The Keen homestead adjoined the Beach property on the north. Just when the farm house was erected is not known, but that it is pre-Revolutionary there is no question. [Illustration: The Keen Farm House. Pre-Revolutionary. This shows the building as it stands to-day.] In 1765 Thomas Keen, a native of England, and Miss Clorinda Lake, of Holland, were married on Long Island, and subsequently settled at Belleville, Essex County, New Jersey. Their son, Joseph Lake Keen, was married to Abigail Morris in 1790. Their son, John Morris Keen, was married to Peninah Sanford in 1820. Their son, Zebulon Morris Keen, was married to Hanna Maria Garrabrant in 1863. Their surviving son, John Morris Keen, was married in 1908 to Helen Virginia Brainard. The grandfather of the present John M. Keen was born in 1797, and Peninah Sanford was born in Kearney (New Barbadoes) in 1792. She was a descendant of Capt. William Sanford, mentioned elsewhere. The Keen homestead still remains, the house being substantially unchanged, but the barns, cribs and smoke house have long since been removed. Pear trees standing in the yard over twenty years ago were said by Mrs. Peninah Keen to be over two hundred years old. This same grandmother, who began life in 1792, has stated that Washington, in one of his journeys to and fro, came up the old Keen lane and stopped at the farm house for a glass of water. This lane has been in use for at least one hundred and fifty years, as seventy-five years ago trees lined its borders which were then not less than seventy-five years old. THE “BRICK-HOUSE” SMITHS. Almost opposite the Keen home lived the “Brick-house” Smiths. This building was erected fifty-three or fifty-four years ago by Matthias Smith on the site where formerly dwelt his maternal grandfather, Matthias Baker. The latter had the property from Isaac Soverhill. THE SIDMANS OF OTHER DAYS. The Sidman family dates back to the time of William the Conqueror, when the first ancestor of whom there is any record is said to have come to England from Normandy. He appears to have been a favorite of the great William and received from him a considerable grant of land on the river Syd and from this the family derived its name—Sydenham, which was later shortened to Sidman. The introduction of the Sidman family to this neighborhood began with a romance, when John Sydenham ran away with Susannah Handcock, in 1711. It seems that Edward Handcock, “yoeman” (or Handcook, as one document gives the name) was living on this property in the year above mentioned, and that John Sydenham, who happened along from no one knows just where, fell desperately in love with Susannah, an only daughter, but the stern father frowned on the young man’s suit and Susannah was locked in an upper room.