Morris therefore built a dock on his place about a mile north of the present site of High Bridge and chartered a periauger, called the " Nonpareil," with a cargo of coal on board consigned for delivery at Morris Dock. He arrived with his boat at the dam one evening at full tide and demanded of Feeks, the toll gatherer, that the draw or passage-waj' be opened ; of course Feeks could not comply. Some flat boats which had been provided had on board a band of one hundred men ; and Feeks not opening the draw, Mr. Morris with his men forcibly removed a portion of the dam, so that the "Nonpareil " floated across. From that time a draw was always kept in the bridge, but for many years the passage was very difficult, the tide being so strong that it was only possible to pass at slack water.

The Renwicks had succeeded the Macombs to the rights in th<:> dam. At first an attempt was made to indict Morris for disturbing the public i)eace, l)ut by the advice of the recorder and district attorney it was

1 The free navipration of theUarlein River h-i:l always been an important question with the people of the southwestern sertion of Westchester County. On March :j, IS.'JS, the laml-owuers of the town of Westchester held a meeting at Christopher Walton's store, at Fordhani Cornere, and appointed a committee to memorialize the General Assembly in opposition to the low bridge which it was proposed to build, without a draw, to convey the Croton water supply into New York City. The same committee was instructed to ascertain the best method of removing the obstructions in the river at Macomb's dam and Cole's bridge. The memorial stated that the signers had been informed that the water commissioners intended to carry the Oroton water across Harlem River by inverted sy phons built over an embankment of stone, filling up the whole of the natural channel, and with only one archway on the New York side only eighty feet in height, instead of by an aqued\ict bridge, which had already been planned, one hundred and twenty-eight feet above the tide, with arches of eighty fi'et span disposed across the entire width of the river.