A farmer in Middlefield, Cyrus C. Birdsey was the son of John and Esther Coe Birdsey. In 1851 Cyrus married [Mary-]Jane Bacon and moved into the house at 30 Lyman Road, which had recently been built, probably in anticipation of Cyrus’ marriage. A Greek Revival house, it has a front gable end with an unusual diagonal clapboard pattern.
The house at 392 Jackson Hill Road in Middlefield was built sometime between January 1753, when John and Anna Wetmore Matthews purchased the land, and January 1755, when they sold it to Amos Miller. After Miller‘s death in 1777, the house had several owners. It was eventually purchased by Obed Stow (1767-1839), a shoemaker, in 1794. The house’s original central chimney has been replaced and the front portico was added later.
The Skinner family were wood turners in Middlefield in the nineteenth century. The house at 445 Main Street in Middlefield was built by Henry W. Skinner not far from his father Albert‘s turning shop, which was started in 1853 along the Beseck River. Henry’s grandfather, Horace, had also been a turner. Henry W. Skinner took over the family business after his father’s death in 1868. The year before, he had given his house to his mother Almira, who lived there until her death in 1882.
