By a deed dated October 1, 1853, John R. Sked and Sarah C., his wife, sold the property, which was in shape like the letter L, and which inclosed on two sides the property of Charles Daugherty, to Ezra Gould, subject to several mortgages held by William Patterson and others. And on May 1, 1857, Charles Daugherty and Rachael, his wife, sold to Ezra Gould a lot purchased in 1849 from William Patterson, which squared the Gould property. April 12, 1866, Peter M. Myers and wife sold the Ezra Gould property to Sarah A. Melius, wife of Esley Melius, and the property has since remained in the Melius family. Mrs. Melius was a daughter of Samuel Rust, the inventor of the Washington press, which was the foundation on which the great firm of R. Hoe & Co. was builded. The daughter received the best education that the times afforded girls, being placed first at a leading school in Poughkeepsie, then at the West Point Academy on Lake Champlain, and was given a finishing polish at Mrs. Jackson’s school on Broadway, New York, which was located just above Prince street on the site later occupied by the Metropolitan Hotel. She was a woman of strong convictions and was in her day a magazine writer of some note. There is a story current that Mrs. Melius once held the Erie Railroad up at the point of her parasol by standing in the middle of the track and shaking that weapon at the approaching engine, which naturally stopped all a-tremble, whereupon the lady climbed on board a car and enjoyed a ride to New York. Just how much of this is fact and how much is fancy is not altogether clear at this distance. STIMIS FAMILY TRADITIONS. The next house that can claim the dignity of age is that built about 1805 by Mr. John Stimis, son of Christopher, and occupied during our early days by Col. Gilbert W. Cumming, and at present by the Andersons. Christopher Stimis was the first of the name to settle in this neighborhood. He came some time before the Revolution, from a place then known as Weasel which, according to the Erskin Map No. 82 (made for the use of General Washington during the Revolution), was situated along the Passaic river, west side, some 3-4 miles north of the “Achquackhenonk” bridge (the present town of Passaic). Christopher married a daughter of the house of Coeyman and built his home, on land that had come to his wife from her father’s estate, a few hundred feet north of the present Melius house. When the Revolutionary war came Christopher enlisted, and while in the army took a heavy cold and died of hasty consumption. Christopher had two sons, John (1) and Henry (1). John (1) had five sons: John, Peter, Christopher, Henry and William (the latter is the only one of this generation now living). Henry (1), who lived in the old homestead just south of John, had four sons: John, Abraham, James and Thomas.