Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/223

DELAWARE COUNTY. 199 decided upon making a permanent location there, they returned again to the party with the missing horses. They could pre- vail on but two other persons of the party to join them, Ne- hemiah Hayes and David Squires, making in all five persons. They were obliged to return toward Catskill, as far as John More's,* at Moresville ; from which place to Eoxbury, Inman had informed them there was an ancient trail, over which he had passed the year before, carrying his movables on his back. After a laborious journey they succeeded in reaching the clearing of Inman, where they deposited their goods, until they could prepare a rendezvous of their own. The lots were measured olf with a rope, when they agreed to decide by cuts who should have the middle lot, which fell upon George Squires. On this lot they erected a shelter of the rudest ma- terial ; four crotched poles being firmly driven in the ground, one at each corner of the building, across their tops hori- zontally were laid the plates, while two other crotches of greater length were driven to support the ridge-pole : this rude frame was covered with strips of elm bark. The floor was also of bark, and a huge maple was felled just in front of the tent, against which they built their fires, and did their cooking in a kettle suspended over the coals. In this tent they passed the remainder of the summer, assembling at night and preparing their supper in their own rude style, of which they partook with a hearty relish, and then, without a cover- ing or a pillow, they laid themselves down upon the hard floor to sleep. The remainder of the party located themselves in the town of Stamford, principally on Rose's Brook, where many of their descendants now live, and are numbered among the most respectable and enterprising inhabitants of the county. John More moved to Moresville and settled there in 1786, and was the first settler in the town of Roxbury.