Toll Road Corporations

New York, 1895

Counselor Van Vechten Tells How They May be Ousted.

Supervisors Everitt and Denton, the committee appointed by the board of Supervisors to consider the making of a free road from the line of the city of Brooklyn to the village of Hempstead; also to ascertain the right of the Hempstead and Jamaica turnpike company, and the Jamaica and Brooklyn road company to the parts of the highways occupied by them, met at the Town Hall in Jamaica on Tuesday. Charles Twombly and S. A. Mills, of the village board of trustees, and Isaac C. Hendrickson and R. W. Higbie, of the business men's association, met with the committee.

Counselor Van Vechten gave a resume of the history of the Brooklyn and Jamaica road, the Hempstead turnpike, and the Rockaway turnpike. The Brooklyn and Jamaica road was laid out in 1696, by an act of the Colonial Legislature, and the claim of the company was sheer nonsense. The Hempstead turnpike company had no valid charter, and the Rockaway turnpike company would, as they were not able to get a sufficient number of the stockholders together, have to have their charter annuled by the legislature.

The counselor recommended a petition to the attorney general to bring an action to oust the Hempstead and Jamaica turnpike company, also to bring an action against the Queens county and suburban railroad company; to restrain them from operating a toll road on the ground that they are a street railroad company, and as such have no right to transact business as a turnpike company. He also advised that a petition be sent to the legislature asking for the repeal of the charter of the Rockaway turnpike company, as the road has been virtually abandoned.

The meeting adjourned until Saturday, when they will take action on the plans outlined by counsel.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.