Smith Clove Museum Village, a staple of schoolboy field trips for five generations, captures some of the history that still lives on here.

This magnificent pergola was a five-month labor of love, destined for a Greenwich, Conn., estate.

Photo: Classic Design

On the recently paved Reynolds Road that borders the field just below Varcadipane's home, for instance, sits a tiny rustic cabin where a great- grandfather of Roscoe Smith, the late founder of Orange & Rockland Utlities, is said to have hung a British Redcoat during the War for Independence. On the farm, the stump of John Smith's Banyan Oak, a 186-year-old tree the settler planted around 1800, bears testimony to the origins of the classic design elements of doors, desks, tables, chairs and flooring in the nearby farmhouse that has now housed my family for 97 years.

Demond Reed: Grief for yet another young life lost

Tony Ishmon, 39, the grandfather of Demond Reed, wept into the open casket at Shiloh Temple in Minneapolis on Monday night. When Ishmon broke down, he was ushered out of the sanctuary. Before the service, he said he was still shocked by his grandson's death. “It just doesn't seem real," he said.

uBid.com Teams up With Mary Kay and CMA to Kiss Domestic Violence ...

CHICAGO, Nov. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- uBid.com (OTCBulletinBoard: UBHI) , one of the leading business-to-consumer and business-to-business online auction companies (http://www.uBid.com) has teamed up with Mary Kay, the official beauty sponsor of "The 41st Annual CMA Awards" to launch "A Kiss for Country," a philanthropic campaign dedicated to ending domestic violence.

uBid.com will host more than 30 different online auctions for one-of-a-kind framed kiss prints of Country Music artists like Reba McEntire, Sara Evans, Miranda Lambert, Tanya Tucker, George Strait and Martina McBride. The online auctions for the "kiss card" plaques all have a starting bid of $55 and run from November 6, 2007 to December 31, 2007. 100% of the proceeds will be donated to the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation to help end domestic violence against women and children.

Highwood Towers will rise

After more than a year of review and community debate, the Highwood City Council approved plans for a seven-story building at the site of the former Hotel Moraine on Monday night.

The packed council chambers applauded the council's 7-1 decision to develop the Highwood Towers at 700 N. Sheridan Road, said Highwood Mayor Vincent Donofrio.

"We're expecting great things out of the new project," he said. "I have to thank my council for sticking with it and not giving up."

The developer, Mega Realty, agreed to pay $150,000 in cash donations to the city, $80,000 in school impact fees, $39,750 in parking shortfall fees and an estimated $285,000 in project related items such as a traffic light at the corner of Sheridan Road and First Street.

All together it amounts to about $554,750 for the city.

Montana history almanac - Record quartz lode led to claims of gold in ...

James Whitlatch recorded his claim to the famous Union Lode, which is said to have made him Montana's first genuine millionaire.It was the first and richest of the quartz lodes discovered in present-day Lewis and Clark County. Whitlatch was one of the first to reach the diggings at Last Chance Gulch in 1864, but after staking a placer claim he became driven to find the origin of the rich veins.