This page is on my to-do list. Here's why: On December 31, 1828 Nicholas bought the 50 acre strip of land that stretched from the future site of Holiday House to the river from his second cousin Hugh, the first owner of this land as a separate property. He built a house up on the hill, to keep the fertile flat land below free for his farm. In 1846 he sold the property to Matthias Cummins, husband of his first cousin Sarah Albertson. Matthias, then his daughter Ellen, held it for the next 76 years, but for 18 years Nicholas and his family were the nearest neighbors of Henry Albertson's family.