Of the old settlers there were the houses of Sandford, Munn, Melius, Colonel Cumming, Stimis, John McDonald, Coeyman and Weiler, on the River road; Mr. Alfred Hardwick Gibbs on the high ground north of the Gully road, known as “Thornhill”; the “Cedars”, built by Frank Forester (H. W. Herbert), which had been bought by Mr. Sanchez y Dolce, and was then occupied by him, and also a group of houses about the junction of Washington and Grafton avenues and Halleck Street, which is treated of elsewhere. On the west side of Belleville avenue near Second river was the interesting old house occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Bird and Mrs. Bird’s two sons by a former marriage, Lewis and George Ashmun. This was a most delightful house, and the hospitality of the Birds was renowned. Mrs. Bird was a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Strong, of Massachusetts, and inherited her gracious manner and charm of conversation from a long line of ancestors who were among the best people of New England. They entertained with the grace of the early part of the nineteenth century, before the advent of that class of plutocrats that brought ostentatious pomp and more or less bad manners into society. Mr. Bird was a gentleman of the old school, and Mrs. Bird one of the most gracious and beautiful of women. It was always a delight to attend their evenings at home. One was sure of meeting all the charming people of the surrounding country and Newark, and there was no lack of brilliant conversation. When the gatherings were not too large and the company could assemble around the hospitable board the table-talk was sparkling with wit, while matters of graver import were freely discussed. It is impossible to say when this old house was erected; it bears every evidence of having been a very fine place in its day. One informant recalls having heard Mrs. Bird state that the house was built before the Revolution by an Englishman who sympathized with his king and was consequently compelled to leave the country when war was declared. This information Mrs. Bird secured from a daughter of Harry Coeyman, who had received it from her father. Presumably this is Henry M. Coeyman, a son of Minard, who is said to have served in the Revolution, and the son would thus have come on the scene early enough to know the facts.