The site for the town was selected a few hundred yards above the mouth of Rock Creek, where the ground is high enough to be free from malaria, while the hill is not inconveniently steep. Springs of pure water were near at hand.
Several tents had been brought, and with these and tarpaulins and boards convenient shelters were soon set up on a little clearing made for the purpose. Then began the work of felling trees for house-timber. Of course, the first land to be cleared was the space for the village. After that the trees were felled on a spot near the mouth of the creek well adapted for tillage, so as to be clearing a field with the same labor that procured building material. It was decided to build the first square of the village of thirty cabins, fifteen by twenty feet, around a square, three hundred feet on each side. The intervals between the houses were to be filled with a stock-
