard John O. s. Lynch, $i,1l1 with
interest, $685. 20; Mr. Sweet testifying to filing

d
interest, $685. TO- Mr.. Sweet testifying to filing
one block, LII cubic yards at 40 cents and on
the other two 4,3lS yards, at so cents; John O. s.
Lynch, $1,41s. with interest, $2,210; Mr.. Sweet
testifying to 1,1o6 cubic yards at 80 cents Rhoda
Mara and j. o. s. Lynch, $2,973 with interest.
$i,834 %; Mr.. Sweet testifying TO 3.0S6 cubic
yards, at 81 cents yard RhOda Mara, s., 37S so,
with interest, 81, 1925 so; Mr.. Sweet testifying to
ALI cubic yards, at "a cents; Iii Pierce So, 7S5,
with interest, $59O1 Mr.. Sweet testifyng to APO
yards, at 10 cents yard.
The first thing to be noticed is the large amount Of
filling estimated for in each case and the high prices
at which it was placed. The latter circumstance was
due 70 the fact that if the earth brought to fill
the space, it would necessarily be carried in
boats across Onondaga Lake. Responsible residents
OF the neighborhood. practical builders. men who
thoroughly familiar with the workings and his
tory of the saltworks say that filling Of earth as
er put there and that therefore. the award for filling
was clear steal. The raising of the building pro-
vided place to put the ashes from the furnaces,
enough of which accumulate in the course of
single season to compel the raising Of a building
to free itself from them These citizens, whose word
Is fully as good as that Of any Senator or of any
claimant, deny that in any single instance which
they remember was there any earth put on these
claims ~ filling. The filling was of ashes, which
cost the manufacturers nothing; and, in fact that
they had place TO put them at all was q great con-
venience which salt manufacturers can appreciate.
There have been where the filling was put in
by the State and the State paid damages besides.
CNJUsTIFABIE AWARDS
Residents Of the vicinity many Of whom denOunce
these awards az swindles, deny that any of these
blocks were ever raised account of any damage
done by the canal and say that the whole award
was, therefore, unjustifable. When the water ap-
peared some of them it was due to the fact that
large part of the district had once been swamp,
and in the Spring these hOllOws filled up so that the
boys years ago used to paddle about among the salt
blocks. The ground was still soft ground. The
high water they say, was caused by the rise in
Onondaga Lake, which lies close by, and not by the
canal at all. On of these lots, considerable
distance from the canal on high ground, il is said
there any water at all. To some OF them,
it il distinctly charged, there not cents
damage done, and il is asserted that they we're on
the contrary benefited by the change.
The statement made to me in regard to these cases
by State Engineer and Surveyor Sweet, then acting
in private capacity, tends curiously to confirm the
above statement in reference to this fraudulent fill
ing made to me by members of Senator Woods own
political party, aud vouched for by some of the
best citizens of Syracuse "a thoroughly honest and
truthful Mr.. Sweet says he was merely required 10
revise the estimates and figures and calculations OF
the engineer who had already computed the amount
of filling necessary in each lot, and to estimate the
cost of filing with earth. He visited Greenpoint,
from which place the earth would necessarily be
brought, and made both estimates very carefully,
but he not asked to VISIT aud did not visit the
salt-blocks themselves, and only knew in general
way that some of them partially filed, and he
naturally supposed with earth. The award was
rfh Mt md n
curing 900 yards the way left open for fill
ing with ashes, which cost the claimants nothing,
and which generally cost them something to get nd
of; practical men, who have built and raised salt
blocks, and lived all their lives in and about the
salt Yards say that the filling made with ashes.
That looks like chain of evidence.
Space will not permit the detailing Of similar
evidence in relation to the extravaganza of the
awards for the mere raising of the sat-blocks, but
builders unite in the statement that IN several OF
these cases the value of the building did not exceed
the damages by more than 25 or 30 per cent, and
that entirely new buildings could have been put up
for the amount of the award In Others The at
torney for the State was b. Davis Noxon, and the
appraisers who made the awards in almost all of
these cases were Messrs North and Gay. In most Of
them there were only two witnesses called besides
the claimants; in no case more than three. The
testimony of claimant for similar damages had
already been accepted by stipulation between NOSon
and Wood. This testimony of claimants Is sin
grlar feature of canal claims. They form little
rings, and where there is batch Of dozen cases,
each claimant is sure Of eleven witnesses. The two
witnesses examined in all these eases were Amos l..
Mason, the builder of the salt-blocks, and himself
former claimant, and Mr. Sweet The former testi-
fed as TO what he thought it was worth to raise the
salt blocks but evidence was introduced to show
what the actual expense had been in cases where
the charge had been made. No witnesses were
called on behalf of the State, and there was little
or no cross-examination. 1t is said everywhere in
the neighbOrhOod Of the yards that at this time
the sat-blocks were being raised generally, to
provide for change from burning wood to coal and
that the claimants took this means Of making the
State pay the expense. In these eases Senator
Wood is known to have received One-half.
ONEIDA RIVER IMPROVEMENT CLAIMS.
The other great division Of these claims which
were referred were those for the Oneida River I'm
provement These were of two kills. one for dam
ages caused by the raising of the dam at Oak Or
chard the Oneida River; the other caused by the
raising Of the dam at COughdenoy, which " eight
miles above Oak Orchard In these cases, Nathaniel
Deyo and John A. Young the mdllenen, and
it is stated good authority that all awards about
TO he named equally divided, one-half going to
the claimant, and the remaining half going to Mr..
Wood doubtless 10 be shared in a certain proportion
with Deyo and Young. In order to give some idea
of the excess in these awards, which do not bear on
the whole so bad reputation as the sa-block cases,
the following statement was made of the figures
awarded in a number OF these claims and the figures
which honest and careful residents of the locality
consider a full compensation, the claimant being
given always the benefit of any doubt:
A Mooo award 1851, full damage less than