Lucinda Nims of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was the oldest of the six surviving children of Seth Nims (1762-1831) and Electa (Arms) Nims (1763-1843). Her house, on the corner of the main street and Memorial Street in Deerfield, was built about 1740. Her father Seth had inherited the house, and when he married in 1784, he remodeled it extensively, adding a gambrel roof, a new south entry, and modern interior woodwork. When Seth died Lucinda was forty-seven and unmarried. In the tradition of the day when women rarely owned property, her father left her the house “so long as she shall remain unmarried.” She eventually deeded half the property to her brother Edwin, reserving for herself a life lease in the homestead.