b'from the color of light that suffuses the land in the eve- byJosephKidder,alocalman, justtwenty-fiveatthe ning when thesun, sinking behind the Green Moun- time. Joseph built a stylish Greek revival home where tains to the west, beams across the valley to this pictur- he brought his new bride in 1851.esque hillside. No price was shown on the deed but soon after acquiring the land, Mr. Still left for the Revolu- Historian John Prentiss wrote of the property, This was tionary War; his name is recorded among the Walpole one of the good farms of the town and no farm was bet-volunteers. ter carried on or kept more neat and tidy. His cattle were Devons and his team Morgans of his own raising and a better team I never saw.He had one of the first mowing D uring the wet season, the river roads were diffi- machines in town and with a lively team did an excel-cult to travel. The ridge was a busy thoroughfarelent job of mowing.fromKeeneandpointssouthtothemilland brewery a short distance north. John Still returned fromJoseph also kept a flock of Merino sheep, a hardy breed Ticonderoga and began working the land.He married athat, during the mid-century sheep craze, prospered on young woman from Alstead and sold half his land to herthe hill farms of Vermont and New Hampshire. Joseph father who settled the acreage to the east. The proper- had two sons who never married and, with Josephs third ty changed hands frequently through the next 50 years,wife, kept the farm in the family until 1926.from the Stills to the Reddingtons to the Fentons to the Graves to the Jennings. Finally the farm was purchasedSinceJohnStill,thephysicalpropertyhaschanged'