The Newtown bee., 1897-02-19

ranging from $500 to $100 EHere Eng- | neer Patton of Water bury was called | upon by MT Pierce to produce the map of his recent survey. Mir Patton ex- plained how he had gone to work to get the survey. This road being the orig1- nal straight turnpike which was built 15O years ago, claimed that he had found an error in the original survey which was made in 1795, copy of which he had received from the secretary of state through the town clerk, B H. Mattoon.
 This survey called for north, four de grees west, which he thought should be
 four degrees east, as if going by the former residence of H. T. Dayton. The line would be completely on the high.
 way but in taking the latter four de- grees east it would bring the highway | close to the residence, Judge Welch here asked MT Patton if the magnetic 1 needle had not changed some in the last 80 years. Mir Patton replied that it had about 80 degrees, but that he did not
 use the compass but went entirely by
 tie chain and angles. H. W. Warner l then took the stand. He would not put
 price on the building in question. His figures in regard to benefits and dama- ges were about the same as MT Harper's. He was cross examined at some length ! by Judge Root. Howard M. Hickox 1 then testified that Mir Heminway's and Dr Variell's property was not in his opinion either benefited or damaged. | Louis Heminway, benefiitted S25. E. W. Wheeler and E. 0. Marggraff and St
 Johns parish, no change of value by
 reason of change of grade. Pythian
 hall Co.,, $25 benefit. c. W. Atwood, l $50 benefit. B. H. Mattoon and Mrs
 Morse no change. Anson Hard $25
 benefit. James G. Skilton's evidence
 differed somewhat from that of MT | Warner. He claimed that in his judg-
 ment Merritt Heminway's property op
 the west side was worth at least S35
 more by reason of the change of grade
 and on the east side $15 more. Louis
 Heminway, E. W. Wheeler, E. C..
 Marggraff and St John society no change
 Pythian Hall Go $50 benefit, Charles
 W. Atwood $25, Theodore Atwood $50,
 Mrs Morse $25, Anson Hard $40. The
 The court adjourned until g 30 Saturday
 morning, February 13.
 Saturday, February B, the hearing
 was continued. Selectman J. G. Skill
 ton was recalled to the stand by Judge
 Root, who questioned him in regard to
 the manner of assessing damages. Mir 1 Skilton said that when the board could
 not agree they put down the sum total
 and divided it by three to get the average
 and the result was the assessment. En- \ gineer Smith, who had surveyed the ! road under the supervision of the old l board of selectmen, testified that he had ! made two maps of the road which were | alike. one of which he had submitted to
 the state highway commissioner at l Hartford. He admitted however, that
 later on he had changed the grade, first agreed upon, by which change the cuts and fill were more nearly capitalized and ! more road could be made for the amount
 of money at the disposal of the selec:- | men. Judge Root here raised point of l objection to introducing this map in eVi. dence, claiming that it was not the la5 ! out accepted by the special town meet ing called for that purpose, April 20, 1896. MT Lockwood, the former ficst selectman, was then called to the stand. ! Mr Lockwood in his evidence claimed
 that the change of grade was made ! by permission of the state highway commissioners. Judge Root asked him | to produce his authority. This Mr. Lockwood failed to do. Neither could | he testify as to whether both maps were alike. This occasioned good deal of argument between the opposing counsel,
 Judge Root again objeetlng to the in- troduction of the map as changes had been made on it after it's adoption by the town meeting stated above. It was shown further that by the original laS-. out there was cut in front of H. G. Dayton's residence of two feet and just north of Mrs Joseph Wheeler's residence cut of two and one-half feet. These | figures were changed by consent of the highway commissioner to IS inche in front of H. G. Dayton's and to two feet ! in at the Mrs Wheeler place. This changed somewhat the whole grade from the Brick store to the residence of 1 George F. Pritchard. At l 45 p. m. | recess was taken until after dinner. The session opened with Frederick Bry- ant on the stand, who testified in betalf
 of Mrs Samuel T. Dayton. Mir Bryant
 claimed that Mrs Dayton's property was damaged to the amount of s150, it hay l ing required several granite steps to to make access to the place beside put= i ting back 8 stone pavement which had been torn up. Engineer Smith was called to the stand to testify as to what < he thought was fair estimate of the