The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-07-16

lower to bed rock. Last winter a quarry was opened on the east side of the river and an enormous pile of rock was crushed and conveyed to the point where 1t will be concreted. It is estimated by the contractors, the J. A. Cris1eld Contracting company of Philadelphia, that the job will re- quire 10000 cubic yards of concrete and that it will be another year be- fore the dam is finished.
 The building of the great dam ne cessitated the removal of all bodies from the Riverside cemetery, the dis trict school house and the Riverside Methodist church to new locations higher up the banks of the stream. The removal of the bodies was done decently and in order under the di- rection of John B. Downs, represent l ing the cemetery association. About 800 graves were opened and the re- mains or ashes transferred to the new resting place. In most burials of more than 75 years ago, only the skulls and a few bones of the limbs were found. All were enclosed in cof- fins before transfer. MT. Downs re- lates as a strange incident of his grewsome task that in one of the old graves opened they found a pair of cowhide boots in good state of pres ervatton with only a few bones in- side. All the rest of the skeleton had resolved into dust. The headstones were also moved.
 The men and most of the machinery are furnished by c. W. Blakeslee & Sons Co.,, of New Haven, who are sub-contractors, their superintendent in charge being M. c. Hamilton.
 The Blakeslee Co. are also building between six and seven miles of high way on the east side of the river, which includes raising the Sandy Hook bridge nine feet, and building a new bridge across the Pomperaug river. The Cristfeld Co. have built two miles of railroad track. On top of the dam will be highway to take the place of Zoar bridge which will be 20 feet above the water.
 The consulting engineers on the great undertaking are Carl P. Birkin- hine and E. H. McHenry.
 The Cristheld company are also making the surveys and soundings for the sites of the new dams to be built farther up the. stream. The abutting property holders and those holding shore rights on ehese other privileges have been compensated. The men engaged in this work are W. M. Wood, a noted real estate man from New York, and Thomas Youngs of New Milofrd.
 The real owners of this great enter prise are not the Connecticut Light 6 Power Co.,, but in reality this com pany is only one of the tentac1es oi the octopus which is slowly getting Connecticut as it's prey. It plans te grasp as many of the public utilities of the state as possible before the state CT nation puts stop to. it's vor- aoity, The real owners of the water rights on the Housatonio are the United Gas and Improvement Co. oi Pennsylvania, which already helped to destroy the usefulness of a grant railroad corporation and loaded the trolley systems with debts, For tive decades before 1915 the state legisla. ture withstood the assaults of the lobbyists who were working for con- trel of Cennectieuts peer rights, but when J., Henry Rorabaek and asso- ctates consolidated these separate claims of overlappieg water right companies in 1915 under the name of the Connecticut Light & Power /, Co.,. his personally controlled state legislature of 1917, not only extend i ed the time of these expiring charters but gave him and his associates full 1 power to go ahead and build a dam or a series of dams on the thirty miles of the lower course of the river from the Heosac mountains in Massa- chusetts, with power to absorb all the continent watersheds of the section. All this as known to the public; but it was not realized that back of it all was the giant corporation of the city of Bretherly Love, the U. G. l. G., which had already cast it's baiefui in- fiuence. over the public utilities, the trolley and electric lighting and steam 1 railroads of the Connecticut shore | towns, under which a magnificent railroad system was brought te the brink ct insolvency and the investing stockholders and the public general ly renged.
 How the Pennsylvania aggregatien of capitalists were first led to Con- necticut is chapter in the political and financial history of Connecticut hitheEta uasaan fasllE. It saaRstAe